Article: TransLink boss admits public transport has a bad rap in southeast Qld

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

TransLink boss admits public transport has a bad rap in southeast Queensland

TransLink boss admits public transport has a bad rap in southeast Queensland

   * by Robyn Ironside
   * From: The Courier-Mail
   * March 18, 2011 12:00AM

TRANSLINK'S chief executive has admitted public transport has a major image problem in southeast Queensland, with State Government research showing only 3 per cent of people believe it to be better than private transport.

As hundreds of commuters staged a boycott of public transport in protest against big fare hikes yesterday, TransLink's Peter Strachan told a business lunch 68 per cent of residents thought cars were quicker than buses or trains.

A further 29 per cent believed they were comparable.

Mr Strachan said TransLink was trying to get "reliability and frequency" of services right to encourage more people to use trains and buses.

"For two-thirds of customers, reliability is their absolute number one priority," he said. "They want to know they'll turn up on time and they'll get to their destination on time."

Without public transport like the busways, the South East Freeway would have to be "nine lanes wider".

"It is our goal to have 14 per cent of all trips made in southeast Queensland made on public transport by 2031," Mr Strachan said.

"That amounts to about 2 million trips a day. Currently we're at about 700,000 trips a day, or 7.9 per cent."

TransLink spokesman Andrew Berkman said yesterday's boycott of public transport was not noticed at Nambour, Robina and Central stations where passenger numbers were within normal ranges.

But commuter advocacy group Back on Track, which supported the boycott, declared it "an overwhelming, spectacular success".

"The value of the boycott has been in highlighting how out of whack the go card fare structure is with the community's expectations and the reality of public transport fare systems everywhere," Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow said.

"There needs to be an urgent review and implementation of a fare structure that is in line with other public transport jurisdictions."

State Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was setting up a ministerial review committee to look at issues of concern including fare increases.

Although it was unlikely planned fare rises of 15 per cent a year for the next three years could be reversed because of the growth occurring in southeast Queensland, Ms Palaszcuk said she would consider the need for six-monthly and annual fares.

Mr Dow said the Transport and Main Roads' research touted by Mr Strachan only served to underline the need for "an incentive fare structure".

"That's a pretty sad indictment on public transport in southeast Queensland," he said.

"We should be making public transport the first choice, not last by improving frequency outside of peak times and providing ticketing options that allow people to use public transport all of the time."

Without the Ipswich railway line the Ipswich highway would need to be 30 lanes wider ...

[mufreight]

Sorry Mr Strachan admiting that Public Transport in South East Queensland is sh*t and has a sh*t image will not make it smell like roses, nor will more spin.
In the article by Robyn Ironside in the Courier Mail your spokesperson, Mr Andrew Berkman carried on in the worst traditions of Translink espousing more misinformation regarding the numbers of passengers traveling on both the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast lines yesterday, his espoused comment " yesterday's boycott of public transport was not noticed at Nambour, Robina and Central stations where passenger numbers were within normal ranges."[/color] is once more deliberate misinformation by Translink to downplay the expressed anger of the traveling public with Translink's administration of their public transport and the exorbitant fare increases for a flawed and increasingly unreliable service administered by you and a growing bureaucracy of unneeded, overpaid and unproductive Translink staff such as your purvayors of misinformation.
There was a quite considerable drop in passenger numbers on the peak services between Nambour and Caboolture and also to a lesser degree on the Gold Coast Line from Varsity Lakes to Beenleigh.
This ongoing misinformation by Translink Senior Management further destroys any remaining credibility that Translink as an organisation might still have.
A bad rap, well you said it and you created it, do you want to fix it? can you fix it? both highly doubtful since you are responsible for creating this mess and the ongoing intransegent contempt that your organisation exhibits for the traveling public on a daily basis.         

[somebody]

Sorry Mr Strachan admiting that Public Transport in South East Queensland is sh*t and has a sh*t image

I believe that he has only said the latter and not the former.

One could think his plan is to spin things better in the future, rather than actually drive positive change.  EVERY public statement by Mr Strachan increases my belief that he should not be the CEO of Translink.  This is actually the statement which does this the least.

Where is the positive change being driven by Translink?  There is virtually none.  Instead we have the continued defence of mediocrity.

[ozbob]

I think there may have been a little confusion with respect to the 3%.  I think the data being referred to is the competitiveness of modes in the Connecting SEQ 2031 presentation, which shows for travel to the CBD from all areas in SEQ public transport is only 3% faster, pt and car comparable 29%, and car faster for the remaining 68%.

[#Metro]

I think there should be a reference data set to compare to. Compare Sydney traffic speeds with Sydney car speeds. Sydney's mode share is 20% for the journey to work. They seem to be saying that public transport will only work best if it is faster than a car trip, but they have not proven a link between mode share and transit speed.

There was also some research from London which compared the speed of the Tube vs that of a car on a freeway. During peak hour, the journey times become almost the same because there is a dynamic interaction between the freeway and the tube as people decide which one might be faster to take and react to that. So I suspect that statistic doesn't really have a clear physical meaning, unless it also includes waiting time (does it?).

[#Metro]

t " yesterday's boycott of public transport was not noticed at Nambour, Robina and Central stations where passenger numbers were within normal ranges."

Personally this comes across at totally insensitive and a slap in the face for commuters. The tweet by the minister yesterday had inappropriate tones to it too- it was almost mocking.

People who do that won't be in their job very long. You just can't do so something like that. The bus and train systems carry about 150 000 passengers in SEQ each, daily. Trust me, that's a lot of votes and people you don't want to be upsetting.

[ozbob]

t " yesterday's boycott of public transport was not noticed at Nambour, Robina and Central stations where passenger numbers were within normal ranges."

Personally this comes across at totally insensitive and a slap in the face for commuters. The tweet by the minister yesterday had inappropriate tones to it too- it was almost mocking.

People who do that won't be in their job very long. You just can't do so something like that. The bus and train systems carry about 150 000 passengers in SEQ each, daily. Trust me, that's a lot of votes and people you don't want to be upsetting.

I sent this personal email to all outlets yesterday at around 10am yesterday (17th)  in response to that:

Greetings,

Thanks for the support.  An overwhelming spectacular success in highlighting the problems with the  present go card fare structure.  There never was going to be a 'mass boycott' as such.  People have to continue to go to work, take children to school, travel for medical, shopping and other social reasons.  Cost of living increases in Brisbane are impacting seriously, not only the public transport fare costs, but almost everything, so the  work commute continues to be necessary for most.

The value of the 'boycott'  has been in highlighting how out of whack the go card fare structure is with the community's expectations and the reality of public transport fare systems everywhere.

The recent Victorian state election turned on public transport.  I have little doubt that Queensland is heading in the same direction unless there are some urgent actions.

Best wishes
Robert

[mufreight]

Another interesting excerpt from the Courier Mail article by Robyn Ironside was this quote from Transport Minister Annastscia Palaszcuk,
"State Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was setting up a ministerial review committee to look at issues of concern including fare increases.

Although it was unlikely planned fare rises of 15 per cent a year for the next three years could be reversed because of the growth occurring in southeast Queensland, Ms Palaszcuk said she would consider the need for six-monthly and annual fares."

Obviously the Minister is not concerned with fare increases of 15% being well in excess of the CPI, but then by the time of the next scheduled fare increase the current government will no longer be in power to increase the fares.

[SteelPan]

1. Translink is fast becoming one BIG disappointment!  Increasingly useless on mutiple fronts - so says the Assistant Public Comment Spokesperson for the Own Private Comments Officer.....
2. Pleased to see Qld is continuing its long tradition of shocking Transport Ministers!  Way to gooo in the Sunny State - MAAAATTTE!   

[somebody]

1. Translink is fast becoming one BIG disappointment!  Increasingly useless on mutiple fronts - so says the Assistant Public Comment Spokesperson for the Own Private Comments Officer.....
2. Pleased to see Qld is continuing its long tradition of shocking Transport Ministers!  Way to gooo in the Sunny State - MAAAATTTE!   

I think the new transport minister is showing some promise.

[mufreight]

I think the new transport minister is showing some promise.

Yes but we have endured years of promises, it is now past time for some actual results and on (or under) ground results, promises come cheaply with politicians from the top down, Prime Minister Gillard's "No carbon tax" as an example, undoubtedly we will get a lot of promises from now until the election which following the election will conveniently become impractical, unaffordable or require further studies.
Time to clean out the cupboard and elect another Government, they may well be no better but definately could not be worse that the current arrogant, incompetent and intransigent circus.

[Golliwog]

I do think its upfair that what politicians get judged on is what you see. Theres a heck of a lot that goes on behind the scenes that the public never hears about, where the minister (I'm talking about Nolan here, I haven't heard much about our new minister) pushes back against some stubborness within the Department to get things done.

[somebody]

I do think its upfair that what politicians get judged on is what you see. Theres a heck of a lot that goes on behind the scenes that the public never hears about, where the minister (I'm talking about Nolan here, I haven't heard much about our new minister) pushes back against some stubborness within the Department to get things done.

Really?  I would have thought that was a weak point of Nolan's time.  Or was route P88 her idea?

[#Metro]

Really?  I would have thought that was a weak point of Nolan's time.  Or was route P88 her idea?

I agree with Somebody; I don't know who came up with P88 but I don't think it was BCC because didn't the state government run publicity on it first.
I think P88 should be changed to become a peak hour intensive service. I don't know, every 5 minutes in the 2 hour am and pm peak and then maybe
no buses after this time.

[Golliwog]

I said the department, not Translink. I actually think that having an off-peak Captain Cook Bridge service is useful. The indro side, not so fussed on.

[Gazza]

I said the department, not Translink. I actually think that having an off-peak Captain Cook Bridge service is useful.

Why? Would the average passenger care which direction their bus arrived in the CBD via?

[Golliwog]

This is true, but for those not interested in going through Mater Hill, South Bank and Cultural Center it would be faster.

[#Metro]

This is true, but for those not interested in going through Mater Hill, South Bank and Cultural Center it would be faster.

This is true, but I think demand is much lower in the off-peak for this kind of trip. I think people should just wait and catch the first bus and change rather than wait up to 15 minutes for the "direct" bus that will probably only save them 5 minutes on the trip via Mater Hill.

[somebody]

I agree with Somebody; I don't know who came up with P88 but I don't think it was BCC because didn't the state government run publicity on it first.
I think P88 should be changed to become a peak hour intensive service. I don't know, every 5 minutes in the 2 hour am and pm peak and then maybe
no buses after this time.

State govt comment re: 88 from July: http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=4069.0

[Golliwog]

This is true, but for those not interested in going through Mater Hill, South Bank and Cultural Center it would be faster.

This is true, but I think demand is much lower in the off-peak for this kind of trip. I think people should just wait and catch the first bus and change rather than wait up to 15 minutes for the "direct" bus that will probably only save them 5 minutes on the trip via Mater Hill.

How many cars drive across the CC bridge in the off-peak?

[somebody]

This is true, but for those not interested in going through Mater Hill, South Bank and Cultural Center it would be faster.

This is true, but I think demand is much lower in the off-peak for this kind of trip. I think people should just wait and catch the first bus and change rather than wait up to 15 minutes for the "direct" bus that will probably only save them 5 minutes on the trip via Mater Hill.

How many cars drive across the CC bridge in the off-peak?

I understood that the figures were around 9000/day.

[#Metro]

How many people are on P88 in the off peak?? Or on the 155 The Parks which goes over Captain Cook Bridge. Not many IMHO.  It would be much faster for a person to catch the first bus on the busway and then interchange at Cultural Centre rather than wait up to 15 minutes for the special P88 express bus IMHO.

And I think the money spent on P88 would be better re-allocated to the GCL to fund Sunday services.

[somebody]

I've said it before and I'll say it again:
City Stop Locations.