Queensland: Public Transport Inquiry

[ozbob]

Media release 8th January 2015

Queensland: Call for an Inquiry into Public Transport

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 calls on all parties contesting the 2015 Queensland state election to commit to significant institutional reform of how public transport is managed in Queensland.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"It is very apparent that things are not working.  Growth in public transport patronage has effectively stopped.  There is no longer a pipeline of continuous service improvements.  Delivery rates for new buses have slowed to their lowest point since integrated ticketing commenced in South-East Queensland in 2004.  Many parts of South-East Queensland do not have any services on Sundays or on weekends at all.  Regulatory competition between TransLink Division, Queensland Rail, Brisbane City Council and other portfolio offices in the Queensland Government creates poor lines of accountability, mixed branding and messaging, and inefficient planning.  Long distance rail services are withering away. The fare system for SEQ has unaffordable fares and is prone to rorting."

"We call on the government elected from the upcoming election to call an Inquiry into Public Transport."

"The Inquiry should be conducted on as broad a basis as possible.  The terms of reference should be developed with significant input from the community, including commuters."

"The Inquiry should be conducted by a panel of respected experts, who are free of political or institutional connections to the Queensland Government or any political party.  We would suggest that it may be wise to appoint 3 members – a respected transport academic, an official from an agency administering an internationally recognised well-performing transport network, and a senior or retired Australian public servant or judge from a jurisdiction outside Queensland.  We believe strong preference should be given to considering whether international expertise should be sought for the first or second chair, including expertise originating outside the Anglosphere."

The Inquiry should, at minimum, be called upon to investigate and make recommendations upon:

•   The goals and purposes of the public transport system
•   Managing or removing conflicting objectives from different stakeholders in the system by institutional reforms
•   The efficiency of Queensland's public transport system against international and Australian benchmarks
•   The organisational structure of Queensland's public transport agencies, systems, operations and governing legislation and standards
•   The manner in which public transport infrastructure and services are planned, procured and managed
•   The oversight of contracted operators
•   Public transport ticketing products and pricing
•   Public transport funding and cost recovery
•   The benefits of public transport and how to consolidate and improve upon them

"If conducted on a sensible, rational basis, we would then expect the government to implement as many reforms as are possible to allow the public transport system to be optimised and turned around."

"The public transport system is ailing and in desperate need of attention. Simply promising isolated bits of infrastructure or nebulous promises to carry out a 'review' are no longer acceptable.  A systematic and methodical cleaning out of the entire underpinnings of the system is now required before any meaningful change can occur."

"It is time to deliver real reform!"

Contact:

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

[ozbob]

It has been suggested that the name TransLink needs to be changed.

Public Transport Queensland?  PTQ?  A name that says what it means ..  eg. PTV

[dancingmongoose]

It has been suggested that the name TransLink needs to be changed.

Public Transport Queensland?  PTQ?  A name that says what it means ..  eg. PTV

QTransit?

[ozbob]

Twitter

Robert Dow @Robert_Dow 18 minutes ago

Qld: Call for an Inquiry into Public Transport http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=11184.msg151131#msg151131 ... via @railbotforum #qldvotes #qldpol @LNPQLD @QLDLabor @QldGreens

[ozbob]

It has been suggested that the name TransLink needs to be changed.

Public Transport Queensland?  PTQ?  A name that says what it means ..  eg. PTV

QTransit?

I like it!  Thanks!   

[ozbob]

QTransit is also a null on a google search > https://www.google.com/search?q=Qtransit&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Unlike TransLink ...   

[#Metro]

I don't think a name change is going to do much. Gov't departments merge, demerge, change names, shuffle around, etc.

TransLink is the third iteration of a very long battle to co-ordinate bus, train, ferry etc in SEQ.

The first agency was the Metropolitan Transit Authority in the 1970s. It was eventually abolished by resumption back into Queensland Transport IIRC. http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=1193731
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/34793325_The_metropolitan_transit_authority_in_Queensland__its_rise_and_demise__a_case_study_in_public_policy_

The purpose of the authority was to develop an integrated and efficient system of public transport for south east Queensland. Using published reports as source material, the writer found many positive results, particularly in the field of transport interchanges, but there were also some failures. Some new initiatives which the transport department should consider in the next five years are suggested

I'm not sure if SEQ Transit Authority ever came into existence, but here is a paper in it:
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/explore/ResearchPublications/LegislationBulletins/lb0795dt.pdf

Clearly not much has changed - core issue is BCC and the bus/rail split.

By the start of the 1970s, then, the picture was one of a medley of operators with
only intermittent ad hoc coordination. Queensland Railways ran the suburban
trains (which were only small beer compared with the state's freight services by
which the suburban service was effectively subsided); most buses were run by the
Brisbane City Council (often in direct competition with the trains); there were a
number of private bus operators; taxis were totally private; and ferries were
licensed out by the Council.

Of course all operators worked under state
legislation with varying degrees of direct and indirect intervention in vehicle
operations, routings, licensing and so on. The operational context was that, since
the mid-1940s with the rise in use of the private motor car, there had been a
consistent, sometimes spectacular, decline in passengers carried on trams and
buses.

Then of course TransLink which was part of DTMR which then became an Authority and then went back into DTMR. (!)

The bus/rail split needs to be fixed up - basically I think that means separation of BCC/BT.
Red Team really seem to be at cross purposes - they want to have co-ordination with an authority but at the same time they want to retain BCC/BT which blocks co-ordination.

[SurfRail]

It's fairly impractical anyway - all that stop and station branding would have to be replaced.

They need to improve their reputation by doing a good job.