Page 418 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 18 February 2020
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MR STEEL: I am happy to investigate and come back to them about what has happened. If has not been actioned within an appropriate time frame, and in accordance with the advice that was given, then I will be happy to provide my apologies to them.
Transport Canberra—network 19
MR MILLIGAN: My question is to the Minister for Transport. Minister, you have stated that network 19 version 2.0 will have increased weekend services which will see local route frequencies increased on Saturdays. Minister, what does this mean for Sunday services?
MR STEEL: I thank the member for his question. We will continue to work to recruit more drivers and implement the recommendations of the weekend action plan of which I provided an update in the Assembly, which was tabled by Minister Gentleman. We will continue to work on those actions. While we are stepping up services on Saturdays during the day—and I will be providing further detail about that in mid-March when we release the timetable to the community to have a look at—we will continue to work to improve the frequency of services on Sundays.
Of course the rapid services have not changed. They still continue to run frequently and the span of services continues to be extended as it was under network 19. We have seen a very significant increase in the number of people using public transport on the weekends, even with the changes that we had to make last year whilst we recruited more drivers.
We will continue those efforts with the driver recruitment campaign, stepping up the ongoing recruitment of drivers, with the workforce development plan which is underway and other actions under the weekend bus services action plan, which I have outlined to the Assembly. I refer the member to that plan for further detail.
MR MILLIGAN: Minister, how does a bus service on a two-hour cycle support weekend workers who depend on public transport?
MR STEEL: I thank the member for his question. We know that workers get to work in a range of different ways, one of which is public transport. Sundays traditionally have not been frequent days for public transport for many years. We undertook to recruit more drivers and to see how we could improve the frequency of services on the weekend. We are doing that on Saturdays from term 2, and we will look at how we can continue to increase the frequency of services on Sundays as well.
MISS C BURCH: Minister, will you apologise to weekend workers who continue to be disadvantaged due to your cuts to Sunday services?
MR STEEL: I said when I came into this role that I would listen to the community and that I would make changes where necessary to improve services, and that is exactly what I am doing. That includes weekend bus services.
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