Article: Passengers swap trains for buses

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Passengers swap trains for buses

Passengers swap trains for buses
September 13, 2012 Adam Carey

PASSENGER trips on Melbourne trains dropped by almost 7 million last financial year, but the decline in rail patronage was more than matched by increases in tram and bus trips.

In total there were 536.8 million boardings on Melbourne's public transport system last financial year, a 3.4 per cent increase on 2011-12. But the boost in patronage is almost entirely attributable to more people taking to the city's buses, which carried a remarkable 17 million more people in 2011-12 than they did in 2010-11. There were 123.2 million bus trips in 2011-12 - a 15.8 per cent jump on the previous year. At the same time, the number of journeys on trains dropped 3.3 per cent, from 228.9 million to 222 million. It is the first financial year in which train patronage has declined since 1993-94. Overall, patronage has grown by 53 per cent in the past eight years.

Released yesterday by Public Transport Victoria, the figures are based on a combination of ticket validations and passenger headcounts.

Public Transport Victoria chief Ian Dobbs blamed a number of factors for the decline, including ''lower retail sales in the city, the broader impact of a downturn in the global economy, decline in petrol prices and the highly publicised period of poor performance in April 2011, when Metro's punctuality fell to just 76 per cent - the lowest level in decades''.

But Mr Dobbs said Metro's performance had improved significantly since then.

Tram trips increased 4.5 per cent to 191.6 million boardings.

Public Transport Victoria said it still expected strong patronage growth on all public transport modes in the medium to long term. Mr Dobbs also pointed out that train patronage had increased about 3 per cent during the morning and afternoon peaks. ''This suggests that the decline in patronage was during off-peak periods.''

Metro has added 988 extra services and implemented two timetable changes since 2011

A spokesman for Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder defended the increased investment in trains at a time when passenger journeys declined, saying it was important ''to further improve public transport's competitiveness with the car''. He said Melburnians wanted improved train frequencies.

The sharp rise in bus trips was attributed to the increased use of rapid bus services to Doncaster and the two university shuttle services that run from North Melbourne station to Melbourne University and from Hughesdale station to Monash.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen said it proved there was a strong appetite for direct, high-frequency bus routes.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/passengers-swap-trains-for-buses-20120912-25suk.html

[Fares_Fair]

and ironically here in Queensland, between Caboolture and Nambour, many passenger trains ARE buses.
26 every day (13 each way).