*/

The new Metro train timetable shows why urgent reform is needed in public transport planning, the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) said today.

While Metro’s new timetable, to take effect from May, brings some extra services, it comes at a cost. Some stations have their peak services reduced, and run at confusing 22 minute frequencies.

“This just shows what a truly woeful state our public transport planning has been left in,” said PTUA President Daniel Bowen said. “$92.6 million of taxpayers’ money has just been spent upgrading Laverton station [1], yet now Metro says that to run peak-hour trains reliably on the line, they have to give Williamstown and Altona passengers a timetable they have no chance of memorising.

“It’s as though our planning bureaucracy is saying we can have either a memorable, user-friendly timetable, or reliable trains, but not both. Is this really the best we can do in the 21st century?
Read the rest of this article »

The most significant policy commitment of the incoming Baillieu Government is the creation of a Public Transport Development Authority for Victoria. Getting this one right will make all the difference between Victoria having some of the best public transport in the world, and a continuation of the current mediocre, politically poisonous setup.

The good news is that Transport Minister Terry Mulder now has a wealth of interstate and overseas experience to draw on when constituting and recruiting the government’s PTDA. Zurich, Vancouver, London, Perth and to some extent Brisbane all provide good examples of what to do. While they embody a number of different specific organisational structures and relationships, they share common features that make them successful. For the benefit of PTUA members, we list these briefly here.
Read the rest of this article »