Page 3444 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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The reality is that Canberra’s public transport network is still not where it needs to be. The Greens’ vision is to bring Canberra a genuinely first-rate public transport system. I have had constituents contact me about overcrowded buses and buses driving past when they are full. People do want to use public transport and we must do everything we can to encourage and not discourage public transport use.
The $7.7 million dedicated to improving ACTION’s operations in this budget is not for increased frequency or coverage of services. It primarily covers a shortfall in fare revenue due to a change in the ticketing system and it pays for Comcare premiums. A significant amount of capital funding is also provided for replacing the bus fleet. This is important for getting ACTION’s fleet in line with disability standards, although it does appear that the funding in the budget is for one-for-one replacements. The new articulated buses featured in the news recently are also one-for-one replacements and will not increase the overall capacity of the fleet or allow ACTION to run extra services.
I would point out that the government agreed in principle to the estimates committee’s recommendation that the government significantly increase its goal for new bus priority and transit lanes. I hope that this is something we see in practice, as funding for these measures is vastly outweighed by other infrastructure funding. The committee’s recommendation about providing the Assembly with all the current information about freight movements in the ACT was only agreed to in principle. The government will not provide the information but instead will create a freight strategy, which is somewhat of a token gesture.
A brief comment on park and rides: there are still several that need to come to fruition. The Erindale park and ride and the building of a new station had been delayed to February this year. The Calwell park and ride has been on the table for a couple of years already, and I know many people in the area want to see that progress rapidly. I was encouraged to hear planning for this has started.
I would like to congratulate the government on giving three years of guaranteed funding to the Nightrider bus. This is an important service that the Greens believe makes a real difference to transport and safety in the city. We are pleased that it no longer has to rely on year-to-year funding and will also run for an extra week, which is a positive step. The Barton bus station is something that we are pleased to see being progressed through the budget. Barton is on a key route. It has the Red Rapid travelling through it and, of course, this could also be a future light rail route.
I would like to comment that the transport budget led to a familiar complaint from Alistair Coe, the transport spokesperson for the Liberals, about the amount of money going to ACTION, which is something we hear every year. I agree that there may be further efficiencies to be found in ACTION. In relation to dead running, for example, I note that this budget commits funds to looking at a new bus depot in the Gungahlin region, which will reduce dead running. Another contributor to dead running is the lack of a depot in Woden.
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