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

27th November 2003

The Interim Report into Bus Services released earlier this month proposes some welcome and long overdue changes in the bus passenger industry in NSW, according to the consumer group, Action for Public Transport.

A spokesman for APT, Allan Miles, said that the proposals, if properly implemented, would see bus services being run for the benefit of the public, somewhat of a novel concept in some areas of the state.

He said the new requirements for larger contract areas, high-level planning, bus priority and monitoring provisions should see buses going when and where people want them to go.

Mr Miles said that Action for Public Transport generally supports all the 36 recommendations of the report, except for a few dealing with tickets and fares.

While APT welcomed mandatory discounts for frequent bus users, Mr Miles said the report’s attack on alleged excessive discounts on State Transit tickets is unjustified. The discount calculations for TravelPasses are suspect, he said.

It is also debatable whether these discounts, and those on the TravelTen tickets, are excessive considering the benefits they bring to the operator. Like the Parry Report, the Unsworth report does not mention the word “pre-paid” once.

Mr Miles said that the proposal for a flat fare of $2.50 for the Pensioner Excursion Ticket was ill-considered, even if the coverage is extended to all transport in the metropolitan area. He said that smaller regional zones for a lower price would be more useful and popular.

More worrying, said Mr Miles, was the proposal to limit the use of Pensioner Excursion Tickets until after 9 a.m.. He said this takes no account of the need for people to set out early for medical appointments, volunteer work, or for long distance trips. The first train from Katoomba after 9 a.m. doesn’t get to Central until 11.23, he said. In the reverse direction, he said the first train from Central after 9 a.m. doesn’t get to Katoomba until eleven o’clock.

Although it is only an interim document, Mr Miles said he is concerned that the report makes no recommendations for a project plan to bring the proposals to reality. All its good intentions will disappear like the morning dew, he said, if there is no “ownership” of the project nor any instructions about who will do what, and by when. Mr Miles said he hoped this omission will be corrected in the final report.

The Interim Report has 36 recommendations, grouped as follows:

1 - 9	Metropolitan network and service planning
10 - 11	Metropolitan contracting
12 - 13	Metropolitan funding
14 - 23	Rural and regional NSW
24 - 30	Statewide fares, ticketing and concessions
31 - 33	SSTS (School Students) administration
34 - 36	Statewide governance arrangements