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

The Unsworth Report's recommendations were adopted with the passage of the Passenger Transport (Bus Reform) Act in July 2004. The new bus contracts are those that have been awarded under the regulations adopted in that act. As a result of the Unsworth reforms 50 contract regions have been reduced to 15 of which 13 contracts had been signed off at the time of the meeting.

The Menai Workshop was for Contract Region 10 operated by Connex and is the first of the planned series of workshops to be held. The contract region covered includes the Menai-Engadine-Sutherland-Miranda area, the East Hills-South Bankstown area and the Kogarah-Hurstville-South Kingsgrove area. It is not a completely contiguous area and does not include the Punchbowl-Mortdale area or Cronulla which are both in separate contract zones.

Some advances have been made as a result of the Unsworth Report. Harmonised fares are being introduced beginning with the adoption of the same Pensioner Excursion Ticket (PET) for both government and private bus services at the beginning of 2005.

By the beginning of 2007 regular adult bus passengers will have access to multi-ride tickets including State Transit's Travel Tens. The delay in implementation is caused by the need to install new multi-ride ticket equipment in private buses.

The new Service Planning Guidelines are planned to be less rigid than the old guidelines which allowed for minimal government involvement once contracts were awarded, producing a patchwork of different ticketing systems.

Some of the aims of the new system include:

1. The extension of bus services so that 90% of residents in contract areas have a bus service within 400 metres of their residence.
2. Daytime services to regional centres to have 30 to 60 minute frequencies.
3. To increase the proportion of regular adult full-fare passengers. At present in Contract Region 10 only 20% of passengers are full-fare adults, as against 50% schoolchildren and 30% concession holders.
4. Raising the adult patronage rate to 2.5 adults per service kilometre.. This is optimistic, as the most heavily patronised area in Kogarah at present has only 1.2 boardings.
5. Bus services to operate 7 days a week.
6. More direct services to regional centres rather than the present slow, circuitous services, which have often arisen because of the combination of two routes.
7. Extending services so as to give all major suburbs access to the regional centres. This will remedy the present situation where there is no link from Woronora Heights, Bonnet Bay and Oyster Bay to the regional centre of Miranda.
8. Introduction of Strategic Bus Corridors linking regional centres. Unsworth identified 42 of these. The centres identified for Contract 10 are Miranda, Bankstown and Hurstville.

However there are a number of obvious deficiencies in the present situation:

1. Despite the reduction in the number of Contract Zones from 50 to 15, the Contract areas still are a rag-tag affair. The East Hills-South Bankstown area is separated from the Kogarah-Hurstville-Kingsgrove area by Contract 5, which covers Punchbowl, Lakemba, Riverwood and Mortdale. The eastern part of the Cronulla Peninsula is given over to Contract 11 operated by Crowthers Buses. Therefore there are no direct services to Cronulla's beaches from Contract 10 with passengers having to change to trains or else at the dividing line between contract areas in Miranda. A compromise has been made in one instance for access to Sutherland Hospital, which is located at Caringbah within Contract 11 so that Contract 10 buses are allowed to operate direct to the Hospital. The present arrangements will continue till contracts are reviewed in 2012.
2. It will be difficult to provide more direct services to regional centres rather than the present circuitous services while at the same time ensuring that 90% of residents are within 400 metres of a bus stop. That situation exists partly because present routes diverge from main roads and make circuitous forays into residential streets.