Regional Town Bus Services

Through its Regional Town Bus Services (RTBS) branch, the PTA manages bus services in 14 major regional towns in rural WA and seven inter-town regional bus services - four in the Pilbara and one each in the Gascoyne, Goldfields and Mid West regions.

Objectives and outcomes

The year’s developments

Under the four-year regional bus replacement program, which began in 2007-08, newer buses are being transferred from the Transperth fleet to regional town operators. The include sufficient low-floor (accessible) and air conditioned vehicles to operate timetabled town bus services. This program ensures that the regional bus fleet meets Federal disability access standards, its standard and comfort improves and its average age is reduced.

This year, the RTBS fleet grew from 131 to 143 with the total number of PTA-owned buses increasing from 73 to 81 and the number of low-floor accessible buses increasing from 57 to 64 buses.

Highlights during the year included:

• A new bus depot was constructed in Busselton, and work is well advanced on a depot in Dunsborough.
• The PTA acquired the existing Bunbury bus depot in May.
• Bunbury town bus services were improved with additional services introduced from December into new areas such as Dalyellup, Galway Green, Glen Iris and Treendale.
• The TransBusselton bus service was reviewed with School Bus Services (SBS) being extended into Yalyalup and Vasse.
• The Dunsborough town bus service was retendered as a replacement for the Dunsborough student transport zone service. The new contract starts in July 2011 and will operate as part of the TransBusselton public transport area and include SmartRider ticketing.
• PTA-subsidised Kalbarri and Monkey Mia feeder services were launched in November to fill the void created when Greyhound Australia cancelled its services and reduced the frequency of its coastal highway coaches.
• SmartRider ticketing was introduced on the Kalgoorlie town bus service in July.
• SmartRider was introduced on the Bunbury town bus service in May. All bus stops in Bunbury were audited and GPS attributes recorded. This involved many stops being repositioned and new stops installed. The town bus service was branded TransBunbury (consistent with other regional towns where Trans branding has been introduced), including a change in livery to green and white for the high-floor buses and silver and green for the low-floor buses.

The roll out of Trans branding has been very effective in lifting the profile of public transport in regional towns. Albany will be the next town to receive this upgrade (and SmartRider ticketing).

Service audits of our contractors in Albany, Busselton, Broome, Bunbury, Carnarvon, Collie, Geraldton, Esperance, Narrogin, Newman, Kalgoorlie and Kununurra were carried out. These aim to assess service effectiveness, and the accuracy of record-keeping for patronage, occupational safety and other operational data.

Cost of the service

The cost of operating regional town bus services in 2010-11 was $15.4 million, down 1.1 per cent from $15.6m in 2009-10. The cost of intra-town services fell 1.4 per cent from $15.1m to $14.9m, while the inter-town service cost went up 6.0 per cent from $511,703 to $542,407.

Patronage

Regional intra-town bus services: Patronage (millions)

Total RTBS boardings fell by 2.2 per cent from 2.473m in 2009-10, to 2.418m. Fare-paying boardings slid 3.1 per cent from 2.089m to 2.024m.

On intra-town bus services, total boardings fell 2.2 per cent to 2.411m while fare-paying boardings fell 3.2 per cent to 2.017m. On inter-town services, boardings (total and fare-paying) increased 2.6 per cent to 6532.

Regional inter-town bus services: Patronage

Passenger consultation

Typically, passenger consultation sessions are undertaken before major service changes. Passenger consultation was held in Bunbury in June 2010, followed by information sessions throughout the greater Bunbury area in November, before the service changes were implemented.

Planned major initiatives for 2011-12

• The TransGoldfields regional town service will be contracted out. Currently the service is provided by PTA. The new contract will start in October 2011.
• The new Dunsborough town bus service contract starts in July 2011 and will operate as part of the TransBusselton public transport area (and include SmartRider ticketing).
• GPS data validation of all bus stops in the Albany public transport area including, where necessary, the installation of new stops in preparation for SmartRider being introduced at a later time and to facilitate Google Transit web-based journey planning.
• The purchase of 27 buses for the Bunbury regional town bus service to enable the PTA to wholly own the Bunbury bus fleet in readiness for the re-tender of this contract before its expiry on December 31, 2014.
• Redevelopment and major upgrade of the Bunbury bus depot.
• Installation of new bus stop facilities at the Northgate Shopping Centre in Geraldton, including new bus embayments on Chapman Road.
• Implementation of an on-bus CCTV pilot program in Geraldton to assist with the management of anti-social behaviour.
• Introduction of new TransRegional website, improving web-based and contact centre service for regional passengers.
• The commissioning of the new bus depot in Busselton and depot in Dunsborough (due for completion in July 2011).

Major service reviews scheduled for 2011-12 include:

• Review of Geraldton town bus services including consideration of the feasibility of services to Cape Burney, starting in 2012.
• Review of Karratha town bus services including consideration of the Pilbara Cities initiative.
• Review of Albany town bus services.