Ministerial Statement: TransLink CEO to head up transport for London Olympics

[somebody]

He departs without achieving one of the objectives set by government:

Creating more than 100 high-frequency routes, each guaranteeing bus and train services every 15 minutes

(See media release).  In Mr Strachan's defence, its probable that this government did not provide the financial resources required to achieve the goal.

So we have yet another 'world class' backdown by government -- promising a 15-minute service and not delivering on that promise (except for a limited section of the network).

If money is short, then that makes the waste on route 88 in particular even more unacceptable IMO.

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

TransLink boss touches off for last time

TransLink boss touches off for last time
Daniel Hurst
October 19, 2011 - 3:00AM

With his in-tray clear and his mind at ease, departing TransLink boss Peter Strachan makes two admissions.

One is that he sometimes forgot to touch off his Go Card at the end of public transport trips, but was too embarrassed to ask his own organisation to correct his balance.

"I felt mortified," he tells brisbanetimes.com.au on his last day in the job.

"I couldn't bear the embarrassment of ringing the call centre and saying, 'It's me, can you please refund the difference'."

The other concession is more serious.

Mr Strachan acknowledges that when paper ticket prices were massively ramped up early last year to drive people towards the Go Card, transport authorities should have made the smartcards available for sale in more locations than they did, including at more train stations.

"I think probably if we looked back to January 2010 probably more retail outlets [should have been put in place] more quickly and recognising that a train station was somewhere where people traditionally bought paper tickets and that's where they would go to for the Go Card.

"I'm not sure, between Queensland Rail and ourselves, we grasped that quickly enough.

"When we did grasp it, we rectified it very quickly, but I think that gave rise to a bit of dissatisfaction."

It is the only admission Mr Strachan is willing to make about the Go Card rollout before he jets off to Britain to become the top transport official in the UK government, a job description that includes overseeing all passenger travel for the London Olympics next year.

Mr Strachan's return to Old Blighty comes nearly three years after the Queensland government lured him to Brisbane to head southeast Queensland's transit authority.

He is "very happy" with the smartcard system that was adopted in southeast Queensland, despite technological limitations preventing TransLink from being able to offer time-based periodical saver options like what is available on Melbourne's Myki card.

Mr Strachan, the owner of one of the first Go Cards in circulation, also defends the controversial 15 per cent annual price hikes outlined in the five-year fare plan released in 2009.

"I think that was one of the key, pivotal points in the start of TransLink, that up to that point it had been quite random, the fares policy, where nobody knew when the next fare increase would be," he says.

"I don't think that's good from a customer point of view and it's certainly not good from the point of view of TransLink trying to budget and run a developing organisation. And I think it was a very good decision to say here is a five-year fare strategy. At least everybody knows what is coming."

Mr Strachan says the fare strategy also drove the migration from paper tickets to Go Cards, which are now responsible for 80 per cent of trips, quadruple the figure when he started in the job.

He says he understands commuter pain, but the quid pro quo was that it got money in the till to spend on more services.

"If we didn't have that type of money coming back from [fares], the additional services we've put on, the over 300,000 weekly seats every year for the last two years and again this year, that would be an impossibility," he says, repeating the often-used line that the government puts in $3 for every $1 a commuter pays in fares.

Mr Strachan adds that it was "pretty hard" to fight for funding from the state government, competing against health and education for budget attention, but he's proud of investments made in rail and urban bus services during tough economic times.

Others will no doubt continue to argue about his legacy, but Mr Strachan now has bigger fish to fry.

Mr Strachan, as director-general of the UK transport department from tomorrow, will be overseeing planning for all modes of travel during the London Olympics next year.

"Transport is one of the things that makes or breaks an Olympics," he says, insisting he is not fazed by the weight of the challenge he faces.

Mr Strachan will be using the Sydney Games as a benchmark for a good transport Olympics (but not Atlanta, where transport during the 1996 Games was "an absolute disaster").

Most of the London transport infrastructure is already in place so the job will be more about planning.

But Mr Strachan says the general public will have to change their habits to ensure Olympic spectators don't face trouble on the transport network.

"One of the key things in London [is] we know if the normal commuting base comes into London on a daily basis, we can't cope with that volume with the Olympic spectators on top of that," he says.

"So the messaging is, come on UK, it's summer holiday time. If you're not part of the Olympics, don't bother coming to work. Take your holidays, go to France, go to New York, do what you want to do, or telecommute, or work from home, or that type of thing.

"Do your duty for your country."

Doing his duty for TransLink will be Matt Longland, the organisation's director of strategy and planning, who is interim CEO until the position is filled permanently.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/translink-boss-touches-off-for-last-time-20111018-1lyum.html

[ozbob]

London for the cousin of the go card, the oyster card, has implemented a software solution to automatically adjust for the odd fixed fare as described by Mr Strachan.

Come on TransLink, let's get with it ...  the savings in administrative costs alone would be a lot more than the cost of the upgrade and increased good will for the go card!

[ozbob]

My blog comment on the Brisbanetimes article:

Thanks for your efforts during your stint Peter. The difficult financial climate clearly complicated issues. Little doubt, there is now a much more sound basis to move forwards. One favour please, can you please let TL know about the Oyster software routine to adjust isolated fixed fares? Thanks, and best wishes for the London Olympics.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/translink-boss-touches-off-for-last-time-20111018-1lyum.html

[somebody]

Just stumbled across a very interesting railpage thread from 2008: http://www.railpage.com.au/f-t11344280-s0-0-asc.htm

It seems that the old CEO was an exceedingly odd choice, even then.

[mufreight]

And a colective large sigh of relief from South East Queensland commuters as we wave him goodbye.

[HappyTrainGuy]

"Na na naa na. Na na naa na. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyy... Goodbye". Can we now get 15 min frequencies