Page 854 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 April 2014

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feedback. ACTION took that on board and there have been a number of changes to the proposed network—some services have been reinstated, some services have been tweaked. That is obviously the purpose behind the consultation. That was part of the reason it has taken a while—additional work based on community feedback.

The second reason is now there has to be a process of working with the drivers to get the new rosters in place. That work is currently underway.

MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Coe.

MR COE: How much taxpayer money has been spent preparing the new network?

MR RATTENBURY: I will take that on notice. Going to the insinuation in Mr Coe’s question, a normal part of running the service is that one should update the network from time to time to improve the service for the customers here in the ACT.

MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Coe.

MR COE: Minister, what part of driver training or tweaks to the network were not anticipated when you announced changes to the network?

MR RATTENBURY: I do not recall making any references to driver training, so I cannot answer that. I did say we need to go out and work with the drivers on the timetable and the rostering of the new network. That was, I think, the reference you have picked up on.

In terms of the tweaking or the changes, basically the ACTION modelling team sat down with the MyWay data and various other bits of feedback—feedback from drivers and feedback from the public that we have received in recent years—about how to make improvements to the network. On that basis, they came up with the proposed new network. We then put it out to consultation, in that genuine spirit of consultation, and people came back to us and said, “Some of these things don’t work for me.” So adjustments were made.

One, for example—this is one you may have written to me about, Mr Coe, or certainly some of the Ginninderra members wrote to me about it—was Canopus Street in Giralang. A range of people were particularly concerned about that.

Another example I have spoken of publicly was in the area around the north end of Lyneham where, in an attempt to straighten out some of the routes, the connection between north Lyneham and Dickson was eliminated and the services were channelled towards the city. What we had there was a range of feedback from older people in particular who said that was a key connection for them to get to their local shops at Dickson. The consultation process identified a particular group of residents who really needed that service. So, based on that feedback, we put that back. Similarly, the services in Braddon: again, a lot of older people found the new network really did not suit them.


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