TransLink Tracker Q4 09/10

[ozbob]

http://download.translink.com.au/about/0910q4_tracker.pdf

TransLink Tracker Q4 2009/10

========================================

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Transport usage up but commuters shun ferries

Transport usage up but commuters shun ferries
Daniel Hurst
September 8, 2010 - 3:00PM

Brisbane ferry services have suffered a drop in patronage while the number of overloaded peak afternoon trains has risen, the latest public transport figures show.

The blips are blemishes on an otherwise positive report released by Translink this afternoon, with record low rates of passenger complaints and Go Card glitches.

The latest quarterly Tracker document shows commuters took 46.7 million trips on Translink rail, bus and ferry services in April, May and June this year, an increase of about 900,000 or two per cent since the same time last year.
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But quarterly patronage on CityCats and CityFerry services fell by 4.6 per cent – or 70,000 trips – to 1.44 million trips in the quarter.

"Translink is working with Brisbane City Council to ensure that changes to CityCats and CityFerry services earlier this year are meeting the needs of customers," the report said.

Queensland Rail trains were generally on time, with 92.94 per cent of peak time services running within four minutes of the timetable.

This exceeds the soon-to-be-replaced on-time target of 92.4 per cent, and is a big improvement on the 89.39 per cent achieved in the same quarter last year and 91.6 per cent in January, February and March.

Queensland Rail from now on will be subject to a new 93.01 per cent on-time target as part of an overhaul that removes the threat of QR facing costly fines for failing to meet standards. Instead, bureaucrats will be held accountable.

Translink's report showed the number of overcrowded afternoon rail services stood at 19.8 per cent, up from 16.5 per cent in the same quarter last year.

Overloaded services are defined as ones in which passengers have to stand when the train is more than 20 minutes from Central station – or more than 20 minutes north or south of Caboolture and Beenleigh stations on the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast lines.

The share of overloaded morning peak services decreased from 26 per cent last year to 24 per cent in the same quarter this year.

Some lines were under more strain than others, with crowding on the Caboolture line getting worse.

Ten of the 21 morning peak services on this line were overloaded (up from six out of 21 at the same time last year) and nine of the 16 afternoon peak services were crowded (up from four out of 16).

The report said there were now three more peak Translink services and an extra airport service operating during busy times compared to the same period last year.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan said there were now 301,000 extra seats per week on bus, train and ferry services compared with this time last year and the results were starting to show.

"Additional new services in the last quarter included the CityGlider bus service, a $3.1 million bus package in Brisbane, an additional weekday Gold Coast train service, and a new bus service between Robina, Varsity Lakes and the Gold Coast airport," she said in a statement.

Ms Nolan said the government had "a great deal of hard work" ahead of it and would use its Connecting SEQ 2031 long-term transport blueprint to boost railways and improve services.

Translink's report said customer complaints fell to the lowest level in the past two years.

It said the number decreased to 3.87 gripes per 10,000 trips, down from 4.96 in the same quarter last year.

Translink chief executive officer Peter Strachan said an additional 1000 carparks were now available at park 'n' ride sites across south-east Queensland, and the Go Card was continuing to deliver benefits.

Go Card usage increased to 58.8 per cent of all trips in the three months to June.

The smart card was used for 27.44 million trips compared with 23.66 million in the previous quarter, as people continued to make the switch away from paper tickets following punishing fare increases on January 4.

The report said the number of complaints and adjustments – where a Go Card fails to read correctly or a device charges a wrong amount – fell below four per 100,000 trips for the first time since the smart card was introduced in 2008.

In the latest quarter, the government subsidised public transport services with an average $3.10 contribution for every $1 customers spent on fares.

Unacceptable overloading.  Time for a proper frequency increase peak and off peak, coupled with further fare incentives to drive wider travel patterns.

[ozbob]

...  Ms Nolan said the government had "a great deal of hard work" ahead of it and would use its Connecting SEQ 2031 long-term transport blueprint to boost railways and improve services ...

Hey, I like this statement and acknowledgement.

[#Metro]

Translink's report showed the number of overcrowded afternoon rail services stood at 19.8 per cent, up from 16.5 per cent in the same quarter last year.

The trick might not be to just increase peak services to a train every 5 or 10 minutes on all lines during peak, but increase OFF peak trips, so that people can shift on to these. If new services provided are only peak services, it will just entrench that "peakiness" and load the rail system.

Overloaded services are defined as ones in which passengers have to stand when the train is more than 20 minutes from Central station – or more than 20 minutes north or south of Caboolture and Beenleigh stations on the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast lines.

The share of overloaded morning peak services decreased from 26 per cent last year to 24 per cent in the same quarter this year.

I don't agree with this metric. Thought experiment: Imagine taking a full train, packed to the hilt, and run it express from Gympie North direct to Central Station with no stops in between. Now ask youself the question: Is the train overloaded or not?

BUS FULL statistics are missing. It would be very interesting to know how many are full and publish this.

[somebody]

Translink wrote:

In the latest quarter, the government subsidised public transport services with an average $3.10 contribution for every $1 customers spent on fares.

So their goal of 25% user pays has nearly been met?  (Now 24%)

If the 15% hike which is planned for next January goes ahead and patronage and services stay the same, that would make the system 27% user pays.  How about actually spending more money on services?

[somebody]

It is very disappointing to read the CEO's comment still talking like Translink are doing a good job. 

[ozbob]

Why is the bus services delivered metric still missing?  

Trains do very well in that regard, as the real increase in pax.

[ozbob]

Reliability and frequency bus is just nudging 60,  rail about 59, 60 considered to be satisfactory.  This is rather a sad indictment, best practise is considered to be 75 or above.  This is disturbing as bus is touted as world class. If ever there was a case for a frequency revolution here it is!

Overloaded services particularly 2 or more is not helpful either.  

[tronixstuff]

With regards to the ferry/Citycat patronage dropping... from my own, unscientific evidence (watching people board and disembark CityCats over the years) I think this is due to more people using GoCards and therefore TL is getting better data; whereas in the past more people would slip on and off without being counted by the ticket seller.

[ozbob]

There was a shutdown due to heavy fog on the 30th July, this would be a minor decrease in patronage.

http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=4176.0

30th July

http://www.translink.com.au/servicechange.php?1280434348

Ferry Disruption - All services

All ferry services are suspended until further notice, due to heavy fog.

[Derwan]

There was a shutdown due to heavy fog on the 30th July, this would be a minor decrease in patronage.

... and won't be counted 'til the next TransLink Tracker (Q1, 10/11). 

[ozbob]

... and won't be counted 'til the next TransLink Tracker (Q1, 10/11).

Indeed brain snap,  I thought there was another shutdown for a few days (river debris) but it was a different quarter I think.

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

When a late train isn't 'late'

When a late train isn't 'late'
Daniel Hurst
September 9, 2010 - 5:35AM

That tardy train you caught the other day? It might not have been "late" – if only you were living in Sydney, Melbourne or London.

With Queensland Rail's performance coming under the spotlight amid an overhaul of its standards, brisbanetimes.com.au decided to take a look at how our suburban train services compare with those provided in other cities.

But we soon discovered how difficult it is to get a clear picture of how each system shapes up, as different operators report results in different ways and even disagree over what "late" means.

At first glance the most recent statistics on late trains seem to suggest the widely derided NSW transport operator CityRail has been able to deliver more peak on-time services than Queensland Rail.

But the figures are skewed because some services that would be classed as late in Brisbane would not be classed that way in Sydney, following CityRail's decision five years ago to relax its tardy train threshold to five minutes – a full minute above Queensland Rail's standard.

The latest Translink Tracker report, released yesterday, shows 92.94 per cent of Queensland Rail peak services arrived within four minutes of the scheduled time in April, May and June.

That was an improvement on previous results, which had cost the operator millions of dollars in fines under a now-scrapped penalty regime for not meeting a 92.4 per cent on-time target.

In Sydney, CityRail reports that it met its own on-time benchmark for 96.1 per cent of peak weekday services on its suburban lines last financial year, or in 96.5 per cent of cases after the operator excluded the impact of major incidents over which it had no control.

CityRail boasts that it has exceeded its target to deliver 92 per cent of peak services on time (within five minutes of the schedule).

Queensland Rail's punctuality figures look a whole lot better than the train service results in Melbourne.

Metro Trains Melbourne took over that city's passenger services late last year and, like Queensland Rail, has attracted fines from the state government for failing to meet on-time standards.

A Victorian government performance report says only 83.3 per cent of metropolitan train services in April, May and June turned up within five minutes of the scheduled time, and overall 87.4 per cent of services were fewer than six minutes late.

But these figures relate to all services, not just peak services that are the subject of NSW and Queensland results.

Overseas, the London Overground also uses a five-minute criterion for defining a late train, a minute more than the standard in Queensland.

The latest rolling 12-month average for the London Overground shows it has delivered 93.71 per cent of services within five minutes of schedule.

But the operator of Singapore's super-busy MRT rail system is more ambitious on the late services front, aiming to ensure 94 per cent of trains arrive within two minutes of schedule.

Official figures suggest it manages to do so in 97 per cent of cases – but the system also has much more frequent trains and much higher patronage.

Robert Dow, from commuter lobby group Rail Back on Track, said Queensland Rail was "not doing too bad" in comparison with other operators.

"When you look internationally QR's doing pretty well; they're doing much better than Melbourne and they're doing better than Sydney," he said.

Translink this week confirmed it would no longer fine Queensland Rail millions of dollars for failing to meet its lateness targets, as part of an overhaul of the performance standards regime.

It will raise the on-time target from 92.4 per cent of peak services to 93.01 per cent, which it said was the five-year adjusted average between 2005 and 2009.

But a Translink spokesman insisted its definition of lateness would remain the same.

"This means that 93.01 per cent South East Queensland passenger trains in peak must be within four minutes of schedules — still one of the strictest regimes in Australia above the five-minute limits of both Sydney and Melbourne," he said.

The spokesman said Translink and Queensland Rail would work together to boost on-time running performance along with services delivered, customer satisfaction, safety, value for money, efficiency of capital spend and fleet utilisation.

Results against these new measures would be released publicly so that passengers could monitor rail performance, he said.

The Queensland Transport Minister Rachel Nolan this week flagged changes to ensure bureaucrats' salaries were linked to performance.

Ms Nolan said Queensland Rail executives would be rated on key performance indicators, with a stronger focus on on-time running, customer satisfaction and safety.

"This is about putting the responsibility back on senior Queensland Rail management," she said.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Fiona Simpson has called for more information to be released about off-peak services, not just peak services.

[ozbob]

Check out these figures for Perth click here!

I doubt if Brisbane's buses are doing any better than Perth's buses, even allowing for the extra time for Brisbane.

Look at the train OTP. OK the system is a bit smaller and perhaps not as many conflicts with non-passenger services, but still quite good.


This is the minimum data that should be available.  We are a backwater ...

All lines with overall and peak performances.

[#Metro]

Joondalup line 99%!!!

TransLink should include what major new services were introduced/cut for the quarter as well.

I found something else out about Perth. I will post it in the cycling thread...

[somebody]

What was the increase in rail service-kms?  I didn't notice many new services.

[Luke]

Once again this report shows the Caboolture line is the worst in terms of overcrowding yet just about nothing is being done about it.  It is about time more attention was paid to this line by the state government instead of their constant obsession with the Gold Coast line.

[#Metro]

I've put a reply to ^^^ in this thread http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=4376.0

Edit: link updated to correct thread.

[Luke]

Hi and thankyou!

I don't think extending Petrie services to Caboolture is the answer because as you said they would be much more crowded from Petrie onwards.  This would also reduce the reliability and on time running of the trains.  I think more services from both terminuses is part of the solution.

[somebody]

Isn't the answer 4-5tph from Caboolture all to Petrie then Northgate, Eagle Junction, Bowen Hills then all to Roma St and 4-5tph Petrie all to Northgate, Eagle Junction, Bowen Hills then all to Roma St combined with 4-5tph Shorncliffe all to Roma St with all trains on even service frequencies.  It's not that hard.

[ozbob]

In the letters section of the mX yesterday (10 Sep) was picture with some pax boarding a Petrie bound EMU with the line 'Angry readers say TransLink complaints have dropped not because commuters are happy, but they have simply given up' ..