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

A new fleet replacement program was developed, based around rolling out ex-Transperth low-floor (accessible) buses to regional areas, with a view to reducing the average age of regional buses and increasing the percentage of low-floor vehicles. This includes sufficient low-floor and air conditioned vehicles to operate timetabled town bus services. The program ensures that the regional bus fleet meets Federal disability access standards, and passenger comfort continues to improve.

This year, the RTBS fleet grew from 143 to 151 vehicles with the total number of PTA-owned buses increasing from 81 to 115 and the number of low-floor accessible buses increasing from 64 to 67.

Highlights included:

• The new Dunsborough depot was completed
• The PTA acquired the existing privately-owned Bunbury bus depot in May 2011, and redevelopment of the depot is well progressed
• Bunbury town bus services were renumbered with unique route numbers to facilitate the incorporation of Bunbury services into the Transperth Information Centre’s database (IPTIS) and to allow the development of a regional services Journey Planner (currently being tested)
• Concepts for a new regional services website were developed and testing has started with a view to launching in the current financial year - providing a much-improved level of passenger information services
• CCTV was trialed on eight TransGeraldton vehicles in response to the high level of incidents in 2010-2011 - early results are promising.

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

Service audits of contractors in Albany, Busselton, Broome, Bunbury, Dunsborough, Esperance, Kalgoorlie, Karratha and Port Hedland 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 rose 10.2 per cent from $15.7 million in 2010-11, to $17.3m. The cost of intra-town services rose 10.1 per cent from $14.9m to $16.4m, while the inter-town services cost increased 17.4 per cent from $776,493 to $911,876.

Patronage data

Intra-town

Inter-town

Patronage

Total RTBS boardings increased by 0.3 per cent from 2.418m in 2010-11, to 2.426m. Fare-paying boardings increased 2.4 per cent from 2.024m to 2.073m.

Intra-town bus service total boardings rose 0.2 per cent to 2.417m while fare-paying boardings increased 2.3 per cent to 2.064m; on inter-town services, boardings (total and fare-paying) increased 31.8 per cent to 8610.

Passenger consultation

Typically, passenger consultation sessions are undertaken before major service changes. Passenger consultation and information sessions were held in Bunbury in May 2011, before the service changes were implemented.

Planned major initiatives for 2012-13

• GPS data validation of all bus stops in the Albany public transport area including, where necessary, the installation of new stops (for future SmartRider, and to facilitate Google Transit web-based journey planning)
• The purchase of 29 new Volvo buses to be exchanged for current Transperth fleet, to be rolled out into regional town fleets
• Redevelopment of the Bunbury bus depot
• Implementation of onboard CCTV, duress alarms and two-way radio systems to enhance the safety of the TransBunbury fleet.
• Introduction of a new TransRegional website, improving web-based and contact centre service for regional passengers.
• Major service reviews scheduled for 2012-13 include:
• Review of Geraldton bus services, with a view to increasing service frequency on well-patronised routes, coordinating services for better connections
• Review of Bunbury bus services to align services with public transport demand centres, increase frequency, and extend services to Millbridge
• Service improvements and community consultation in Kalgoorlie, to extend services to the Prospector station and introduce services to the new College of TAFE.