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Transperth

Transperth is the brand and operating name of the public transport system in metropolitan Perth operated by the PTA.

It consists of a bus network, a suburban electric train system and a ferry service. Transperth bus and ferry services are provided under commercial contract arrangements, while Transperth train services are provided by Transperth Train Operations, an operating division within the Public Transport Authority. Passenger information is provided through information offices and a call centre. These services are provided by the firm Serco.

Statement of Objectives

The objectives and outcomes for Transperth for 2005/06 were:

Service

Passenger Safety

Note: Measures relating to customer perception of safety at other times and at stations/interchanges are shown in sections dealing with individual modes.

Partonage

Revenue/Expenditure

Significant expenditure variances are explained by individual mode in the Audited Key Performance Indicators section of this Annual Report.

Service Information

Total patronage on the Transperth system increased for the seventh year in succession. In 2005/06, total boardings* increased by 3.7 per cent to 98.526 million from 94.985 million the previous year, while initial boardings† increased by 4.4 per cent to 71.846 million from 68.820 million. Fare-paying boardings rose 4.6 per cent to 60.053 million from 57.407 million.

* Total boardings = fare-paying boardings, free travel on passes, free travel on Central Area Transit services in Perth, Fremantle and Joondalup, and free travel on services within the Perth Free Transit Zone, plus transfers between services. †Initial boardings = fare-paying boardings, free travel on passes, free travel on Central Area Transit services in Perth and Fremantle and free travel on services within the Perth Free Transit Zone.

Total capacity provided on the Transperth system expressed in terms of passenger place kilometres rose by 9.3 per cent to 6,387.9 million from 5,843.9 million the previous year. This was due to a significant increase in train passenger place kilometres with the increasing use of trains in three-car and six-car configurations rather than two-car and four-car configurations. On a per capita basis, public transport usage within the Perth metropolitan area increased from 46.9 initial boardings in 2004/05 to 48.3 in 2005/06. This increase of 3.0 per cent compares favourably with the estimated 1.4 per cent increase in the population of the metropolitan area (Perth Statistical Division).

Service Coverage – Access to Transperth Services

A key outcome which the PTA seeks to achieve is to provide an accessible, reliable and safe public transport system.

One objective in regard to accessibility is to ensure that people with disabilities are able to use Transperth services. During the year, Transperth continued its work toward this objective.

Trains: All Transperth trains are accessible by people with disabilities. Therefore, the key issue for train accessibility is whether the access to train stations and the gap between train and platform meet accessibility standards. Of the 59 stations on the suburban train network at 30 June 2006, 21 stations provided independent access to people in wheelchairs, complying with the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport and Guidelines under the Disability Discrimination Act, 1992. This compares with 15 stations in 2004/05, 11 stations in 2003/04 and 8 stations in 2002/03.Of the remaining 38 stations, 25 provided partial access, while 12 stations provided only limited access. At these 38 stations, people in wheelchairs can seek individual assistance from Transperth customer service staff to access the stations and trains.

During the year, several stations underwent minor upgrades to improve accessibility for people with disabilities, including platform modifications to remove the gap to meet the current standards for disability access, and the installation of Tactile Ground Surface Indicators.

Buses: Transperth continued its long-term program of buying accessible buses for its fleet. As at 30 June 2006, the number of accessible buses was 550 out of a total of 1,058 buses compared with 481 out of a total fleet of 1,030 buses a year earlier. Accessible buses are operated whenever possible, so that in off-peak periods most buses on the road are accessible. During peak periods, when service demand is high, both accessible and non-accessible buses are fully committed. For these reasons, accessible buses accounted for over 60 per cent of service kilometres during 2005/06 compared with 54 per cent in 2004/05.

Transperth continued its program of upgrading accessibility at bus stations. During the year, accessibility improvements were completed at Booragoon bus station, and work was in progress at Esplanade Busport and Karrinyup bus station. Also, work began on upgrading accessibility at the bus/rail interchanges at Joondalup, Warwick, Whitfords, Stirling, Glendalough, Oats Street and Cannington to meet the specifications of Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport Amendment 2004 (No. 1).

Ferries: The bulk of Transperth’s ferry services are provided by the Shelley Taylor-Smith, an accessible vessel. The two jetties in operation during the year, at Barrack Street in Perth and Mends Street in South Perth, are both fully accessible. Work began on upgrading accessibility at the Barrack Street Jetty to meet the specifications of Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport Amendment 2004 (No. 1). Another equally important aspect of accessibility is providing ready access to the system for the maximum number of people in the Perth community. This second aspect of accessibility is measured in terms of the proportion of point street addresses (PSAs) within the Perth Public Transport Area (PPTA) which are less than 500 metres from a Transperth stop (bus, train or ferry) providing an acceptable level of service (ALS). An ALS is defined as an hourly service during the day with at least three trips (i.e. at 20-minute intervals) in the peak flow direction in the morning and/or afternoon peak. During 2005/06, 74 per cent of PSAs were within 500 metres of an ALS stop compared with 71 per cent in 2004/05. This improved access to Transperth services in 2005/06 was due to an increase of 13.5 per cent in the number of PSAs within the PPTA (from 623,548 in March 2005 to 707,455 in March 2006).

Passenger Satisfaction

The Passenger Satisfaction Monitor 2006 showed that, on a system-wide basis, 82.8 per cent of survey respondents expressed satisfaction with the overall level of service compared with 85.6 per cent in 2005. (See details of passenger satisfaction in the train, bus and ferry service performance reviews below.)

New MetroRail

The New MetroRail project is the largest public transport undertaking in Western Australia.

Armadale Line improvements and the new Thornlie Line were completed in August 2005.

The Southern Suburbs Railway is the most significant component of the New MetroRail project and is now in the final year of construction prior to commissioning and handover.

The Southern Suburbs Railway will comprise 72 kilometres of double track electric railway between Perth and Mandurah. It will have 11 stations, 770 metres of twin tunnels under the Perth CBD, 18 bridges or underpasses, 25kv electrical traction power and two electric power feeder stations.

After a thorough review of the progress, cost and timeframe of the project in April 2006, the State Government approved an increase in the overall budget from $1.563 billion to $1.613 billion and announced that the time for commencement of train services between Perth and Mandurah would be July 2007.

At the end of the year, construction of the Southern Suburbs Railway infrastructure was about 75 per cent complete.

Expenditure on the whole New MetroRail project stood at $1.3 billion or 81 per cent of the overall budget. Total expenditure in 2005/06 was $484 million.

A total of 90 of the 93 new ‘B’ series electric railcars had been accepted into service at the end of the year. Other major highlights of the New MetroRail project during 2005/06:

• The Auditor-General on August 31 2005 released his report to Parliament on the management of the City Rail Project (the Perth CBD portion of the Southern Suburbs Railway project). The report found that the PTA was capably fulfilling its contract management role by:
  • using suitably qualified and experienced people
  • maintaining sound systems and processes
  • vigilantly monitoring the contractor’s performance
  • carefully assessing the contractor’s payment claims
  • working cooperatively with the contractor.


• The final section of the new 660-metre Mount Henry freeway bridge spanning the Canning River was completed in October 2005, and the bridge was opened for traffic in January 2006. The work involved widening and strengthening the 30-year-old bridge to accommodate a rail corridor and associated infrastructure, as well as current and projected traffic volumes.
• Tunnelling for the City Project began in October 2005, the first of the twin tunnels being completed in June 2006.
• Track laying for the Southern Suburbs Railway began in March 2006.
• All Kwinana Freeway and bridge works were completed in May 2006.
• Overall public support of the Southern Suburbs Railway continued at a very high level of 84% in an independent public opinion poll taken in May 2006.

Gas Fuel

A significant change is occurring in the fuel used by the Transperth bus fleet as a result of the State Government’s 2001 decision to require all new bus acquisitions to be powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) engines. At 30 June 2006, Transperth operated 224 CNG buses in its total fleet of 1,058 buses. A further 325 new gas-powered buses are due to be delivered by 2011 under the existing contract with Daimler-Chrysler.

The CNG refuelling facility at the East Perth Central Area Transit (CAT) depot came into operation in late 2005 following delivery of the new natural gas powered CAT buses. The Southern River bus depot was connected to CNG during the year and operations commenced in May 2006. Work was proceeding at year’s end on the installation of CNG refuelling stations at a number of other depots which are scheduled to start coming online from early 2007.

SmartRider Project and Ticketing System

A number of significant technical issues had to be addressed during the implementation phase of the SmartRider project, resulting in extending the period of testing by a special “control group”. These issues were resolved with the co-operation of the system supplier and it is expected that the SmartRider system will be fully launched to all patrons in late 2006.

The following significant milestones were achieved by the project during 2005/06:

• Installation of SmartRider equipment was completed across the existing bus, rail and ferry network in September 2005.This allowed the initial 2,000-strong control group to start using the SmartRider system the following month. The group was later expanded to a total of 7,000 users to cover all Transperth fare groups.
• A new student fare was introduced for primary and secondary school students at the start of the fourth term in 2005. The fare was set at 50 cents and is valid for unlimited travel up to three hours Monday to Friday between the first and last day of the school year including during mid-term holidays. The new fare is available only as a pre-paid ticket, currently as a MultiRider but soon to be replaced as the SmartRider.
• In May 2006, as a result of a Government initiative to provide seniors with a dual-use card, the Transperth SmartRider and the Western Australian Seniors Card were combined to form one card. These new cards, which were distributed to about 200,000 Western Australian seniors, enables them to access concession fares on public transport services and free travel on public transport on Sundays, public holidays and during Seniors Week.

In the Future

In the coming year(s), Transperth will:

• Commence recruitment of staff and com-missioning of assets leading to commencement of the Southern Suburbs Railway.
• With the start of Southern Suburbs Railway services, adjust the southern corridor bus network to provide feeder services to the new bus/train interchanges on this line.
• Progress the design and construction of infrastructure and vehicles to enable introduction of the Rockingham City Centre Transit System to coincide with the start of train services on the Southern Suburbs Railway.
• Purchase new ticket vending machines for train and ferry services. These state-of-the-art machines will feature touch-screens and have the capability to accept banknotes and debit cards. Initially, the new machines will be installed on the Southern Suburbs Railway for the purchase of cash tickets at the new stations. The current-generation ticket vending machines at existing stations and ferry jetties will be replaced by new machines at a later date.
• Introduce a new Customer Information System at train stations and bus/train interchanges to improve the quality of information provided to passengers, particularly train arrival times.
• Deploy a new group of customer service staff, Passenger Ticketing Assistants, to monitor SmartRider fare gates at major train stations.
• Commence redevelopment of Transperth Train Operations’ Claisebrook depot.
• Under the Building Better Train Stations program, construct a new special events station at Joondalup, and redevelop Kelmscott and East Perth Train Stations.
• Continue implementation of the Recording and Passenger Information Dissemination System (RAPID) in Transperth’s first-generation (‘A’ series) railcars.
• Pursue and promote a network of high-frequency bus routes along major transport corridors.
• Rebuild/refurbish Mirrabooka bus station.
• Upgrade bus stations to meet new accessibility standards.
• Complete construction and open the relocated Armadale bus station.
• Complete construction and open the new Welshpool bus depot.
• Extend bus services into new and developing areas, such as Butler, Jindalee, Ellenbrook, Ashby, Tapping, Darch and Madeley.
• Continue a rolling program of bus service reviews across the Perth metropolitan region, reallocating resources from areas where services are poorly utilised to areas of greater demand.
• Continue involvement in planning for recon-struction and redevelopment of the Wellington Street Bus Station and the Northbridge Link project.

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