The following service improvements were introduced during the year:

• Feeder bus services were introduced from 5 October 2004 to support the new train station at Clarkson;
• To cater for increasing weekend patronage, Sunday service frequency on the CircleRoute was improved to 15 minutes on the sector between Fremantle and Willetton (Southlands Shopping Centre) with effect from 7 November 2004;
• A major change to bus services in the Rockingham and Mandurah regions was implemented from 19 December 2004 to provide additional trips on key routes and extension into developing areas;
• A new service, Route 456, was introduced from 30 January 2005 to operate on a 15-minute frequency on weekends and public holidays between the new Greenwood Train Station and Hillarys Boat Harbour; and
• Revised bus services in the Gosnells area were introduced on 17 April 2005 coinciding with the opening of the relocated Gosnells Train Station.

In August 2004, three Mercedes Benz Citaro hydrogen fuel cell buses began trials in passenger-carrying service on the CircleRoute as part of a world-wide trial of this emerging technology. Perth is the only city in the southern hemisphere included in the two-year trial, which involves a further 30 buses operating in ten European cities.

A new depot was opened in Claisebrook in June 2005 for the Perth Central Area Transit service (CAT) bus fleet.The depot is equipped with a gas refuelling facility to service 21 new CNG Mercedes Benz buses which will replace the current CAT fleet in late 2005.

The PTA developed the design and specification for an active, signalised bus priority system to be trialled on the CircleRoute in 2006. The system involves the installation of a GPS-based automatic vehicle location system on the buses which interacts with the Main Roads WA system to enable buses to receive traffic signal priority in situations where they are running late, have high patronage, and where a priority signal will not have adverse effects on general traffic. The key objective of this project is to deliver productivity and patronage benefits to Transperth through reduced travel times, increased reliability and increased frequency of service.

Improved facilities for bus services were introduced at the new bus/train interchange at Clarkson and at the upgraded bus/train interchanges at Bassendean and Gosnells.

A peak-flow bus lane was introduced on Beaufort Street between Central Avenue and Wood Street.

A new bus depot at Mandurah was opened, and will be integrated with the new Mandurah bus station and future train station and rail depot.The depot provides a workshop with service pits, a wash-down bay, fuelling facilities and parking for 72 buses.

The Bus Shelter Grant Scheme provided $451,345 for 67 new shelters and 38 replacement shelters in metropolitan and regional centres. The scheme’s primary aim is to encourage the use of public transport through the provision of suitable facilities for bus patrons. It does this through funding assistance to local governments to assist in the installation of bus stop shelters throughout Western Australia.

In 2004/05, total service kilometres covered by the Transperth bus network reached 48.582 million, an increase of 1.4 per cent over 2003/04. The previous highest coverage achieved by the network was 48.056 million kilometres in 2001/02, after which service kilometres fell by 0.6 per cent in 2002/03 to 47.760 million kilometres, and rose slightly by 0.7 per cent to 47.895 million in 2003/04.

The Transperth bus network provided a total capacity of 3545.3 million passenger place kilometres. This represented a decline of 0.2 per cent from the capacity provided in 2003/04 of 3551.9 million passenger place kilometres, the highest on record. The reduction in 2004/05, which coincided with the highest level of bus service kilometres recorded, was caused by the increasing proportion of gas buses in the fleet.The new gas buses have less passenger capacity than the diesel buses they are replacing due to road mass limits.