State Budget 2011-12: Building the State - Liberal-National Government delivers biggest bus service boost in 10 years

The Liberal-National Government will add more than 15 million service kilometres and extra 158 buses to the State’s transport system in the biggest boost to bus services in Western Australia in more than a decade.

Transport Minister Troy Buswell said the big increase in the number of buses, additional frequency on existing routes and the establishment of additional routes  would give people more options when planning their travel.

“Through this Budget, the Liberal-National Government is boosting Transperth’s annual bus service kilometres - a measure of the distance for which timetabled bus travel is funded - by an initial 3.3 million kilometres next year and a total of 15.2million kilometres per year by 2015-16,” Mr Buswell said.

“This roughly equates to a 30 per cent increase on current services.

“Combined with an increase in the number of vehicles, the additional service kilometres will enable buses to be more frequent and more accessible, with more routes and services into new and rapidly-developing urban areas.

“Bus services provide an invaluable service to many West Australians but were overlooked by the former government which hardly added any additional bus service kilometres to the network.

“This Government believes better bus services are integral to delivering a balanced transport network. This significant boost delivers many benefits, particularly for seniors who travel free between 9am and 3.30pm.”

A 14 per cent increase in the size of the bus fleet will occur with the purchase of 158 buses over the seven years to 2017-18.  This is additional to the 65 new buses acquired each year under a 10-year contract signed late last year.