NEWS RELEASE: Bus Fare Increases Demand Service Improvements
New bus fares will bite on 2nd January and a consumer group has put
operators on notice that, in return, passengers will expect
improvements in service quality.

Allan Miles, spokesman for Action for Public Transport, said that in
approving fare increases lower than those sought, the Independent
Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) had highlighted service
quality issues.

"While the fare increase is small," Mr Miles said, "customers are
always irked at paying more for less."

Mr Miles said that IPART had noted a reduction in the number of
quality indicators being reported. "State Transit no longer reports
on mechanical reliability, traffic reliability, safety incidents,
security incidents and the average bus age," Mr Miles said. (See pp
21-23 of <a href=http://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au>IPART Determination</a>.)

Mr Miles said that service standards that were reported showed a
decline. "These include on-time running, and percentage of trips
cancelled or missed. The number of complaints also increased," he said.

"Action for Public Transport has long been concerned that on-time
running only measures when the bus left the depot," Mr Miles said.
"And early buses are just as bad as late buses," he said.

"In fact," Mr Miles said, "IPART reported that the service quality
measures do not suggest a significant improvement in service
standards over the past year."

Mr Miles said that IPART had noted that State Transit is exempt from
reporting on "full buses". "These are occasions when the customer
could not board a timetabled trip because the bus was full to
capacity," he said. "These must be included in the figures," Mr Miles
said. "To the waiting passengers it is the same as the bus being
cancelled."
Mr Miles said that in Brisbane such incidents are recorded as "drive-past".

"State Transit and the private operators must demonstrate that they
have earned the fare increases by improving the quality of service
provided," Mr Miles said.

Mr Miles said that most private bus users remain second-class
passengers because they have no discounted multi-ride tickets such as
weeklies or TravelTens. "These had been deferred for years pending
the Tcard panacea," Mr Miles said. "But Tcard is still a long way
off, and IPART has asked the Ministry of Transport to consider
introducing interim measures to ensure that private bus passengers
have access to these tickets." (p 26 of IPART Determination)

"The only good news in the IPART bus fares determination," Mr Miles
said, "was the harmonisation of outer-metropolitan area fares with
those of Sydney. Some very short distance trips in these areas will
increase, but most fares will decrease by large amounts."

Mr Miles said that private ferry fares will increase by very small
amounts from 2nd January. He said there will be no change in
government ferry fares, except for those people using bus/ferry
TravelPasses.

<b>Contact:</b> Allan Miles &nbsp; 9516-1906