Introduction

The Regional Town Bus Services Section (RTBS) resides within the Transperth, Regional and School Bus Division of the Public Transport Authority. It is responsible for the management of public transport systems in regional Western Australia, primarily involving regional town bus services and a small number of contracted inter-regional bus services.At 30 June 2005, there were 15 services operating in 14 major regional towns throughout the State. In addition, there were several minor subsidised services that provided passenger transport connections via the inland road network.

RTBS is also responsible for the administration of a small number of regular passenger transport (RPT) services operating in the Perth metropolitan area in a complementary capacity to Transperth services. The performance of these services has been included in the RTBS figures for 2004/05.

Statement of Objectives

The objectives of the Regional Town Bus Services section for 2004/05 were to:

• continue with a programmed approach of reviewing regional bus services;
• convert the existing informal contracts with regional bus operators to 12-year formal contracts;
• develop a bus replacement program to address the longer-term bus fleet needs of regional services; and
• find solutions for regional transport problems in consultation with the local communities.

Service