QLD PT Patronage data FY 17/18 - RTI files

[ozbob]

RTIs for FY 17/18 patronage data received (only as PDFs)

SEQ > https://backontrack.org/docs/rti/PTdata/135-06007_1.pdf

Urban bus > https://backontrack.org/docs/rti/PTdata/135-06007_2.pdf

I have re-requested a spreadsheet.  See what happens.

Edit: Spreadsheets now received:

FY 17/18  SEQ --> https://backontrack.org/docs/rti/PTdata/135-06007SEQPatronageData.xlsx

Urban bus -->  https://backontrack.org/docs/rti/PTdata/135-06007RegionalQldPatronageData.xlsx

[SurfRail]

Helensvale is now the 6th busiest station on QR's network and the busiest station outside the inner city.

[SurfRail]

Bob, are you able to get some clarity on Helensvale?  Is the station entry figure based purely on QR or does it also include G:link figures? 

I assume the AVVMs and static readers on/adjacent to the tram platform are not being grossed up with the go card and ticketing data from  the rail platform fare gates / upstairs ticket office and AVVM but would be good to have that confirmed.

It would also be good if you could get them to confirm what the ferry route numbers actually relate to.

[techblitz]

estimates for outer lines from quick visual scans...

around 70% of the outer ferny grove line stations(Windsor to FG).....recorded drops in patronage from 16/17 to 17/18.
opposite for the outer Caboolture liners with 90% recording an increase.
Massive gains for all rpl stations...
Nudgee and bindha only stations to record increases for outer Shorncliffe line
outer Beenleigh around 60% increased patronage....drops at Fairfield and Dutton park..
good increases for outer springfield line...
good gains for gold coast....obviously the exception being Nerang...
small/marginal increases for 70% of outer Cleveland line....morningside recorded a big drop..
Doomben nothing to see...pretty much the same as previous year...
50/50 for outer ippy line....with Ipswich station recording biggest decline 20k+
sunny coast no change....best gainers were landsborough /Nambour
30k gain for airport line...

[ozbob]

Bob, are you able to get some clarity on Helensvale?  Is the station entry figure based purely on QR or does it also include G:link figures? 

I assume the AVVMs and static readers on/adjacent to the tram platform are not being grossed up with the go card and ticketing data from  the rail platform fare gates / upstairs ticket office and AVVM but would be good to have that confirmed.

It would also be good if you could get them to confirm what the ferry route numbers actually relate to.

I think now that we have the spreadsheet Helensvale is just QR, but I have asked.  Also requested a route description for the ferry route numbers.

[SurfRail]

Are we able to get unlocked versions?

I am planning on creating a compiled version merging this release with the earlier one (at least for the Gold Coast) and that would make it easier.

[ozbob]

I will ask but all I did was copy it into a new one and just pasted into it. Seems to work ok.

[SurfRail]

Yes - technical issue on my end, resolved.

[SurfRail]

I'll re-release my Gold Coast set after I've had a proper look, but ignoring QR, the current split between bus and tram patronage seems to be around 44% tram / 56% bus.  Also patronage on the GC Hwy corridor south of Broadbeach has gone up about 10%.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1050269765699166208

[ozbob]

Queensland Times 12th October 2018 page 3

Rail numbers revival



https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1050486767592255488

[techblitz]

imo ferny grove and Shorncliffe lines are hands down the biggest concerns for the rail network.........something needs to be done urgently...

[ozbob]

imo ferny grove and Shorncliffe lines are hands down the biggest concerns for the rail network.........something needs to be done urgently...

Yo, not looking too good.

[ozbob]

Facebook post is getting a strong response:

[ozbob]

Sunshine Coast Daily --> Coast trains, buses swamped as decline snapped


Sunshine Coast commuters Kieron Wallace and Jeff Addison want to see rail duplication.
John McCutcheon

FIVE years of widespread decline in Sunshine Coast rail usage has been snapped with an almost 10 per cent increase in passenger numbers in the last 12 months.

More than 485,000 passengers were recorded using Coast services in the 2017-18 financial year.

Landsborough (191,283 passengers) had the busiest platforms in the region and had increased by more than nine per cent.

Nambour, another key commuter hub, had 107,790 passengers use its platforms in the past financial year.

That figure bucked a five-year decline in passenger usage in Nambour and represented an 18.58 per cent increase in commuter numbers.

Glasshouse Mountain (31,852 passengers) and Beerwah (47,947 passengers) also snapped five-year declines, recording double-digit growth in rail usage, along with Mooloolah.

Palmwoods and Woombye stations continued on their growth paths, having increased passenger numbers each year since 2012-13, despite the state of disrepair of both stations.

Yandina, Gympie North and Elimbah all recorded declines in passengers numbers in 2017-18, marking the first decline in passengers at Elimbah since 2012-13.

Sunshine Coast Rail Back On Track spokesman Jeff Addison said the turnaround was "great news" as it showed people still wanted to use rail "in spite of all the significant limitations on our single line track".

Mr Addison said he thought a simplification of fare zones across the southeast, combined with the increased congestion on the Bruce Highway, had driven more people to use rail.

Bus usage also increased last year by almost three per cent, fuelled largely by a 188.8 per cent increase in passengers on the Maroochydore to Sunshine Coast University Hospital (via Kawana) route, which jumped from 47,746 passengers in 2016-17 to 137,890.

Buses proved extremely popular across the region in the 2017-18 financial year, with more than 3.69 million passengers recorded.

Some of the highest growth recorded was in hinterland routes, including the Nambour Local Loop Bus (149.67 per cent increase in passengers) and the Nambour to Palmwoods Loop Bus (103.64 per cent increase).

The Caloundra to Maroochydore line dropped almost 10 per cent, from 799,408 in 2016-17 to 720,730 last year.

The Kawana to Maroochydore service also declined by 21.29 per cent in the last financial year, down from 74,911 passengers to 58,966 passengers.

The Maroochydore to Sippy Downs service increased in popularity by more than 10 per cent to more than 84,000 passengers, while Nambour to Maroochydore via Bli Bli jumped by almost 20 per cent to more than 113,000 passengers in the last year.

Top Routes 2017-18:

    Landsborough (rail): 191,283 passengers (9.02% increase)

    Nambour (rail): 107,790 passengers (18.58% increase)

    Glasshouse Mountains (rail): 31,852 passengers (11.2% increase)

    Noosa Heads to Maroochydore (bus): 505,933 passengers (6.63 per cent increase)

    Caloundra to Maroochydore (bus): 720,730 passengers (9.84% decrease)

    Nambour to Maroochydore via Kunda Park (bus): 225,074 passengers (4.39% increase)

[ozbob]

Sunshine Coast Daily --> OPINION: Coast trains are a commuter's nightmare

AS A previous Sunshine Coast to Brisbane commuter, I'm a firm advocate that the Coast needs more frequent train services.

Not just more trains, more public transport in general.

The Coast's rail usage has increased by almost 10 per cent in the past 12 months.

Whether that increase has been driven by Bruce Highway chaos, our population growth or both, the reality is more people want to catch the train.

The phrase "if I had a dollar" comes to mind when I think of how many afternoons I spent stranded on the train in my time commuting to work at South Bank.

As I live on the southern end of the Coast, you would think getting the train from Landsborough would have been the best option.

Well for someone working shift work, that was near impossible. Trains are so infrequent that it would add hours to an already huge commute.

So I chose the smarter option and drove to Caboolture to get the train from there.

If you've ever had to commute to Brisbane, and couldn't afford the fuel to drive everyday, you would know I'm not exaggerating when I say at least once a week there are issues with the Sunshine Coast lines.

It could just be water on the tracks, a fire nearby or delays from other lines, but you can be crammed in like cattle for hours on end.

For the people who want to work in the city but also enjoy the Sunshine Coast lifestyle, commuting is a necessary evil.

I, for one, am glad my commuting days are behind me. Now I just get to complain about Nicklin Way traffic.

[ozbob]

Bob, are you able to get some clarity on Helensvale?  Is the station entry figure based purely on QR or does it also include G:link figures? 

I assume the AVVMs and static readers on/adjacent to the tram platform are not being grossed up with the go card and ticketing data from  the rail platform fare gates / upstairs ticket office and AVVM but would be good to have that confirmed.

It would also be good if you could get them to confirm what the ferry route numbers actually relate to.

I think now that we have the spreadsheet Helensvale is just QR, but I have asked.  Also requested a route description for the ferry route numbers.

Response received from RTI TMR ..



Fortunately DM Schrinner was able to provide as with a more comprehensive list of routes, thanks DM!

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Twenty per cent of south-east Queensland commuters abandon bus links to trains

More than 20 per cent of bus passengers have abandoned Brisbane's regional bus companies and returned to their cars, new figures show.

The figures are significant because these bus lines feed passengers from the outer suburbs into train stations and into regional shopping centres.

An RTI search by public transport lobby group, Rail Back on Track revealed the 20.3 per cent drop  16.9 per cent drop in passengers on the private bus lines operating on the edge of Brisbane.

Rail Back on Track said the drop shows passengers were shunning out-of-date connections between regional bus lines and outer-edge train stations because they "did not begin earlier enough or run late enough."

By contrast Brisbane City Council's bus lines show an overall passenger drop of 3.8 per cent and ferry traffic has dropped 6.1 per cent.

Rail Back on Track has now five years of figures for all forms of public transport – including bus, rail and ferries – in the Greater Brisbane area.

It includes Brisbane's regional bus lines, which are co-ordinated by Translink.

The figures show:

    Hornibrook Buslines – 63 per cent drop  -14.33 per cent drop since 2013
    Brisbane Bus Lines – 35.8 per cent drop since 2013 (one route)
    Laidley Buslines – 43.3 per cent drop since 2013 (one route)
    Caboolture Bus Lines – 26.8 per cent drop since 2013
    Veolia Transport Brisbane (regional) – 10.4 per cent drop since 2013
    Surfside Buslines – a 15.9 per cent drop since 2013
    Westside Bus Company – a 5.5 per cent drop since 2013

Only Thompson Bus Services, based in Strathpine and running in Brisbane's northern suburbs, shows any growth in passengers over the past five years.

Thompson, which provides services to Lawnton, Petrie and Strathpine rail stations, has increased its passengers by 4.9 per cent.

These rail stations are on both the Sunshine Coast line and the new Redcliffe (Petrie to Kippa Ring) line. Petrie is also a stop on the Caboolture line.

Some other bus companies show some passenger growth in the last 12 months, but are still well down on passenger numbers from 2013-14.

Robert Dow, from Rail Back on Track, said the regional bus figures were revealing.

"People have abandoned the system," Mr Dow said.

"We have a 20.3 per cent drop 16.9 per cent drop in passengers over the five years," he said.

Mr Dow said the figures showed passengers deserted buses as fares increased too quickly bewteen 2013-16 and it was only a fare review in December 2016 that some return in passengers was noted.

"It took a while but in 2017-18 we are starting to see some return in passengers," he said.

Mr Dow said road traffic congestion was beginning to bite.

Mr Dow said Ipswich's Westside Buslines had a 10.26 per cent increase in passengers in 2017-18.

"Now part of that is people returning to rail," he said.

"Basically the buses that are running to rail stations primarily are seeing a good increase in patronage. The ones that do not, are seeing their patronage slump.

"For the first time in five years we have seen a small increase in patronage on the Ipswich (rail) line, so people are starting to go back to rail."

The Ipswich line through Brisbane's western suburbs showed a 0.84 per cent growth in passenger in 2017-18, the figures show.

The Gold Coast (11.85 per cent) and Sunshine Coast (9.94 per cent) rail lines, plus the newer Springfield (8.13 per cent) and Redcliffe (first year) rail lines show passenger growth.

Mr Dow accused Translink of trying to hide the poor bus results.

A Translink spokesman said the 2017-18 financial year had a record number of trips cross south-east Queensland.

"We recorded 182.83 million trips, an increase of 5.4 million or 3.1 per cent higher than the previous financial year," the spokesman said.

"There was a previous patronage dip on buses. This was never a secret as TransLink regularly publishes transport data via monthly Open Data, quarterly Tracker reports as well as in the TMR annual report.

"There are many reasons for patronage changes, however, the government has responded and invested in areas such as Fairer Fares and the introduction of a number of concession and discount schemes, including Asylum Seeker and Job Seeker concessions, frequent travel incentives and off-peak discounts.

"The drop in bus patronage can be attributed to a number of factors, including some customers switching to Gold Coast Light Rail services and some bus passengers in northern Brisbane and Moreton Bay switching to the Redcliffe Peninsula rail line.

"We are seeing signs of recovery. Growth in public transport use has been building since the introduction of Fairer Fares in late 2016, which has provided more than $123 million for everyday families.

"The Queensland government is continuing to invest in public transport in south-east Queensland, including new services and infrastructure, the Cross River Rail project and our new ticketing system, which will encourage even greater public transport use."

Unfortunately this was published before being corrected.  I had alerted BT to the changes, will be corrected later. Ed: corrected earlier this morning.

TransLink "There was a previous patronage dip on buses.
This was never a secret as TransLink regularly publishes transport data via monthly Open Data,
quarterly Tracker reports as well as in the TMR annual report. "

Seriously, how can anyone tell what is going on from gross aggregate figures. 
TransLink are definitely not ' team players ' .

The monthly Open Data files are 500,000 lines thereabouts.  Who has the resources to process that?

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1054045722763390976

[ozbob]

 

https://twitter.com/Schrinner/status/1054118699714600960

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https://twitter.com/Schrinner/status/1054136855262724096

[ozbob]

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https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1054143870982742017