21 Apr 2014: SEQ: TransLink bus contracting welcome!

[ozbob]

Media release 21 April 2014



SEQ: TransLink bus contracting welcome!

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers welcomes bus competitive tender contracting.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"This is a win for the travelling public who have been hit by multiple 7.5% and 15% fare cost explosions. The great virtue of bus contracting is that it forces operators to deliver the goods or get out. This measure will bring Brisbane into line with Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Auckland (NZ) and Stockholm (Sweden) for example."

"Our view has always been that we care about directness, speed, frequency, decent service hours and connectivity rather than government ownership. In particular, we look forward to bus contracting within the Brisbane City Council (BCC) area."

"BCC privatised public transport by contract with its fleet of privatised CityCats floating in the Brisbane River. BCC entrusts the CityCats to private multinational corporation TransDev. TransDev operates 30% of Melbourne's bus network and could shape up to be a key competitor against BCC. Transdev's Melbourne contract requires the conduct of a bus review; we believe that all tenders should be given the opportunity or option to run a connected bus network to take advantage of recent rail service upgrades by Queensland Rail."

"Our view is that Brisbane's bus services are broken with recent annual patronage stagnating, 50% air buses during peak hour, excessive legacy routing, multiple cost explosions, major issues with buses crossing the BCC boundaries and entire suburbs such as Bulimba, Centenary, and Albany Creek completely neglected – so a major overhaul is definitely required. The unwillingness of BCC to implement Auckland-style bus reform now means that there is massive room for other operators to come in and make large efficiencies."

"Right-To-Information reveals that BCC refused to meet TransLink on six occasions during the bus review, cancelling proposed high frequency BUZ service to Yeronga, Albany Creek, Centenary Suburbs and improvements to Bulimba. In our opinion, this is the kind of behaviour that we would expect from a monopoly exercising economic regulatory capture powers."

"In conclusion, we stress that we welcome this proposal put forward by the State Government and this is good news for the travelling public."

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track
http://backontrack.org

References:

* BUSES ON ONE-WAY STREET Sunday Mail 20th April 2014 page 15

* Stockholm (Sweden) contracts out its train operations to MTR Corporation and its buses to Keolis Busslink. These two operators are the same operators that run Melbourne's trains and trams.

* TransDev http://www.brisbaneferries.com.au/ "Brisbane Ferries operates service along the Brisbane River on behalf of Brisbane City Council"

* http://ptv.vic.gov.au/news-and-events/news/transdev-begins-operating-the-melbourne-metropolitan-bus-franchise/

"A requirement for the operator to conduct a comprehensive review of all services included in the franchise to identify opportunities for improvement and implement a "greenfields" timetable change by the end of April 2015."

* Brisbane City Council's "not broken" bus network http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com/2013/03/brisbane-city-council.html

* List of Current TransLink Operators

Airtrain - Private (but publicly operated by QR)
Bay Islands Transit - Private
Bribie Island Coaches - Private
Brisbane Bus Lines - Private
Brisbane City Council Ferries - Privatised to TransDev TSL, a Veolia Company
http://www.brisbaneferries.com.au/
Brisbane Transport - Public
Buslink - Private Bus
Queensland Lockyer Valley - Private
Caboolture Bus Lines - Private
Clarks Logan City Bus Service - Private
Hornibrook Bus Lines - Private
Kangaroo Bus Lines - Private
Mt Gravatt Bus Lines - Private
Park Ridge Transit - Private
Queensland Rail - Public
Southern Cross Transit - Private
Sunshine Coast Sunbus - Private
Surfside Bus Lines - Private
Thompsons's Bus Service - Private
Veolia Transport - Private
Westside Bus Company - Private

Total operators = 21
Public operators = 2 (Brisbane Transport, Queensland Rail)
Private Operators = 19

[ozbob]

Discussion --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=10665.msg141299#msg141299

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

BCC already has private bus contracting!

26th April 2-14

Greetings

A little research by us appears to reveal that Brisbane City Council has previously
engaged in extensive private bus contracting, in addition to its already privatised/contracted
CityCat Operation (TransDev Brisbane Ferries).

For many years BUZ 140 was operated by Brisbane Transport but some services during this time
appear to have been subcontracted to the private bus company Park Ridge Transit. There
is videographic evidence of this on YouTube (Exhibit A).

In addition to this, BCC's own council meeting minutes reveal that it took over many
private bus operators in Brisbane. So it is simply not true that bus services in Brisbane
have always been operated by BCC.

Furthermore, BCC's own council meeting minutes also reveal that it appears to be already
contracting multiple private bus companies to operate some services (Exhibit B), including:

* Veolia Transport (TransDev), the same operator that is contracted to run 30% of Melbourne's
bus network

* Thompsons Bus Services

* Bus Queensland

* Kangaroo Bus Lines

* Caboolture Bus Lines

Once again, RAIL Back on Track welcomes competitive bus contracting to Brisbane and
hopes that it will go in some way to prevent future excessive fare cost explosions of 15% and
7.5% that have so cruelly slammed our most needy and vulnerable such as the unemployed,
refugees, workers on the minimum wage and those on Centrelink payments.

Exhibit A - Brisbane Transport BUZ route 140 being operated by private bus operator
Park Ridge Transit.

Exhibit B
Extract from Brisbane City Council Minutes 4403 Ordinary Minutes 14 May 2013 (also
contains much discussion about bus review as well)
http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/about-council/governance-strategy/committees-meetings-minutes/councils-meeting-minutes




TransDev Brisbane Ferries
http://www.brisbaneferries.com.au/

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

Media release 21 April 2014



SEQ: TransLink bus contracting welcome!

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers welcomes bus competitive tender contracting.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"This is a win for the travelling public who have been hit by multiple 7.5% and 15% fare cost explosions. The great virtue of bus contracting is that it forces operators to deliver the goods or get out. This measure will bring Brisbane into line with Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Auckland (NZ) and Stockholm (Sweden) for example."

"Our view has always been that we care about directness, speed, frequency, decent service hours and connectivity rather than government ownership. In particular, we look forward to bus contracting within the Brisbane City Council (BCC) area."

"BCC privatised public transport by contract with its fleet of privatised CityCats floating in the Brisbane River. BCC entrusts the CityCats to private multinational corporation TransDev. TransDev operates 30% of Melbourne's bus network and could shape up to be a key competitor against BCC. Transdev's Melbourne contract requires the conduct of a bus review; we believe that all tenders should be given the opportunity or option to run a connected bus network to take advantage of recent rail service upgrades by Queensland Rail."

"Our view is that Brisbane's bus services are broken with recent annual patronage stagnating, 50% air buses during peak hour, excessive legacy routing, multiple cost explosions, major issues with buses crossing the BCC boundaries and entire suburbs such as Bulimba, Centenary, and Albany Creek completely neglected – so a major overhaul is definitely required. The unwillingness of BCC to implement Auckland-style bus reform now means that there is massive room for other operators to come in and make large efficiencies."

"Right-To-Information reveals that BCC refused to meet TransLink on six occasions during the bus review, cancelling proposed high frequency BUZ service to Yeronga, Albany Creek, Centenary Suburbs and improvements to Bulimba. In our opinion, this is the kind of behaviour that we would expect from a monopoly exercising economic regulatory capture powers."

"In conclusion, we stress that we welcome this proposal put forward by the State Government and this is good news for the travelling public."

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track
http://backontrack.org

References:

* BUSES ON ONE-WAY STREET Sunday Mail 20th April 2014 page 15

* Stockholm (Sweden) contracts out its train operations to MTR Corporation and its buses to Keolis Busslink. These two operators are the same operators that run Melbourne's trains and trams.

* TransDev http://www.brisbaneferries.com.au/ "Brisbane Ferries operates service along the Brisbane River on behalf of Brisbane City Council"

* http://ptv.vic.gov.au/news-and-events/news/transdev-begins-operating-the-melbourne-metropolitan-bus-franchise/

"A requirement for the operator to conduct a comprehensive review of all services included in the franchise to identify opportunities for improvement and implement a "greenfields" timetable change by the end of April 2015."

* Brisbane City Council's "not broken" bus network http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com/2013/03/brisbane-city-council.html

* List of Current TransLink Operators

Airtrain - Private (but publicly operated by QR)
Bay Islands Transit - Private
Bribie Island Coaches - Private
Brisbane Bus Lines - Private
Brisbane City Council Ferries - Privatised to TransDev TSL, a Veolia Company
http://www.brisbaneferries.com.au/
Brisbane Transport - Public
Buslink - Private Bus
Queensland Lockyer Valley - Private
Caboolture Bus Lines - Private
Clarks Logan City Bus Service - Private
Hornibrook Bus Lines - Private
Kangaroo Bus Lines - Private
Mt Gravatt Bus Lines - Private
Park Ridge Transit - Private
Queensland Rail - Public
Southern Cross Transit - Private
Sunshine Coast Sunbus - Private
Surfside Bus Lines - Private
Thompsons's Bus Service - Private
Veolia Transport - Private
Westside Bus Company - Private

Total operators = 21
Public operators = 2 (Brisbane Transport, Queensland Rail)
Private Operators = 19

[ozbob]

Media release 21 April 2014 re-released 12 June 2014



SEQ: TransLink bus contracting welcome!

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers welcomes bus competitive tender contracting.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"This is a win for the travelling public who have been hit by multiple 7.5% and 15% fare cost explosions. The great virtue of bus contracting is that it forces operators to deliver the goods or get out. This measure will bring Brisbane into line with Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Auckland (NZ) and Stockholm (Sweden) for example."

"Our view has always been that we care about directness, speed, frequency, decent service hours and connectivity rather than government ownership. In particular, we look forward to bus contracting within the Brisbane City Council (BCC) area."

"BCC privatised public transport by contract with its fleet of privatised CityCats floating in the Brisbane River. BCC entrusts the CityCats to private multinational corporation TransDev. TransDev operates 30% of Melbourne's bus network and could shape up to be a key competitor against BCC. Transdev's Melbourne contract requires the conduct of a bus review; we believe that all tenders should be given the opportunity or option to run a connected bus network to take advantage of recent rail service upgrades by Queensland Rail."

"Our view is that Brisbane's bus services are broken with recent annual patronage stagnating, 50% air buses during peak hour, excessive legacy routing, multiple cost explosions, major issues with buses crossing the BCC boundaries and entire suburbs such as Bulimba, Centenary, and Albany Creek completely neglected – so a major overhaul is definitely required. The unwillingness of BCC to implement Auckland-style bus reform now means that there is massive room for other operators to come in and make large efficiencies."

"Right-To-Information reveals that BCC refused to meet TransLink on six occasions during the bus review, cancelling proposed high frequency BUZ service to Yeronga, Albany Creek, Centenary Suburbs and improvements to Bulimba. In our opinion, this is the kind of behaviour that we would expect from a monopoly exercising economic regulatory capture powers."

"In conclusion, we stress that we welcome this proposal put forward by the State Government and this is good news for the travelling public."

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track
http://backontrack.org

References:

* BUSES ON ONE-WAY STREET Sunday Mail 20th April 2014 page 15

* Stockholm (Sweden) contracts out its train operations to MTR Corporation and its buses to Keolis Busslink. These two operators are the same operators that run Melbourne's trains and trams.

* TransDev http://www.brisbaneferries.com.au/ "Brisbane Ferries operates service along the Brisbane River on behalf of Brisbane City Council"

* http://ptv.vic.gov.au/news-and-events/news/transdev-begins-operating-the-melbourne-metropolitan-bus-franchise/

"A requirement for the operator to conduct a comprehensive review of all services included in the franchise to identify opportunities for improvement and implement a "greenfields" timetable change by the end of April 2015."

* Brisbane City Council's "not broken" bus network http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com/2013/03/brisbane-city-council.html

* List of Current TransLink Operators

Airtrain - Private (but publicly operated by QR)
Bay Islands Transit - Private
Bribie Island Coaches - Private
Brisbane Bus Lines - Private
Brisbane City Council Ferries - Privatised to TransDev TSL, a Veolia Company
http://www.brisbaneferries.com.au/
Brisbane Transport - Public
Buslink - Private Bus
Queensland Lockyer Valley - Private
Caboolture Bus Lines - Private
Clarks Logan City Bus Service - Private
Hornibrook Bus Lines - Private
Kangaroo Bus Lines - Private
Mt Gravatt Bus Lines - Private
Park Ridge Transit - Private
Queensland Rail - Public
Southern Cross Transit - Private
Sunshine Coast Sunbus - Private
Surfside Bus Lines - Private
Thompsons's Bus Service - Private
Veolia Transport - Private
Westside Bus Company - Private

Total operators = 21
Public operators = 2 (Brisbane Transport, Queensland Rail)
Private Operators = 19