The Commuter Perspective: Critical issues to be address to create a world-class public transport system

Who is the PTUA?1

• Formed in 1976

• A not-for-profit, voluntary organisation, with no political affiliations

• We lobby for better services for passengers (and potential passengers)

Why do we need to better integrate

modes?

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• In any big city, moving the bulk of people in private cars is grossly inefficient

800 people = 1 train, or...

Melbourne’s now a big city3

• Big city crowding: traffic, parking, PT

• Even on weekends, even in the suburbs

“World-class” doesn’t mean underground railways4

• World class public transport: moving lots of people, quickly, with little waiting

• Capacity, and frequency

Getting people onto public transport:It’s not about infrastructure

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• It’s about services

• Reliability, speed, capacity, cleanliness, safety, and frequency

• Infrastructure built to enable services

• Are we building the right infrastructure for the services we want?

Don’t get dazzled by technology6

• Monorails? Maglevs? Ferries?

• What transport problems will these solve?

• PT needs economies of scale to create a network, not competing modes

Yarra: 5 knot (9km/h) speed limit!

“Frequency is freedom”- Jarrett Walker, Human Transit

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• Only frequent public transport can be a true competitor to the car

• People don’t want to live by timetables

• “Every 10 minutes to everywhere”

Anywhere to anywhere

frequent network

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Melbourne’s frequent network: Peak9

Every 15 minutes or betterPeak hour

Melbourne’s frequent network10

Every 15 minutes or betterWeekday off-peak

Melbourne’s frequent network11

Every 15 minutes or betterWeekends (Saturday)

Melbourne’s frequent network12

Every 15 minutes or betterEvenings

2006 vs 2012 – Every 15 minutes or better13

• One train line that is every 10 minutes, every day – more soon?

• A few more Smartbus routes

• But most areas still have only infrequent buses

2006 vs 2012 – Every 15 minutes or better14

2006 2012

Patronage growth15

Frequent buses get people on-board.

Year to December 2011:

• Smartbus: patronage up 40%

• DART: patronage up 46.1%

How infrastructure helps:Reliability, frequency, speed

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• Duplication

• Signalling

• Grade-separation

• Tram/bus priority

Myki

• Nearing end of the saga?

• Good for regulars, if it’s fast/reliable

• Problems for occasional users: no short term ticket (unlike other cities)

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The PTUA vision

• “Every 10 minutes to everywhere”

• 7 days, until midnight

• A web of frequent services to every suburb

• Staff at every station to help

• Public transport that people actually want to use

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Public Transport Users Association

www.ptua.org.au

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