2 Apr 2010: SEQ: TransLink Tracker - only part of the story

[ozbob]

Media Release 2 April 2010

SEQ:  TransLink Tracker - only part of the story

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport commuters welcomes the publication of the TransLink tracker.  The TransLink tracker is a snap shot of activity on the public transport and is published quarterly (1).  The second quarter information for the current financial year was released yesterday.  What the TransLink tracker confirms in a broad sense is the urgent action needed to be taken by TransLink and Government to address the poor service frequency and problems with the go card system.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"The TransLink Tracker lacks explanations on how the data is actually determined, that is the methodology. For example how is bus on time performance really measured?  The reported data does not fit the community's  experience of bus performance.  It is nowhere near 95% on time as reported in the Tracker, even if with the generous limits of ontime performance for bus.  Rail is accurately accessed and has much tighter performance standards, and simply presenting the two as broadly comparable is misleading in the extreme in our opinion."

"The failure to put in place a proper rail frequency and the failure to fix timetable gaps is clearly resulting in declining satisfaction as reported in the Tracker. But with respect to these surveys what are the sample sizes?  What are the questions? Is the survey methodology robust?  Without the detail it makes the interpretation of the data in terms of validity difficult."

"Highlighting the government subsidy for fares is only part of the picture.  It fails to capture the broader savings that public transport makes in terms of reduced congestion, reduced environmental impacts and a reduction in health care costs.  Is this an attempt to further justify the recent and projected fare increases?"

"The definition of overloading of trains, passengers standing for more than 20 minutes means that some lines, although often overloaded at peak, will never be reported as overloaded.  The Ferny Grove line is an example of this.  Surely a more meaningful assessment of overloading can be put in place as go card usage increases? This 20 minute methodology leads us to suspect that the data presented is really not an accurate picture. In future a break up of a more detailed performance for each individual rail line and bus route would give a more realistic snapshot of performance.  Other states do this, why not Queensland?"

"Go card use fell in the quarter reported.  Patronage dropped slightly, and a lot of feedback we received indicated that some go card users reverted back to paper.  The rate of fixed fares increased however, this must be a worry as it reflects ongoing issues with the ticketing system.  With the punitive fare increases for paper relative to go card on the 4th January 2010, go card use will now increase again, but it will be interesting to see how the number of fixed fares goes in the third quarter."

"A more timely release of the TransLink tracker would help avoid data 'staleness' from the public perspective. We are now in 4th quarter of the financial year, surely the Tracker can be made available within a month of each closed quarter?"

References:

1.  http://download.translink.com.au/about/0910q2_tracker.pdf

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[ozbob]

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