Public Transport Authority

Regional (RTBS)

The PTA’s Regional Town Bus Services team manage school and town public bus services in regional towns throughout WA. RTBS is responsible for providing 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.

Fleet

This year, the RTBS fleet stayed at 151 vehicles. Of these, 131 were PTA-owned buses and 101 were low-floor accessible buses.

Patronage

Total RTBS boardings increased by 1.8 per cent, from 2.492m in 2012-13, to 2.537m. Fare-paying boardings increased three per cent to 2.189m.

On intra-town bus services, total boardings rose 1.8 per cent to 2.528m while fare-paying boardings increased three per cent to 2.181m. Inter-town boardings (total and fare-paying) increased 7.7 per cent to 8,825.

Upgrades

The RTBS fleet replacement program continued, 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 program ensures that the regional bus fleet meets Federal disability access standards, and passenger comfort continues to improve. It is anticipated that 14 buses will be replaced in Esperance, Kalgoorlie, Busselton, Collie, and Dunsborough over the next year.

RTBS conducts field visits and audits contractors’ performance and passenger boardings. Service audits this year included Albany, Geraldton, Dunsborough, Esperance, Karratha, Kalgoorlie, Manjimup and Narrogin. Reviews were conducted in Bunbury, Collie and Karratha to develop solutions for regional transport problems in consultation with local communities.

Community consultation and information sessions were held in Bunbury and Geraldton to inform residents of changes to local public transport services and to seek feedback.

Under the Regional Bus Stop Accessibility program, 40 accessible bus stops were introduced – in Bunbury, Busselton and Dunsborough, RTBS has secured $14.2 million to buy 28 buses over the next four years to service regional towns.

A radio network has been developed and established for the Busselton and Dunsborough town bus network, including the installation of two-way radios and duress alarms in the Busselton bus fleet.

The rollout of ‘Trans’ branding has been very effective in lifting the profile of public transport in regional WA. Carnarvon and Collie will be the next towns to be branded.

Looking ahead

RTBS plan to release a specific TransRegional website and smartphone application in 2014-15. This will improve web-based and contact centre customer service information for all regional customers. The website and application are currently in testing mode.

All school and town services will continue to be renumbered with unique route numbers to facilitate the incorporation of regional services into the Transperth Information Centre’s database and to allow the development of a regional service journey planner.

All RTBS timetables continue to be standardised in colour and format.

Major initiatives scheduled for 2014-15 include:

• A review of Carnarvon town bus services, with a view to increasing service frequency on public town routes, and coordinating school services for better connections. Funding has been approved for an additional bus.
• Service improvements for Karratha, with a view to coordinating for better connections and the installation of bus stops throughout the town in partnership with the City of Karratha.
• Review of the Port Hedland bus services with a view to developing the network for regional transport in Port Hedland.
• Service improvements in Kalgoorlie.
• Service improvements in Collie including the installation of bus stops, standardised routes and the introduction of two low-floor buses.
• Community consultation planned for Kalgoorlie and Port Hedland.