N e w s Public Transport Users Association www.ptua.org.au

ISSN 0817–0347 Volume 34 No. 4 October 2010 State election to test transport policy As November’s State election approaches, calls for the area having no regular transport service. Local me- an overhaul of public transport management are dia report that schoolchildren waiting to catch the new growing in volume, and still more stories of failure service on the first day of term were left stranded as a are biting the government. result of this bureaucratic bungle. The PTUA’s long-standing call for an independent pub- Apparently, the local community had been forced into lic authority to plan public transport is now firmly en- convincing the private operator to run the service (at its trenched in the political and news agenda, ever since own risk) after failing to get action from DoT bureau- the Victorian Greens pledged in August to create such crats. This is another case where a planning authority, an authority as part of their election platform. Trans- with a set of universally applicable service standards port spokesman and upper house MP Greg Barber is and a board that meets in public, would have produced regularly quoted raising the issue of a planning author- an outcome better reflecting the community’s wishes. ity in the media, alongside calls for services every 10 Meanwhile, there is no danger of any risk being faced minutes, and pointing out—along with the Liberal / Na- by the private consortium building the Peninsula Link tional opposition—the need for trains and buses to co- motorway. In return for funneling more cars onto the ordinate as a multimodal network. Peninsula, the Southern Way consortium is guaranteed It is a sign that the political focus in the public trans- $2.3 billion in taxpayer funds. A fraction of that sum port crisis has moved on from being simply about over- would have given the Peninsula a world-beating public crowded peak hour trains. As we forecast in May this transport network; as it is, action on the region’s woe- year, performance on the train network has improved as ful bus services has been mired in bureaucratic inertia a result of new train timetables that make better use of while the government boosts car travel. the system’s inherent capacity. In September, operator Public transport now rivals hospitals and schools as an Metro finally reached its official punctuality target for election issue for a reason. November’s election will be the first time since taking over from Connex last year. fought on choices of policy direction which will shape Of course, crowding problems are far from solved. Pa- the way we travel in in decades to come. tronage on all modes of public transport is still growing strongly, just not at the extraordinary levels seen prior Roads get rich, buses suffer =⇒ Page3 to the global financial crisis. Thanks to the lack of for- Our demands =⇒ Page4 ward planning, we will still have to wait years before our train and tram fleet is back at levels commensurate In this issue with the size of our system. And bureaucrats seem to have no answers for the crowding problem emerging on State election...... 1 buses, even on weekends—see our Page3 article. Keeping in touch...... 2 Our system still manages to combine the worst as- Notice of AGM: 2 December...... 2 pects of public-sector bureaucratic management with Westerfield destroyed for tourist road...... 3 903 SmartBus stuck in traffic...... 3 the worst aspects of private-sector fragmentation. The PTUA’s State election vision...... 4 latest in a litany of system failures is a new bus route Metro rail ...... 5 from Hurstbridge to St Andrews, negotiated between RRL from bad to worse...... 5 the community and the private bus operator, which had Geelong Branch...... 6 to be scrapped at the last minute on 4 October because Stud Road bus lanes...... 6 the operator had not lodged competition policy paper- 901 SmartBus not so smart...... 7 work with the Department of Transport. This is despite Tollways on the nose...... 7

PTUA News—October 2010—Page 1 Keeping in touch: Committee Member Meetings PTUA Office Daniel Bowen—President Tony Morton—Secretary Dates / times as advised Ross House Kerryn Wilmot—Treasurer Ross House 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne Michael Galea 247 Flinders Lane, City Telephone (03) 9650 7898 Myles Green More details: see below Email: [email protected] Ian Hundley Eastern Suburbs Membership Enquiries Mark Johnson Third Tuesday of every month, 7pm Call or email the office (see above). Jason King ‘The Barn’ (behind Box Hill Baptist Commuter Club Tim Long Church) PTUA members can obtain cheap Rob Meredith 3 Ellingworth Parade (off Station St) yearly Metcards. See www.ptua. Tim Petersen Box Hill org.au/members/offers. David Robertson Geelong Vaughan Williams Internet First Saturday of every month (except Our website is at www.ptua.org.au. Branch convenors Jan), 10:30am The PTUA runs email lists for mem- Paul Westcott—Geelong Multimedia Room ber discussions, and to stay up to date Jeremy Lunn—Eastern Suburbs Courthouse Youth Arts Centre with PTUA events. Members can Contact Corner Gheringhap and Little Malop also view archived newsletters online. All committee members can be Streets, Geelong See: www.ptua.org.au/members/ emailed using the format firstname. resources. [email protected].

Notice of Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the nominator and the candidate, both of lor’s electoral staff, or a candidate for PTUA will be held on Thursday 2 whom must be current financial mem- election to political office. (General December at 6:30pm, in the Ground bers of the PTUA. council employees not directly em- Floor Back Meeting Room, Ross In accordance with the PTUA’s rules, to ployed by councillors are exempt.) House, 247 Flinders Lane Melbourne. be eligible for election a candidate: Finger food and light refreshments will Nominations must reach the PTUA Sec- • must not be a sitting MP; be provided for members. retary by hand or by mail (Ross House, The election procedure allows for the • must be a member of at least 12 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne 3000) by AGM to elect a President, Secretary and months’ standing, and must not be a 4:00pm on Friday 26 November. Nom- Treasurer and up to nine ordinary Com- local councillor (unless the Commit- inations will not be called for at the mittee members. Nominations must be tee waives this requirement); and AGM unless nominations are insuffi- on the form attached below (a photo- • must disclose to the Secretary if they cient to fill all positions. There is no copy is acceptable) and signed by the are a member of an MP’s or council- proxy voting in the event of an election.

PTUA Committee Nomination Form

I, of (nominator)

nominate of (candidate)

for election to the position of: President Secretary Treasurer Committee Member I declare that the candidate is not a current Member of Parliament; is / is not a Mayor, Councillor or equivalent office holder of a municipality; is / is not employed by a sitting MP or Local Councillor; and is / is not currently a candidate for a political office. (delete as appropriate)

Signed: (nominator) (candidate) / / (date)

PTUA News—October 2010—Page 2 First the police, then the taxpayer bill for Peninsula Link

Police intervened at Victorian gov- This is about $93 million per year for And of course a lot can change in ernment direction in late Septem- a road, in a region where a bus every twenty-five years. There is a seri- ber to break the community picket 70 minutes and a train every two hours ous risk that, after assigning a very which was protecting the bush- is held up as acceptable public trans- substantial flow of taxpayer funds to land of the heritage listed Wester- port. Last year the Victorian govern- unsustainable transport activity on the field property against the bulldozers ment could only find an extra $1 mil- Peninsula and severely damaging the clearing land for the Peninsula Link lion to boost bus services on the Penin- natural environment in the process, freeway. sula and in Frankston. when peak oil and carbon pricing hits In an intimidating display, about 100 These lucrative financing arrange- we will find the Victorian government police showed up on 28 September ments reflect the fact that the project has handed us a white elephant. to confront 20 or so mainly elderly would never have been viable as a toll In the meantime, there are signs that protesters. Five arrests were reported. road: there simply isn’t enough traf- the road lobby is girding its loins to The picket was established in July to fic. Despite the periodic traffic jams have the freeway extended to Rye. protect the Frankston South property. in Frankston, much of this travel is In another twist, the actual level of tax- local in nature, fed by a lack of public payer funds committed to the project transport alternatives. As with Eastlink over its life has been reported (The and Stud Road traffic, this Peninsula Age, 29/9) at $2.3 billion. These Link is unlikely to ‘solve’ congestion “availability payments” (the purpose in Frankston either. Meanwhile we are of which is to guarantee a risk-free privatising roads and subsidising oper- cash flow to the private operator) will ator profits with public money, without reportedly be made in 98 quarterly in- even a pretence at transferring ‘risk’ to stalments over 25 years. the private sector.

SmartBus caught by dumb traffic planning

The Government’s Smartbus pro- The main reason for the crowding on slight improvement for buses heading gramme is again failing to keep up weekends is the lack of frequency, re- north into Chadstone, but the biggest with its name, with growing prob- sulting from the failure of the gov- delays are to buses heading south. lems besetting the ‘flagship’ 903 or- ernment’s touted ‘demand responsive’ The continually slow travel times are bital service introduced last year. The planning. On Saturdays the service op- all too familiar to us from studies of problems are familiar, and arise from erates between Heidelberg and Mordial- the tram network, and show that fur- our dysfunctional planning culture. loc on a 15–15–30 minute service pat- ther traffic priority works are urgently Buses are regularly overcrowded near tern (three services an hour). On Sun- needed. Yet Vicroads has insisted it is the Chadstone Shopping Centre, both days the service is half-hourly. not working on further bus priority in on weekdays and (especially) on week- Regional MP Brian Tee proudly pro- the Chadstone area at this time. ends. The bus route is an essential step- claimed frequency was the “secret to the ping stone to reach Chadstone from the success” of this service at a forum in rail network at Holmesglen or Oakleigh August. Yet on weekends the buses are stations. However, the service also has a far from frequent, even if crowded. good ‘base load’ across the route and it The buses are also extremely slow. The is not uncommon to find nearly all seats 3km journey from Holmesglen to Oak- full at any point on the route. leigh can take 21 minutes on weekday PTUA Outer East Convenor Jeremy afternoons according to the timetable: Lunn has found no shortage of crowded an average speed of 8.6kph. buses around Chadstone and has taken Most of the time is wasted at the inter- many pictures such as that opposite, sections of Waverley Rd, Monash Fwy Is your bus, tram or train regularly showing passengers forced to stand and and Princes Hwy, and negotiating ac- crowded? We invite members to send hang from the straps on Saturdays and cess in and out of Chadstone. A jump- photos like this as they are valuable Sundays, and off-peak on weekdays. start lane at Princes Hwy has made a when lobbying for upgrades. PTUA News—October 2010—Page 3 PTUA goes to politicians with public transport vision

Trains, trams and Smartbuses ev- Blue Orbital Smartbus (both pro- capital works. Most of the train net- ery ten minutes, all stations staffed, posed in 2006 but scrapped by the work can already run every ten minutes, V/Line trains every half-hour on government in 2008); and getting more buses out of depots at main commuter routes, ‘Tram-cams’ off-peak times would cut evening and • Skybus to accept Met (zone 1 to catch careless motorists, and a weekend waiting times. and 2) fares, to increase patron- Public Transport Authority to better age and better gauge demand for In the case of the Bus Service Re- plan and manage public transport all a future airport rail link; views, many of the route changes would feature in the PTUA’s call to the polit- be cost-neutral, yet would bring ma- ical parties in the run-up to the state • a multi-modal public transport jor benefits to passengers. One case election in November. system map to be published, highlighted by The Age in Septem- highlighting frequent routes and ber showed how the re-organisation The PTUA believes that in the next available on vehicles and stations, of buses 732 and 695 in Melbourne’s four years, significant steps could be and online; taken towards providing all of Mel- outer-east would provide easier access bourne with frequent services, running • duplication of high priority single to Knox Shopping Centre for residents at least every ten minutes, seven days a track sections of the rail network east of Ferntree Gully, not by running week. to improve reliability and allow more buses (though that would help), more frequent services; but by providing a more logical route More services, running more often, is structure. the key to getting more passengers on • funding for proposed rail exten- board. Services every ten minutes sions to Mernda and Clyde (Cran- Overall the key is to get more services would fix problems with connections bourne East), and a full indepen- running more often, to cut waiting times between modes, and give passengers a dent feasibility study to establish and get more people out of their cars. ‘turn up and go’ service that means they the preferred option for building That’s the challenge for politicians of never have to look at a timetable. the Rowville rail line; all sides, and we hope they get on board. • a railway station at Southland The complete document is available The PTUA’s Priorities for 2010–2014 shopping centre; from our web site. Keep visiting, document also includes calls for: as we’ll also be tracking and scoring • tram extensions to major shop- policies as the election draws closer. • the full implementation of the ping centres and railway stations; =⇒ www.ptua.org.au Bus Service Reviews, to untangle and How you can help: Write to your the bus network and make it more • more grade separation of level local and daily newspapers, ring in usable; crossings. to radio talkback, and contact your • completion of the Green Orbital In many cases, highly beneficial im- local politicians. Let them know how Smartbus to Werribee, and imple- provements could be made to the pub- important public transport is to you, mentation of the inner-suburban lic transport network without expensive and your vote.

PTUA News—October 2010—Page 4 Metro tunnel planning continues

Preplanning for the Metro rail tunnel But given the premise that the tunnel tions provide interchange to all other has been continuing, with the state will go ahead at some stage, it is worth metropolitan rail lines. Under Stage 1, government asking for comments on planning well in advance. Such advance the line would terminate at Domain, al- the project, specifically the proposed planning is in stark contrast to the Re- lowing future expansion to continue to- placement of new stations. gional Rail Link project, which appears wards Caulfield. to have gained more than $4 billion of The PTUA takes the view that the tun- funding on the basis of a sketch on the The PTUA has emphasised to the nel mostly replicates existing public back of a napkin. project team the importance of high transport services while much of Mel- quality, efficient interchanges from the In that context, the proposed new un- bourne and Victoria has no adequate tunnel to other rail lines, and to adjacent derground station locations make some services, and that capacity gains can be tram and bus services. High frequency sense. ‘Arden’ station would be reason- brought about through better optimis- services are needed at all hours, other- ably expected to stimulate redevelop- ing train, tram and bus services in and wise residents around the Arden devel- ment of old industrial land. The draw- around central Melbourne, for a fraction opment are likely to be as car-dependent back is that it does not provide inter- of the cost of the tunnel. as people elsewhere in Melbourne. change to North Melbourne. We cau- tiously accept that this does not pose a In the mean time, we’ll continue to push There may well be a time in the fu- significant barrier given the interchange for better use of our existing rail infras- ture when all other options have been opportunities at other locations. tructure, and for more frequent services exhausted, and major infrastructure up- all day every day, which is what ‘Metro’ grades are required. But there is still a Parkville station would serve the hos- rail systems are really about. concern that there is a lack of published pital and universities precinct, and evidence that the tunnel is the best, most stations underneath the existing Mel- =⇒ www.transport.vic.gov.au/ cost-effective option. bourne Central and Flinders Street sta- melbournemetro

Regional Rail Link: from bad to worse

The deficient planning of the $4.3 bil- on the RRL until design of the infras- Vale station appeared, suggesting that lion (RRL) has tructure has been completed. the original plans had been significantly been further exemplified by revela- Planners have also confirmed that all altered. It seems clear that cost savings tions in recent weeks. Geelong line trains will bypass Wer- are already having to be made. The debacle involving the acquisition of ribee, and that the electrified Werribee The animation depicts the station in a properties in Footscray has been well line will not be extended to the pro- long cutting with only two tracks and publicised. But more importantly from posed Wyndham Vale station. The only facing platforms. Under earlier plans, the point of view of passengers, it has alternative offered is a bus connection the corridor was to be configured to ac- now been confirmed that there will be between Werribee station and Wynd- commodate four tracks: two regional no RRL platforms at North Melbourne. ham Vale. So V/Line passengers to and and two suburban. The latter were to from Werribee will suffer a change of This is a disastrous situation given the be built first, and space left to allow mode and a journey lengthened by 20 crucial nature of North Melbourne as an the extra ‘regional’ tracks to run straight minutes at least—a perfect recipe for interchange point. Not only does ev- through the middle. ery regional rail service currently stop at pushing people into their cars. North Melbourne inbound in the morn- It is remarkable that this huge sum of If that was actually going to be done, ing and outbound in the afternoon—the money is being spent on a scheme that any cutting should be initially con- government has recently spent $13 mil- leaves a significant number of passen- structed to allow for four tracks, with lion enhancing the station’s role as an gers worse off. the station site being wide enough to permit the two additional tracks to run interchange. At the same time as the North Mel- through the centre. The touted flexi- Any alternatives which might be pro- bourne and Footscray decisions were bility of separating express and stop- vided will be inferior to the current ar- revealed, previously published plans for ping trains on the Tarneit diversion rangements. Yet we don’t know what the Tarneit diversion of the Geelong line appears to have been ditched due to these might be because, contrary to log- suddenly vanished from the government cost pressures—despite the huge budget ical planning principles, decisions are website. A few weeks later an artist’s available. not being made about the services to run impression of the proposed Wyndham

PTUA News—October 2010—Page 5 Geelong Branch report

A new round of bus improve- Cycling event disruptions The latter retained the political status ments, after all quo in the region. Unsuccessful Lib- The disruptions to normal bus opera- eral candidate for Corangamite, Sarah We are keenly anticipating the inaugu- tions in Geelong were considerable dur- Henderson, says she found it almost im- ration of Stage 2 of the changes to Gee- ing the recent UCI bike championships, possible to get any media interest in her long’s bus network on 25 October. We but the alternative arrangements were, querying of aspects of the Regional Rail know what most of the route changes despite some obvious exceptions, quite Link. are to be because the maps were made impressive. It is clear that the introduc- available at the launch of Stage 2 by the tion of Viclink (aka ) into the Few, if any, policies have yet been Minister in mid-September. process of providing the necessary in- revealed for the State election. The While most changes are sound, there’s formation at bus stops and online has Branch is continuing the process of still a reluctance to achieve area cov- been positive. However people who meeting as many of the candidates as erage with simple, logical routes, and aren’t connected to the internet had possible to push our ideas. so regrettably some ‘magical mystery trouble getting information. We seem to have chalked up one win tours’ of new subdivisions have been Part of the alternative arrangements in- already, however: as mentioned above, created—the very thing some of the volved the setting up of two central bus the cutbacks to the funding of Stage other reforms are designed to eliminate! interchanges. As one of the bus op- 2 of the bus improvements, revealed Unfortunately none of the new timeta- erators noted with irony, it was good in June, now seem to have been re- bles are yet available, and neither are to have buses arriving and departing versed, following lobbying and public- the inset maps of towns on the Bellarine from consolidated central locations. Of ity. Bizarrely, a number of the key play- Peninsula. Apparently the bus routes course that was a foretaste of what is ers now effectively deny that any cut- in some of these towns haven’t been fi- to be re-established in Moorabool Street backs had ever been mooted! nalised. We do know that the new bus from 25 October, after a six year hiatus. interchange at Ocean Grove will open The PTUA Geelong Branch meets Election update at a temporary site on 25 October be- monthly in Geelong city; see Page cause the necessary decisions will not Now we have the State election follow- 2 for details. Paul Westcott is the have been made by then. ing hard on the heels of the Federal one. branch convenor.

The Stud Road bus lane debacle

If there is ever yet another example vide an alternative to driving and actu- the benefit of the lanes—unlike the of what not to do, it’s the govern- ally shift cars off the road. This is a way most inner-city motorists and res- ment’s handling of bus lanes in the hard sell when the improvements don’t idents accept the benefit of tram lanes, outer east on Stud Road. go far enough, so that Stud Road for for example. Local papers are full Bus lanes are an essential priority mea- example is still limited to four buses an of letters from such motorists, lead- sure to ensure bus services are not im- hour at the best of times. ing the newly elected Liberal candidate peded in their task of moving large A large part of the problem, once for Aston, Alan Tudge, to call for the numbers of people so as to compete again, is lack of coordination. After all Stud Road bus lanes to be scrapped. Cr with car travel. But the PTUA main- it is Vicroads who is responsible for in- Joe Cossari, who sits as the Mayor of tains that the provision of bus lanes stalling the bus lanes and the Depart- Knox and is opposed to the bus lanes, needs to be justified with the provision ment of Transport for upgrading ser- even went as far to say that bus services of frequent services—every ten min- vices. This means that decisions on in- should be reduced. utes throughout the day as a minimum. frastructure changes are made indepen- The larger Knox Council, meanwhile, Normally this means that the imple- dently of, or prior to, decisions about still supports the bus lanes. PTUA mentation of bus lanes should be ex- the service upgrades that would justify members are encouraged to continue plicitly linked with major upgrades to the new infrastructure. This is likely to writing letters to local papers, defend- service frequency. continue as long as there is not a single ing bus lanes from their critics and em- This is particularly the case when ex- authority responsible for public trans- phasising the need to increase bus ser- isting road space has been turned over port planning. vices as soon as possible to make full to buses. The government needs to sell The end result is that many motorists use of them. the fact that public transport can pro- are irate because they cannot perceive

PTUA News—October 2010—Page 6 Budget-standard 901 bus not so smart

The extended SmartBus 901 ser- were missing or only partially com- although it will be a 20 minute bus trip vice from Ringwood to Melbourne pleted; announcements and displays from the airport followed by 26 minutes Airport commenced on Sunday 26 worked for only part of the journey. by train to North Melbourne. At other September. times of the day the connection is as bad Airport lunacy as everywhere else, as the 15 minute bus It links with the rail network at Greens- Controversy has surrounded the num- service meets a 20 minute train service. borough, Epping, and Broadmeadows. ber and placement of bus stops at the The competing SkyBus provides a 10 Major centres connected include The airport for this service—seemingly at minute service frequency with an ad- Pines, Epping Plaza, and Roxborough the behest of the privatised airport op- vertised travel time to Southern Cross Park shopping centre. The run from erator that profits from car parking and station of 20 minutes; however, in peak Ringwood to the airport takes up to two taxi levies. The brickbats are richly de- hour traffic this can blow out to 40 min- and a half hours. served based upon our experience. utes or more. The adult single fare The route has got off to a slow start: On the airport approach the bus turned on SkyBus is $16 compared with the when our correspondent rode the 901 left off the freeway toward the cargo equivalent Metcard fare of $5.80. during a weekday peak in its first week, area, and then into Melrose Drive to join For the medium term the 901 should be just 14 passengers boarded the bus over a line of slow moving taxis. Passengers viewed as just one interim measure to the full journey. This raises questions were set down and boarded in Service counter spiralling car use at Melbourne about the effectiveness of any market- Road near Grants Road. Airport—provided it is run properly and ing undertaken by the Department of This location is relatively close to the gets people to where they want to go. It Transport. The PTUA takes the view Tiger Airways terminal, but many hun- is self-evident that the airport needs to that marketing efforts for public trans- dreds of metres away from the main be linked into the rail network not only port need to be directed at promot- international and domestic terminals. with current traffic conditions but more ing new or improved services to peo- There was no directional signage for po- particularly to meet the forecast dou- ple who would otherwise be unaware tential users of the service. It should bling of airport business over the next of them (rather than often-futile ef- be noted that Skybus has access to both two decades. forts at persuading people to use ex- Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, while even isting unchanged services.) The direct the sporadic local bus service from Es- marketing material for the April launch sendon has stopped outside Terminal 2 of the 902 SmartBus included insuf- for many years. (Rumour has it that ficient service-related information and this stop will also be moved to the Tiger appeared to be directed at a political au- terminal, ostensibly to stop buses being dience rather than potential customers. caught in general airport traffic.) Similar to the 902 SmartBus when it For travellers between the airport and commenced (see our July issue), much the city, the connection at Broadmead- of the roadside infrastructure for the ows station will work during peak pe- 901 had not been installed. Some stops riods when train frequencies are high, 901 bus stop at .

Private toll roads Worst affected is RiverCity Motorway, of Sydney’s Lane Cove and Cross City operators of the ‘Clem7’ road tunnel , and Melbourne’s own East- on the nose in . In a statement on 30 link consortium. Traffic on Eastlink Recent months have seen a splurge September, RiverCity flagged that it is still at only two-thirds its forecast of red ink from private tollway op- may be necessary to wind up before the level, and shares in ConnectEast have erators as ambitious traffic forecasts end of next year, after posting a $1.67 languished at half their initial offer fail to materialise. billion annual loss in August. price. Meanwhile, traffic on the ‘by- Similar troubles also plague operators passed’ arterial roads is as bad as ever.

Copy deadline for the next PTUA News is 5 November 2010. Newsletter contributors: Tony Morton, Daniel Bowen, Ian Hundley, Paul Westcott and Jeremy Lunn. Printed on recycled paper by Flash Print, Collingwood. Our thanks to Margaret Pullar and the dedicated mailout team.

PTUA News—October 2010—Page 7 PTUA News POSTAGE Newsletter of the Public Transport Users Association, Org. No. A–6256L SURFACE Print Post: Publication No. PP 331088/00009 PAID MAIL If undeliverable, return to: PTUA Office, 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne 3000

Inside. . . Our State election platform 901 SmartBus: not so smart Motorway construction destroys natural heritage Private toll roads on the nose Regional Rail Link: from bad to worse

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