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Last Thursday night Minister for Public Transport Terry Mulder attended a meeting of PTUA members. Mr Mulder’s address was followed by a lengthy question and answer session, covering issues such as Myki, bikes on trains, station facilities, Altona Loop timetables and the government’s planned Public Transport Development Authority.

The Minister also discussed the new Melbourne tram prototype design, and revealed that it is planned to display the prototype at this year’s Royal Show.

PTUA members who missed the meeting will find a summary of the meeting in the next newsletter.

Melbourne’s public transport is in crisis — and your vote can make a difference.

• Cancellations
• Poor connections
• Crowding
• Trams stuck in traffic

Read the full brochure (PDF 338 Kb)

The current privatisation arrangements need to end. There could be a role for private operators — as subcontractors providing the services specified by a public authority — but the ‘franchise’ model introduced in 1999 by the Coalition and renewed in 2004 and 2009 by Labor hasn’t worked. Scores of organisations are arranged in an impenetrable maze of bureaucratic confusion, and with no central control there is poor coordination between services, poor planning, and buck-passing.

Find out more about why public transport management and planning needs a shakeup, and send your local candidates an email at the Public Transport That Works web site.

This brochure is directed at residents of Melbourne’s inner suburbs, but remember, wherever you are: If you want better public transport, in this election, look carefully at the policies of all the candidates. Make your vote count.

PTUA comments on the Transport and Tourism Forum report on public transport funding:

We shouldn’t fall for the trap of believing that public transport should make a profit. It doesn’t recoup its costs any more than the public health system, the education system, law enforcement or for that matter the road system – these are all subsidised by taxpayers for the good of everyone. Even those who never use public transport recognise that if it wasn’t there, there would be chaos on our roads.

Melbourne’s public transport fares are already some of the highest in Australia, and for suburban trips, fares are often more expensive than just getting in the car. The danger of increasing fares further is that it will lead to a decline in patronage, requiring an even bigger taxpayer subsidy, and adding to the traffic on the roads.
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In order to try and make up for the widespread train service disruptions on Tuesday, all Melbourne (zone 1 and 2) public transport (trains, trams and buses) will be free on Friday. Further information from Metlink.

Weekly, monthly and yearly ticketholders can apply for a free daily ticket from Metro.

V/Line users with a ticket that was valid on Tuesday can apply for a free travel voucher.

While we don’t expect that those who faced long delays will be placated by a free day’s travel, the PTUA encourages eligible users to submit a claim form. And we encourage you to make sure ensure the government knows that you care about public transport, and want to see more and better services. Make your voice heard.

In yesterday’s Herald Sun we said that low-income full-time post-graduate students are unable to get concession public transport fares. This is incorrect. Recent rule changes mean that anyone eligible for a Centrelink Healthcare Card (including Low Income Health Care Cards) can now get concession fares.

The Public Transport Users Association has commended Melbourne’s new train operator, Metro Trains Melbourne, for its support of the PTUA’s ‘Every 10 Minutes to Everywhere’ campaign.

In a statement to The Age on 16 January, Metro Trains chief executive Andrew Lezala referred to the PTUA’s campaign to run trains, trams and buses every 10 minutes, and said “this was the correct approach”. “I like the tram network because the frequency is such that you do not need to understand the timetable.” The train network needed that frequency, he said.
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A seven-month travel time study has found no noticeable improvement in tram travel times from extended clearway hours on Sydney Road in Brunswick.

For some time, PTUA Secretary Tony Morton has been travelling to and from work with a stopwatch. His aim is to measure—carefully and scientifically—what it is that’s making Melbourne trams so slow. His stopwatch counts up the ‘dead time’ on tram journeys: the lost time when the tram isn’t actually picking up or dropping off passengers, yet is not moving.
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The PTUA submission to the Victorian upper house Select Committee on Train Services has been released.

PTUA submission (PDF, 449Kb)

Summary:

The present inquiry has been prompted by an ongoing and widespread pattern of failure in Victoria’s train services, culminating in the near-total shutdown of the metropolitan system in extreme heat conditions in late January 2009. In keeping with the terms of reference, this submission does not aim to catalogue the failures that have occurred in Victorian train services in recent years, but to analyse the underlying factors.
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Public transport infrastructure announced for Melbourne in this year’s “nation building” Federal Budget may not deliver any real benefit to passengers – and the Brumby State Government is entirely to blame, says the PTUA.

“All indications are that when it comes to Victorian public transport, Wayne Swan will be ploughing all the available money into the metro rail tunnel,” said PTUA President Daniel Bowen. “But it’s a completely unnecessary project. We have already doubled the capacity of the city’s rail network: we did it in the 1970s, with the City Loop, yet everyone seems to have forgotten. All this new tunnel will do is soak up all the money that should be used to extend rail and bus services into our growing suburbs.”
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Melbourne’s train services would double, buses would run every 10 minutes on every arterial road, and more country rail lines would be restored. And this would only cost 40% of the government’s $38 billion transport plan, according to a new report released today by the PTUA.

The Connecting to the Future report is billed as the alternative to the Victorian Transport Plan. Its proposed package of improved public transport services and targeted road works includes rail extensions to Rowville, Doncaster, Mernda, Clyde, Mornington and the Airport, tram extensions, return of conductors to trams and staff to all stations, country train lines, level crossing removals, rural road and bridge repairs, and a massive boost to bus services.
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