Patronage growth has stopped - graph

[somebody]

I had to estimate before 2008 from full year patronage.

Translink have not produced this in one graph.  I wonder why?  <sarcasm off>

I don't think fare rises explain it all, but they do explain a sizeable portion of the flattening off in growth.  Service expansion was pretty slow between July 2008 and May 2011, with only BUZ 140, 412 and CityGlider OTOH plus a few extra peak hour services.  I don't count the 88 as an improvement.

[#Metro]

Simon, what is the left axis label? Millions of trips? Journeys? People carried? Something else?

[ozbob]

Bus, passenger trips (millions)  ... ?

[somebody]

Network wide trips, millions.

[SurfRail]

So what happened in 2008...

[Jonas Jade]

A guess: the GFC happened in 2009, so jobs growth slowed, so transit related to employment dropped/levelled??

[somebody]

So what happened in 2008...

2009?  2008 grew quite strongly from 2007.

That was where the 11 trip weeklies bit.  So they say.

A guess: the GFC happened in 2009, so jobs growth slowed, so transit related to employment dropped/levelled??

That too.

We also had a certain CEO who slowed down all improvements which were proceeding.

[SurfRail]

We also had a certain CEO who slowed down all improvements which were proceeding.

[mufreight]

Since the last fare increase there has effectively been an 11% drop in public transport usage.
Pathetic frequency, excessive fares and a lack of co-ordination of services are all contributing to the drop, yet Translink had forcast a useage growth of over 6% over a year, form your own opinion.

[somebody]

Since the last fare increase there has effectively been an 11% drop in public transport usage.

How do you figure this one?

Pathetic frequency, excessive fares and a lack of co-ordination of services are all contributing to the drop, yet Translink had forcast a useage growth of over 6% over a year, form your own opinion.

Where/when did they forecast this growth?

[#Metro]

We need a reference case. Saying that PT use dropped by X isn't that helpful when I think about it more.
There could be other factors such as job and economic ones as well that would affect PT trips AND car trips.

Does anyone have a source for comparison to trips on the road network that is regular?
Saying that PT usage increased by, say 5% when road trips increased by 100%, for example only, gives you an idea...

[Golliwog]

Simon, does your graph take into account the modifications they made to the number of trips given to a weekly/monthly ticket?

[somebody]

Simon, does your graph take into account the modifications they made to the number of trips given to a weekly/monthly ticket?

No.  That data was never updated retrospectively to my knowledge.

[Golliwog]

Simon, does your graph take into account the modifications they made to the number of trips given to a weekly/monthly ticket?

No.  That data was never updated retrospectively to my knowledge.

Hmmm, might be worth asking them about it...

[BrizCommuter]

Thanks for producing this graph. BrizCommuter has planned to produce something similar showing overlaid % fare increase/decrease over % fare increase. Unfortunately work/baby/studying have got in the way.