Page 1279 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 11 April 2018
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while it may be okay for a normal bus to arrive within a 10-minute window, the same benchmark is not appropriate for school buses.
If the government is serious about wanting more Canberrans to use public transport, our public transport network needs to be reliable and on time. Most Canberrans want to use public transport, but they will only do so if they can depend on the public transport network to get them where they need to go, when they need to be there. Most Canberrans are not going to mind if their bus trip takes five minutes longer due to roadworks as long as they know how long it is going to take them so they can reliably plan their journey. ACTION’s publishing accurate timetables and sticking to them would give Canberrans greater confidence and encourage them to include public transport in their travel plans. It is the responsibility of this government to provide punctual and reliable public transport for all Canberrans.
MS FITZHARRIS (Yerrabi—Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Minister for Transport and City Services and Minister for Higher Education, Training and Research) (3.49): I thank Miss C Burch for what I think is her first motion in the Assembly and am pleased to have the opportunity today to speak about the performance of our bus network. Transport Canberra buses are measured for timeliness, through one of the strictest measures in the country, using GPS technology from the MyWay ticketing system. On-time running for Transport Canberra is currently at 73 per cent for the current financial year. It is interesting to note, though, that if we measured on-time performance with a wider variance, such as in other jurisdictions, the current on-time running would be even higher.
Transport Canberra publishes its performance data on the ACT government open data portal. Publishing this data in an open format allows the public to view, download and analyse the performance of our public transport system. Transport Canberra is indeed a leader in the provision of open data.
Transport Canberra also reports on other performance measures including service reliability, a measure of services that are completed as scheduled. The year-to-date figure for the current financial year is 99.6 per cent. Another is services commencing on time, a measure of services that commence as scheduled or within four minutes of departure. The year-to-date figure for the current financial year is 85.3 per cent.
In addition to the work that has already been done, Transport Canberra are currently assessing route timings to be reflected in the new bus network to coincide with the introduction of light rail. This will ensure timely connections across the whole public transport network, including buses and light rail. Transport Canberra are also investigating introducing new performance measures for the network which are more passenger focused. This may include measuring the performance of planned connections and ensuring that buses arrive at regular intervals and not in a bunch.
I certainly agree with Miss Burch that many Canberrans want to use public transport. And the great news is that, with the government’s significant commitment and investment in public transport, more Canberrans are indeed using public transport. Transport Canberra buses have exceeded their 2016-17 financial year patronage target, recording 18.29 million customer boardings against a target of 18.1 million. This
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