Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

Numeracy skills required to read ferry timetables

posted Sunday 5 October 2003

Sydney Ferries has at last addressed a problem confronting so many of its passengers - "just missing" the ferry. But things are not much better.

"Commencing Monday 29 September Sydney Ferries will be ensuring that all ferries leave the wharf at the scheduled departure time" says their recent hand-out. It goes on to explain that the time shown in the timetables is the time at which the ferry will leave the wharf, and that the boarding gate will close two minutes before that time. Then it urges passengers to arrive at the wharf five minutes before the time shown in the timetable.

APT tried to resolve the same problem with Sydney Ferries back in 1999, when we claimed that the problem was at least partially due to ferries leaving wharves early – i.e., before the scheduled time (APT Media Release – Newsletter, December 1999, p4).

We still think that the continuing need for arithmetic gymnastics by passengers could have been avoided by simply using the advertised time as the time for closing the boarding gate.

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