The Importance of Public Transport All around , people are to spiral out of control, and little is done modes like walking and cycling, and concerned about the quality of public to attract people to public transport. is vital to our efforts to avert climate transport. Public authorities, from local change. Efficient transport systems around the councils to Federal government world rely on public transport providing agencies, pay lip service to the idea SOCIETY a genuine alternative to car travel, so of reducing car dependence and that public transport is used for 25 to Neighbourhood activists and encouraging alternatives such as public 50 percent of all travel and cost recovery researchers from the 1950s onwards transport, walking and cycling. Yet the is high for both the public transport and have documented the alienating effect majority of Melburnians do virtually all of road systems. car-dependent ‘mobility’ has on local their travel by car and show no signs of communities. It is now known that when changing. Why should we bother making ENVIRONMENT there is less traffic on the street, people the effort? actually build richer social networks and Pollution and noise from cars is injurious have more friends and acquaintances. The transport and accessibility topic to public health, and freeway-building area was the most popular during has only made things worse. The Public transport is crucial also to Round 2 of consultation and almost explosion in private car trips resulting providing independent mobility for 33 per cent of forum participants from road-friendly transport policies children. This kind of independence is were involved in discussions. Strong means that transport now accounts vital to our psychological development, support was recorded for initiatives for more adverse health impacts than but is undermined by car dependence to reduce or improve car usage, and ever before, and half of all greenhouse that results in children being driven increase the service levels of public emissions from Australian households everywhere by parents. transport. Initiatives to encourage are transport-related. walking and cycling to work also drew general support from participants. The Shifting car trips to public transport participants in support of more roads reduces pollution and noise, helps and freeways were in the minority. conserve open space in the long term, -Metropolitan Strategy Information Bulletin, supports other environmentally friendly November 2001 A Triple Bottom Line Analysis ECONOMY Both public transport and roads consume scarce resources: money, land, and fuel to operate vehicles. In its resource use public transport has what economists call returns to scale: the more users, the greater the economic 49% benefit. Road traffic, on the other hand, displays diminishing returns to scale. This is because roads quickly fill up with traffic, and once congestion sets in, each additional vehicle slows everyone down. Melbourne’s public transport and road systems will both remain heavily subsidised as long as car use continues Making Public Transport Work For Everyone 1. POLICY, MANAGEMENT AND OWNERSHIP Making the Change: Better Achieving’world’s best practice’ in viability of other public transport modes transport planning means overhauling by running parallel services. Transport Planning the present Department of Infrastructure To unravel this mess doesn’t require In Melbourne, the current structure of to emphasise the need to plan before resuming public ownership of trains, the transport planning bureaucracy spending money on big projects. trams and buses. However, it will institutionalises a powerful road lobby Instead of a separate agency presenting require resuming public control, which at the highest levels of policy-making. one freeway plan after another to the is a different thing altogether. What In lobbying politicians for new freeways, government as a fait accompli, there will be needed is a Transport Authority Department of Infrastructure bureaucrats should be one group of planners with with the power to set timetables for all are assisted by the autonomous agency a single budget and a brief to pursue transport modes, whether publicly or Vicroads, and also by the engineering the best transport projects according to privately operated. The model for this is departments of Victoria’s municipal transparent criteria. councils, which with very few exceptions the Verkehsverbund oror ‘Transport‘Transport are dominated by the road engineering Coordination vs. Privatisation: Community’ found in many cities in mindset. Germany and central Europe. These are Better Transport Management regional transport companies managed While Vicroads has both a plan and a Historically, the ‘free-market’ approach by government, municipal and community successful lobbying strategy, nothing to transport management only wound up representatives. They have responsibility of the sort exists for public transport. driving away passengers, leaving those for coordinating fares, timetables and Privatisation of train and tram operations who remained with poorer services that funding for all public transport services in 1999 has returned us to the Balkanised required ever-greater subsidies. Today’s in their region. situation of most of the twentieth century, privatised arrangements, that encourage with operators fighting over a dwindling operators to compete with one another For this to work it will be necessary to market share and ignoring the real for passengers rather than coordinate convert the current franchise agreements competition, the private car. their services, are unlikely to deliver to fee-for-service contracts. A proactive anything better. government should have little difficulty In most other cities of the world, transport negotiating this. planning is run by transport planners and Privatisation allows government planners local communities rather than by those to offload responsibility for service with a vested interest in more roads. provision onto individual train, tram and Even Perth, one of the lowest-density bus operators who have no incentive to cities in Australia, has seen fit to cancel coordinate their timetables. Operators its freeway projects and spend money on are instead rewarded for undermining the public transport instead.

2. SERVICES AND INFRASTRUCTURE Minimising total journey time to extend decent services to the entire to the public, and would remedy the urban area is a small number of network most annoying aspects of the ticketing The most important factor making public extensions, and an overhaul of suburban system. transport attractive relative to car travel bus routes and hours of operation. is the total journey time. There is no law Reconnecting Victoria of nature that says public transport has A System Serving Passengers to be twice as slow as driving; it’s just The same principles that apply to public that in Melbourne there has never been For too long, transport operators in also apply any concerted effort to make it more Melbourne have displayed a hostile ‘Basil throughout country Victoria. The settled responsive. Fawlty’ attitude toward their passengers. parts of Victoria (excluding only the Mallee The perception that services are run and the High Country) are comparable There are many sides to the problem of for the convenience of operators, not with Sweden in their population density, reducing journey times, and so a package passengers, has not changed with and can be expected to support similar of solutions is required. However, each privatisation. Currently, it is reflected levels of public transport service. part of the solution is quite simple in in the dysfunctional Metcard ticketing We recommend that the country train itself. The most important components system the ongoing refusal to even and bus network be recast on a ‘pulse are high service frequency, traffic priority contemplate returning staff to trams network’ model featuring seven-day and timetable coordination. and stations, and the lack of adequate services, comprehensive coverage, seating on new vehicles. Service Coverage timetable coordination at hourly intervals, ReturningReturning tram conductors and station and bus networks within rregionalegional cities. Melbourne is fortunate to have one of staffstaff would incur virtually no net cost the most comprehensive public transport networks for a city of its size anywhere in the world. However, coverage is far from equal. A minority benefit from seven-day services; the majority get inadequate services during the day and none at all in the evenings or on Sundays. There should be no haves and have-nots in public transport. All that is required Dealing with the Urban Myths attractive to passengers. 100 years ago, cars, they will use them for all their travel, Melbourne was the lowest-density city regardless of the alternatives. This is an Institutional opposition to public transport in the world not in spite of, but because insulting attitude: it assumes most people is reinforced by the propaganda of it had extensive public transport that are stupid. High car ownership does not the road lobby, which portrays public made it easy to travel to the suburbs. necessarily mean high car use. Many transport as something that is nice in Melbourne’s urban density has not overseas cities renowned for their successful principle but flawed in practice. Even markedly declined since then, nor has it public transport have car ownership rates well-meaning people can be induced declined relative to other cities with well- just as high-or higher-than Melbourne. to believe that big public transport used public transport. improvements are too costly, or won’t Won’t we just have to pour attract enough passengers, or won’t Do we have to give up cars? work for some other reason. more money into public The elimination of the car is both unlikely transport subsidies? Is Melbourne too spread-out? and unnecessary. All that is needed to relieve Melbourne’s traffic problems is to Our economic discussion provides the It is fashionable to argue that public shift a small, but significant, minority of key to making better public transport transport can only be viable in high-density, car trips-about one journey in five-from pay its way. Public transport competes compact cities with lots of apartment the car to walking, cycling or public with the private car for its customers, and blocks. While rail systems have a certain transport. its success in attracting customers, not ‘natural advantage’ in such cities, public some innate superiority of private cars, transport will also work in medium-density An extreme version of the car-is-inevitable determines its financial viability. The cities like Melbourne if it is sufficiently argument claims that once people own key is better service, leading to greatly increased patronage and cost recovery across the entire system.

Metropolitan Train Network: PTUA proposals Country Train Network: PTUA proposals (See our full document for full details of projects, plus proposals for tram and bus networks, road projects and tax reform.) Comparative costing of road and public transport proposals Our proposal Cost ($million) Road lobby proposal Cost ($million) Rowville train line 120 1 / yr Scoresby / Mitcham Freeway 1800 18 / yr East Doncaster train line 350 2 / yr Eastern Freeway thru Royal Pk 600 6 / yr Airport train extension 50 1 / yr Tulla / Calder Fwy intersection 250 2 / yr Other train extensions 488 2 / yr Merri Creek Freeway 400 4 / yr Bus network improvements 30 / yr Second West Gate Bridge 1000 10 / yr Tram gap-filling programme 215 2 / yr Eastern Ring Road completion 800 8 / yr Level crossing elimination 500 Victoria Pde flyovers 50 Re-staffing the system 25 / yr Dingley Freeway 300 3 / yr Late night services 5 / yr Hallam Bypass 165 2 / yr Revitalised country rail 500 50 / yr Road upgrade 270 3 / yr Inter-regional bus network 40 / yr Calder Highway upgrade 500 5 / yr Geelong train improvements 5 1 / yr Geelong East Ring Road 1000 10 / yr Geelong bus network 4 / yr Geelong West Ring Road 380 4 / yr Remove GST on fares (Vic) 40 / yr Subsidy to company cars (Vic) 150 / yr Total 2228 203 / yr Total 7515 225 / yr General Recommendations 1. Service Frequencies • greater use of barriers to separate Have the multimodal fare system cover trams from cars; all public transport services, including Improve service frequencies on all urban Skybus and Nightrider. Set fares at a train, tram and bus services to every • interruption of traffic signals for trams at level competitive with private car travel. 10 minutes or better between 5am and all intersections; Provide periodical ticket holders with 10pm, and every 15 minutes between attractive discounts and free family travel 10pm and 2am, seven days a week. • shortening of signal cycles on major on weekends and public holidays. Retain existing service frequencies when intersections; and better than this. • enforcing the ‘fairway’ system. 9. Coordination of Services In country Victoria, adopt a basic These should be implemented in Reestablish public control over public frequency of one train per hour between consultation with all relevant transport, transport services in Melbourne through 6am and midnight seven days a week; police, municipal and community a Transport Authority (TA). Establish a higher for Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and organisations. governing structure comprising State Gippsland services and lower for services Government, local councils, industry and to remote towns such as Mildura. 6. Bus Route Restructure user representation. Charge the TA with Reconfigure metropolitan bus routes to responsibility for administering the fare 2. Night Services be direct and avoid complicated detours. system, collecting and distributing revenue, Implement 24-hour, 7-day public transport Ensure that routes follow the arterial road and setting routes and timetables for all in Melbourne with a system of night grid as much as possible, and provide public transport in Melbourne. Renegotiate buses and trams between 2am and convenient interchange with trains at all existing contracts between private 5am. Upgrade the Nightrider buses to stations en route. operators and the State Government so bidirectional half-hourly services, accepting that private operators act as contractors to Metcards in line with Recommendation 8, Design bus stops at major intersections the TA, and are paid for the services they and mirroring all current and proposed rail to make transfers between buses as provide on a ‘cost plus margin’ basis. corridors, with appropriate deviations to convenient as possible. The network grid serve suburbs such as Bundoora. should be sufficiently fine to ensure that 10. Transport Infrastructure the vast majority of locations are within Planning 3. Express Running walking distance of a bus stop. Attempts to connect all origins and destinations Vest all planning powers for road and Improve travel times for urban train with a single route should be avoided. public transport infrastructure in a newly services through express running patterns constituted Department of Planning and that are consistent for any given route, 7. Staff and Ticketing Infrastructure, following the example of apply at all times rather than just in Western Australia. Appoint experienced peak hour, and ensure that every station Return full-time staff to all railway stations from first to last train, and conductors to planners, rather than road engineers, to receives at least one stopping service head up the new department. Abolish every ten minutes. all tram and train services, except those with low patronage and no security Vicroads as a separate entity and absorb If necessary, express trains can be problems. Have staff sell tickets alongside its functions into the new structure. Give alternated with stopping trains that service ticket machines at stations, and charge the department a single budget, to spend intermediate stations on the same lin all staff with a duty to assist passengers. in accordance with transparent economic, Remove ticket machines from all trams social and environmental criteria, with no 4. Train Speeds that have conductors, and remove the artificial distinctions drawn between ‘road Maintain all passenger rail track in Victoria requirement to revalidate already valid funding’ and ‘public transport funding’. to speed standards allowing consistent tickets. Use the police as a targeted Involve the community in the evaluation 80kph running (or better) in metropolitan emergency backup for front-line staff, of proposals, and subject planning Melbourne and 160kph running in the and ensure that staff have a clear view of decisions to independent review. remainder of Victoria. platforms, vehicles and waiting areas. In order to guarantee that people have a genuine choice to use public transport, 5. Tram and Bus Priority 8. Fares declare a moratorium on new urban Implement effective priority for trams and Retain and extend the multimodal freeways until public transport has been buses over other traffic, with the aim of fare system with better integration of improved to useable levels, as outlined in eliminating all unnecessary delays to metropolitan and country fares and Recommendations 1 through 8. services, through: the abolition of all singlemode tickets.

This leaflet is a summary of It’s Time To Move, a new publication by the Public Transport Users Association. Copies are available for $10 to PTUA members, or $15 to non-members. Public Transport Users Association Inc. Org.No. A-6256L Ross House, 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne 3000 Phone: (03) 9650 7898 [email protected] www.ptua.org.au