Page 1759 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
transport system. I am sure that if there were more buses, Transport Canberra may have made some different decisions.
Let us look back to last year when we saw the introduction of the green rapid bus service in the inner south. There were quite a few complaints. I got quite a few of them. They were understandable because the affected individuals now have a bus service that is worse for them personally. However, overall patronage is substantially higher compared to the old services, which shows that many people actually benefited from the change.
Of course, network 19 is a huge change. Therefore, I am confident that there has been a huge number of complaints. This is life. However, it does have a positive aspect. At least it shows that people are engaged with this and that some of those complaints will lead to positive changes. We cannot run a bus system without feedback from the users and some of this feedback obviously will be complaints. The government is going to have to strike a balance between responding to the complaints and keeping the changes that are of benefit to the bulk of public transport users.
Patronage data would seem to be the best measure of the views of the bulk of public transport users. The first signs on patronage data are good. Ms Fitzharris has stated in her amendment that the patronage data suggests a 10 per cent jump in patronage over the same time in 2018. We will have to let the network settle down a little to see for sure how successful it has been for the average user. Of course, when it stops being free, people may do things differently. But at least a 10 per cent jump year on year is a good start. I think we actually should be saying something positive about a 10 per cent jump.
This brings me to the part of Miss Burch’s motion that I think contains a good idea, and that is the call. Miss Burch is calling for a report back to the Assembly providing detailed data on how school bus patronage is going. I think that is a great idea. Of course, even better, we should get data on the overall network as well so we can see how the whole system is going. The majority of bus users actually are not school kids, and we need a bus system which works for us grown-ups as well.
The amendment that I have worked on with the ALP does this. The Assembly will be provided with detailed data on patronage, both overall and for school students. I suspect that this will be of great interest not just to us here but also to the broader community.
There are a few other changes to Miss Burch’s original data request that I want to mention. Miss Burch’s motion excludes the first month of free travel. I really do not agree with that because I actually think the free travel period is a very interesting public transport policy experiment. There is an ongoing debate in the transport field as to whether the best way for the government to boost patronage is to abolish fares or to spend the same amount of money on better services. Seeing the data for both the free travel period and for a few months before and after that will be very interesting. I am very much looking forward to seeing that.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video