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Regional Town Bus Services

Description of Services

Regional Town Bus Services (RTBS) Branch resides within the Transperth, Regional and School Bus Services Division of the PTA. It is responsible for the management of public transport systems in regional Western Australia, primarily involving bus services within Western Australian regional towns (that is, intra-town services) and a small number of contracted inter-town services.

At 30 June 2006, there were 15 intra-town services operating in 14 major regional towns throughout the State and four inter-town services.

From 2005/06, annual results relating to regional bus operations are being reported separately for intra-town and inter-town services, to improve understanding of their performances.

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 2005/06.

Statement of Objectives

In 2005/06, the objectives and outcomes of Regional Town Bus Services were:

The Year’s Developments

During the year, RTBS completed its program of signing regional town bus operators to a formal 12-year contract with the PTA.

At 30 June 2006, the regional bus fleet totalled 138 vehicles compared with 134 at 30 June 2005. Of these, 131 buses were used to provide intra-town services and 7 vehicles were used to provide inter-town services.

Total capacity provided on intra-town services rose only slightly, from 168.2 million passenger place kilometres in 2004/05 to 169.0 million passenger place kilometres in 2005/06. This followed the significant increase in 2004/05 from 160.0 million passenger place kilometres in 2003/04.

Total capacity on inter-town services fell marginally from 9.6 million passenger place kilometres in 2004/05 to 9.1 million in 2005/06. The Perth to Port Hedland road coach service accounted for over 80 per cent of inter-town passenger place kilometres. This service operated on a trial basis for six months during 2003/04. Regular operations commenced during 2004/05 resulting in a 200 per cent increase in passenger place kilometres.

Cost of the Service

Total expenditure on regional bus services amounted to $10.6 million in 2005/06, which represented an increase of 5.4 per cent over expenditure of $10.1 million in 2004/05. Expenditure on intra-town services rose from $9.6 million to $10.2 million, an increase of 5.5 per cent, while the cost of inter-town services increased by 3.4 per cent from $0.444 million to $0.459 million.

Patronage

Total boardings on regional bus services increased by 0.8 per cent from 2.278 million in 2004/05 to 2.297 million in 2005/06. Fare-paying boardings increased by 4.1 per cent from 1.823 million to 1.897 million.

On intra-town services, while total boardings showed little change, fare-paying boardings reached a peak of 1.892 million for the four-year period since 2002/03, increasing by 3.9 per cent compared with 2004/05. Patronage on inter-town services recorded significant gains even though the actual numbers were quite small. The increase was 66.7 per cent in total boardings and 150.0 per cent in fare-paying boardings.

Customer Satisfaction

Passenger satisfaction surveys were conducted during the year only among contractors who were subject to a review. The responses were used to assist in improving services.