ACTION! RE-ACTION? NO ACTION.

email is good – I’ve recieved polite replies every time I’ve contacted Action.

That said, Action is shocking, and has been for some time. 20 years ago it was the best bus service in the world; now it’s awful.

Complaining to ACTION….

Forget email, forget a phone call. The only way is to write to the CEO, using paper and an evelope.

His adress is:
James Roncon
Director of ACTION Buses
GPO Box 158
Canberra City
ACT 2601

It might be helpful to list in point form your problem, concern or issue.

You could perhaps refer to one of the following (from ACTIONS website):

ACTION’s Key Performance Objectives are to be:

* Reliable
* Safe
* Accessible
* Responsive
* Efficient and Effective
* Improve staff capability

In your letter you could tell the CEO how you feel ACTIONS KPI’s may not have been satisfied in your experience. You could ask for a reply to your points and reasons why something occurred/didnt occur – bus not turning up for example, or whizzing past your bus stop while you were waiting).

List the bus, the bus stop, the time, the route, the bus number. The more information that you provide to the Mr Roncon, the easier it will be for him to respond to you in a timely manner.

I also note there is a facebook page for ACTION issues called ‘Canberrans Demanding Action on Action’ which i think is trying to organise themselves as a public transport lobby group focussing on improving ACTION buses.

If you email, you get the “we apologise for any inconvienence caused” copy+paste job. There’s no point complaining, more money won’t go into the system and the ageing fleet will continue to breakdown and causes delays and non-buses.

That’s a good idea about running buses on the major roads only. What about a tag on shuttle bus service from the main stops around the back streets?

Much like a light railway would do but without the cost and political holdups…

dundle said :

I put in a complaint years ago about a crazy abusive person on a bus – I asked at an interchange and they gave me a form. A few days later they followed up with a call about what was being done about the matter etc. This was about 9 years ago though,

Have they fixed the problem yet?

ask to speak to the ceo – or go and stand in his/her doorway and demand a response.

or buy a bicycle..?

I put in a complaint years ago about a crazy abusive person on a bus – I asked at an interchange and they gave me a form. A few days later they followed up with a call about what was being done about the matter etc. This was about 9 years ago though, maybe they’ve become worse?

I like to complain about them being late and having inconvenient timetables but honestly almost all of the time my buses show up on time and it’s not too bad. I suppose it depends on the route.

Ha, this is so funny – it’s identical to an issue I had last year.

My bike was being repaired so I was forced to engage in this system called ‘public transport’. I checked the time table, went to the stop 5 minutes before the bus was likely to come and after 45 minutes of waiting .. not one single bus came by. And this happened 3 times in a row at peak hour during the week in Ainslie.

SO, I went through the complaints system .. found some long forgotten email address (it was ACT Gov based) sent an email saying .. where was my bus? Perhaps you should modify the timetable because it’s inappropriate for people to be waiting this long .. blah blah.

Finally, I got a response saying ..’we’re sorry to inconvenience you, the bus driver told us that traffic is very bad at 8:30 in the morning’ (I wish I was joking). What? Traffic bad .. at 8:30am in Dickson / Ainslie. no, it can’t be!?

I sent another email to the Greens who basically said (in a nutshell, but this pretty much captures all of it): ‘what do you want us to do about it’ – I think I still have it, I could certainly dig it up, if in my anger I didn’t delete it.

What do I want the Greens to do? I don’t know, but seeing as you have considerably more civic ability than little ol’ me waiting for a bus, why don’t you put the need to improve public transport back on the agenda?

Public transport in Canberra is a F**n 5 star joke. It’s totally unreliable during peak hours and on weekends, it’s inaccessible for the disabled and those with prams (most of the time) and it covers the bare bones of the city when it needs to .. and poorly. All this rhetoric about Canberra being so environmentally friendly and accessible and equitable .. it doesn’t mean crap when those without a car, or those who can’t drive, are unable to get anywhere because the bus system won’t take them.

On those mornings where I was waiting for a bus .. I found myself watching countless cars travel past me with 1 occupant – no doubt travelling from Dickson or Watson, and for the first time I didn’t actually blame them .. because why bother trying to catch a bus, when it’s so poorly delivered. Why not just get in you 4X4 to travel all of 5 kms to civic?

why would they pay people to listen to things they don’t want to hear and don’t plan to change? its a monopoly, you don’t have to like it, you have to use it.

Action isn’t that bad. Canberra is a very intresting and spread out city. Action is doing well to service all areas and are continually bettering there timetables. Buses often break done, but so do cars. The bus is being used almost everyday and for extended periods. Be nice to the poor bus. And yes a hot day can throw a network into a meltdone, for real.

Buses can be tracked through radio and sometimes GPS. Action is soon to interduce a real-time display system at bus stations and may include GPS Tracking of buses.