The Victorian Government’s decision to dump both Connex and Yarra Trams in favour of MTR and Keolis respectively must come as something of a surprise to many Melburnians. Whilst stripping Connex of the chance of further involvement in Melbourne’s increasingly congested and unwieldy rail network was a forgone conclusion, Yarra Trams’ loss of the tram contract represents an unexpected turn in the wild ride that has been the management of Melbourne’s public transport system since trains and trams were privatised in the dying days of the Kennett government in 1999.
The move is set to take some pressure off otherwise besieged Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky as the state government faced mounting pressure over its handling of public transport. Passenger dissatisfaction had become so widespread that letting Connex go was the only available course of action, but Yarra Trams’ grip on the more popular tram system was publicly considered to be far more secure.
Ultimately however, the decision to change operators ought to be considered in the broader context of where the government wants to take the system and how privatisation fits into that picture.
Serious questions need to be asked about why operating costs have increased so substantially in the years following privatisation. The government attributes the increase in operating costs largely to the surge in patronage over the last five years, but with patronage far outstripping service growth (which commuters see every day in the form of increasingly crowded trains and trams) means that there are many more people buying tickets for a given number of services than there were a decade ago. Add to that several above inflation fare increases and there is a clear case that costs should be decreasing, rather than increasing in the sector.
Melburnians would also be wise to question whether the current system of incentives reflects what they value in a public transport system. A system of fines and bonuses based on whether the trains run late or not is all very well, but fails to consider the bigger question as to whether the timetables against which late running is assessed actually represent an adequate level of service.
A key characteristic of successful public transport systems throughout the world is their ability to provide frequent and reliable services which have fast end to end journey time and are time competitive with the car. Much of Melbourne’s public transport system fails to do this on paper yet alone in practice, and this is the real problem with Melbourne’s public transport. Until that is resolved, the issue of whether taxpayers pay Connex to put their stickers on the side of a train will continue to be what it has been all along – a sideshow.
Read more of Phin Ziebell’s public transport analysis at www.textbooktransport.com
By the way: http://www.textbooktransport.com is a broken link. Strip off the www and it works.
I am glad someone makes these points. Frequent and Reliable. Fast end to end journey time. That include journeys where one must change services mid-journey.
I find it immensely annoying when “on-time” running is pushed to the exclusion of genuine service. A train that is on-time but empty does no one any good, except the bureaucrats who publish statistics.
If a service is frequent enough then being “on time” is unimportant. If a service is infrequent, then sticking to a timetable is important, so long as passengers are not left stranded through no fault of their own.
In Sydney, I frequently change trains at Ashfield. On more than one occasion I have been caught out when the South Line train arrives a few minutes late onto a different platform. My connecting service is waiting on the other platform. But by the time I get up the stairs, across the bridge, and down again, the connecting service has left. It has left almost empty, because most of its normal load from here would be the 20 to 30 people like me transferring from the South Line.
The worst example I have come across is when there is track work on the Western Line. Rail buses run from (say) Granville to (say) Penrith, where Blue Mountains passengers transfer to the Blue Moutains service. If the train pulls out before the bus pulls in, it lengthens an already overlong journey by an extra hour and leaves a lot of very cranky passengers waiting.
(sorry, The web site is actually http://transporttextbook.com)
The worst example happened again, today (Sunday 28/06/2009), to a friend. Railway bus from Granville to St Mary’s, arrives St Mary’s just in time to miss a suburbun train to Penrith. Next suburban train to Penrith misses connection to Blue Mountains train. One hour wait for a bus load of passengers. Why the express bus terminated at St Mary’s is beyond me. Almost all were Blue Mountains passengers.
I know its easy to blame the government and infrastructure but some other things that appear to cause bad service.
Train drivers not being ready and waiting for when trains arrive to change over- I dont know what causes this, its could be anything from bad organisation(too far to travel from one platform to another etc) or a lack of care by the drivers.(nothing like waiting to get home only to see the driver or their mate getting a lift turning up late laughing with fresh coffees)
Trains not taking passengers blocking up flinders street. If the train is not to be used then why is it sitting at the station while a train with customers on it sits between stations? I am late usually because the train from one side of the city is a couple of minutes late from waiting between Richmond and Flinders street. If the train is waiting for a driver then move it out and then back in after the driver arrives. The greatest irony in Connex’s name is that it was impossible to connect with their near enough is good enough attitude to arriving at Flinders street on time.
The signs and announcers at Flinders street to be from the same source. I dont know how many times the announcers dont match the signs we are looking at.
This need to appear smarter than they are. If connex didnt name trains going to flinders street as anything other than flinders street then some of the confusion of getting on a lilydale train at flagstaff and it being a glen waverley train by richmond would be lost
As with everything this labour drop in government does as long as the trough is full then all will be ok. Are Kirner and Brumby the two worst unelected leaders in Victorias history or what?