Page 2947 - Week 09 - Thursday, 18 September 2014
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DR BOURKE: Minister, how does the availability of NXTBUS help bus patrons to plan their journeys under the new bus network?
MR RATTENBURY: NXTBUS is about digitising the ACTION timetable and helping people to use their various devices to get better information on when their bus is coming. The highlight of the system of course is the live tracking of buses, whereby the GPS units on the buses actually keep track of an individual bus and passengers can look up where a specific bus is and have a prediction of how far it is from their stop. Through NXTBUS they can also track whether a bus has a bicycle rack on it. Eighty per cent of the fleet have a bike rack; clearly some buses do not. Similarly, customers can track whether a bus is wheelchair accessible.
These are all very substantial benefits that are all about making the customer experience on ACTION a better experience and giving people more reliable information on where their bus is. As part of that we are also working on improving the on-time running performance using the same datasets. I was recently out at the ACTION depot at Tuggeranong where staff are increasingly using the GPS tracking units on the buses to help plan the running of the network. They are able to monitor individual buses, assess whether there is a problem with the network and make adjustments around that in terms of providing a back-up bus, extra drivers and those sorts of things. Across a whole lot of levels, that live tracking information is being used to improve the performance of the ACTION network.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Dr Bourke.
DR BOURKE: Minister, can you advise the Assembly on how the first stage of the government’s community transport initiative meets the transport needs of the aged and people with disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other transport disadvantaged Canberrans and how people can access these services?
MADAM SPEAKER: The first question and supplementary and the second supplementary are about network 14. I am open to persuasion as to how your supplementary question relates to network 14.
DR BOURKE: The initial question was about delivering better bus services to the residents of Canberra.
MADAM SPEAKER: No; it was about network 14.
Mr Rattenbury: If it assists, Madam Speaker, this is linked to network 14 and it is a supplementary service.
MADAM SPEAKER: Okay. Do you need the question—
Mr Hanson: I think we should hear the question.
Ms Berry: The first question did say, Madam Speaker, if I can assist:
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