Page 4682 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 27 November 2019
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headline was “Commuters confused but officials happy with new bus network”. Again on 29 April we saw “Bedding down issues blamed for bus timetable blowouts”. On 1 May we saw “Pressure mounts on ACT government over bus network”. On 2 May it was “Record numbers on ACT public transport but students left behind”.
On 3 May we saw “Transport minister under fire over passenger data”. On 4 May we saw “Bus timetable changes leave children in tears”. On 8 May the headline was “Weekend buses cancelled after volunteer shortages”. On 9 May we saw “Hopes problems plaguing new weekend bus routes can be fixed”. On 13 June the headline was “Canberra bus passenger numbers plummet after end of trial period”. On 22 June we saw “Canberra bus network sparks thousands of complaints”.
On 17 July we saw “We’re the forgotten people of the south: bus changes opposition heats up”. On 1 August the headline was “Calls for free transport as bus cancellations soar”. On 2 August we saw “Bus network turmoil could continue for a year”. On 26 August the headline read “Saving Canberra’s bus network means confronting some hard truths”. On 5 September the headline read “Canberra bus network changes leave elderly housebound”. On 25 September we saw “Most Canberrans live too far from tram or rapid bus stops”.
On 4 October the headline read “Students least likely to be jumping on the new transport network”. On 11 October it was “Canberra transport network satisfaction falls”. On 22 October it was “Unjust: Principals say schools still left behind under revised bus network”. On 30 November the heading was “Canberra’s bus network pushed back after light rail delays”.
Those are, of course, only the Canberra Times headlines. I do not have the RiotACT and ABC headlines here, but there are many more on top of that.
The minister continues to ignore the fact that patronage in both Woden and Tuggeranong is down by five per cent. In Belconnen it is down by two per cent, and patronage for schoolchildren taking public transport has not improved. Customer satisfaction has dropped 21 per cent to its lowest in years, to 62 per cent. Reliability remains well below target, despite the minister attempting to pass off dodgy data trying to show otherwise.
The promises of a new ticketing system remain a distant dream, as commitments to a 2019-20 rollout of the system have blown out to 2022 or longer. Child safety on the public network is still a massive concern for parents across Canberra. This is the transport network that Minister Gentleman has labelled as world class. It seems that Mr Gentleman and I have very different ideas of what “world class” actually means.
I cannot overstate how much the government’s actions in the past 18 months have decimated confidence in our public transport network. Canberrans have come to realise that they cannot rely on our bus network to get their kids to and from school, get into the city from the suburbs on weekdays, or get around our city at all on weekends. Parents have returned to their cars, older people are stuck in their homes and people are stranded in suburbs on weekends.
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