Translink Tracker 2011-2012 Q2: My assessment and response

[Fares_Fair]

Draft 2012 Timetable Update 93a
The opinion and commentary expressed here is personal.

TransLink Tracker 2011-2012 Q2 report
Q2: October 2011 to December 2011

Full report here --> http://translink.com.au/resources/about-translink/reporting-and-publications/2011-12-quarterly-report-oct-to-dec.pdf

According to the report, there has been increasing patronage across the public transport network, this to be expected with the roll out of new timetables for trains in June 2011 and extra bus services across the network generally.
Sunshine Coast bus service increases have been provided by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council's ratepayer transport levy, and local University led initiatives.

Compared to Quarter 2 (Q2) last year, and using 'adjusted' figures, train patronage increased 5.7% and total bus/train/ferry patronage increased 1.6% overall.

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On time performance
On time performance figures are always interesting, these are the time limits allowed for services to be late without actually being late.

For trains, the report footnote shows the limits allowed for late arrivals:
* Less than four minutes (before or after) the scheduled arrival times on all lines, except Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast where the benchmark is within six minutes.
This can improve performance figures wonderfully. As a Gold or Sunshine Coaster, you too can be later.

Interestingly, my detailed daily personal 'snapshot' records (published and available here on Rail Back on Track) for the train services I caught in November 2011 e.g. shows I was more than 6 minutes late for 11 times out of a total 44 journeys.
This is a 75% on time performance result based upon their own 6 minute criteria, and a far cry from the fantastic 94.54% reported (across all peak services, not just mine).
http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6968.0


In February 2012, my 'snapshot' showed a mere 73.8% on time performance using their criteria. I was 6 minutes or more late for 11 times out of 42 journeys.
http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=7585.0

I would suggest that the on-time figures should be broken down by rail lines so that areas of continual problems are easily identified and not hidden from public view.
The on time figures should also include a breakdown of all delays, with force majeure (out of QR control) delays being included but reported separately.
On time running
On-time running for this quarter for trains
was 94.54 per cent.
The TransLink benchmark for Queensland
Rail peak services on-time running has
been increased to 93.77 (per cent) this year.
(TransLink Tracker excerpt reproduced here, published by Translink Transit Authority)

Statistics shown in the TransLink report are on time performance in peak hour services only, apparently off-peak times do not matter or perhaps would degrade the results.

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Go card adjustments on the up – and rounded down
go card adjustment requests have
increased to 11 per 10,000 trips, up from
10.0 per 10,000 trips the previous quarter.
(TransLink Tracker excerpt reproduced here, published by Translink Transit Authority)

The accompanying graph (on p9 of the report) scales to be more like 11.3, but hey – near enough, use 1 decimal place for the old figure and none for the new when it's worse.
What it doesn't say is that it's a 10% increase per 10,000 trips, in corrections needing to be made to commuter fares.

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Subsidisation increase via fares has not gone to plan
The Q2 subsidy is based on network
funding from the Queensland
Government of $286.6 million and fare
revenue of $84.2 million for the quarter.
Revenue collected through fares made
up 22.7 per cent of total funding
during Q2.
(TransLink Tracker excerpt reproduced here, published by Translink Transit Authority)

This shows the 15% fare increases to date (and now to be reduced to 7.5% by the new LNP government) have not had the intended effect the former State Government wanted, which was to have passenger fares making up 30% of total funding.

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[Fares_Fair]

During the time period of this report:
In October 2011, I was 6 minutes late or longer for 8 journeys out of 42, an on-time performance of 81.0%
In November 2011, I was 6 minutes late or longer for 11 journeys out of 44, an on-time performance of 75.0%
In December 2011, I was 6 minutes late or longer for 4 journeys out of 34, an on-time performance of 88.2%

An average of 81.4% for these 3 months and a far cry from the 94.54% result touted across all peak time services.
These statistics suggest that the Sunshine Coast services have major issues with on-time performance and reliability, when compared to all other peak-time services.