Gold Coast Patronage

[SurfRail]

In response to your request, the following information has been released under the administrative access scheme:

A. Total patronage carried on Surfside Buslines (Transit Australia Group) annually for the financial years from 2003/2004 to 2012/2013 inclusive, both on the basis of:

-"Paid" or "initial" boardings (ie not involving a transfer from an earlier service); and

-All boardings (ie including transfers from other buses or trains).

These figures will be different, as under the first category a journey involving 2 transfers counts as a single trip only, whereas under the second category it would count as 3 trips. Most other agencies in Australia report on the basis of both (eg the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia, the DPTI in South Australia etc).

Assumptions/Limitations:

1. We are not able to accurately determine the split between 'paid' or 'initial' boardings. There are passenger trips that are captured via the bus 'count' button. Not all of these are Transfers and it is not possible to know which of these trips are transfers. The Tourist pass further complicates this as we cannot determine which passenger trips equate to a 'paid' or 'initial' boarding as the monies are paid up front. Student STAS passes also result in the same issue.. Since the go Card was delivered in July 2008, there is also the issue of different classes of tickets (prior to this date) which further complicate the definition of a transfer. As a result, we are only able to provide passenger trip data for Surfside Buslines.

2. A Passenger Trip is defined as continuous travel between two points. This includes Transfers. Hence, a Journey may include multiple passenger trips.

Response:

Financial Year   Surfside: Passenger Trips
2004/2005   15,760,276
2005/2006   17,283,764
2006/2007   18,702,498
2007/2008   16,470,990
2008/2009   16,616,205
2009/2010   16,716,483
2010/2011   17,145,795
2011/2012   17,024,598
2012/2013   16,841,727

B. The same data for the same periods of time in relation to the Gold Coast railway line. This may be in the form of total annual figures for the stations south of Beenleigh, which from 2009/2010 would include Varsity Lakes.

Assumptions/Limitations:

1. Gold Coast Railway Line is defined by transactions occurring at the following rail stations: Ormeau, Coomera, Helensvale, Nerang, Robina, & Varsity Lakes

2. Rail Station data is only available from FY06/07 onwards.

3. Data provided are Boardings & Alightings at the above stations only.

Response:

Financial Year   Boardings   Alightings
FY 06/07   1,445,448   1,335,791
FY 07/08   1,560,998   1,438,713
FY 08/09   1,859,159   1,762,822
FY 09/10   1,948,228   1,876,355
FY 10/11   2,183,860   2,011,457
FY 11/12   2,481,316   2,289,121
FY 12/13   2,317,581   2,126,748

Pleasantly surprised by this actually, I thought it was much worse.

Shows a very clear tailing off in bus patronage after 2007/2008 - not just in growth but in actual numbers.  Main implication is that patronage hasn't recovered from its 2006/2007 high when there was significant investment in the bus network, especially the highway corridor, and the fares are keeping it down.  If you extrapolate the initial trend, we were on track for 24-25 million journeys by 2011, which means the original patronage estimates for GCLR (with an assumed start date during 2011) would have continued to be broadly accurate.  By today, with sustained investment and improvements we should have been nudging 26-27 million in time for the trams.

Rail patronage not as adversely affected initially but now trending down again.

This is probably worth a release when I can get around to it.  Also need to push out a release about route planning for light rail commencement.  (When I have time.)