5 July 2011

Coe mocks Corbell bus surrender

| johnboy
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The Liberals’ Alistair Coe is making merry with Simon Corbell’s bus agreement.

“Despite all the talk from Mr Corbell’s predecessor and former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, there is little progress on improving the efficiency of ACTION and taxpayers will continue to subsidise the network by almost $90 million every year,” Mr Coe said.

“Under this ‘new deal’ we will still have a volunteer weekend working roster despite having a seven day bus network.”

“Despite acknowledging that ACTION has problems, Simon Corbell has agreed to the status quo that would appear to deliver very little to improve taxpayer’s return on investment.

“Simon Corbell needs to say what this deal will do to make the network more efficient or whether he has given-up on making the necessary reforms,” Mr Coe concluded.

No mention from Alistair as to what he’d do differently.

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Mozzie said :

Gungahlin Al said :

Bussie said :

@qbngeek, I’d be pretty surprised if any cities in the developed world have profitable public transport systems. But if you can give any actual examples from among your “many, many places around the world” please do so.

They use a funding model where the responsible agency calculates the saving to the community in raod construction/maintenance

exactly, more passengers carried on public transport mean fewer cars on the road, which means the government needs to invest less public money in expanding road infrastructure.

It is hardly fair to demand that public transport users bear the full cost of saving the government money. Especially while the government continues to provide roads for free.

Also, there was an article on the ABC’s Drum a while ago talking about how Zurich’s public transport system operates at a much smaller loss than Melbourne’s. This is despite the fact that they are roughly comparible. The link is here: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/40728.html.

The article does a very good job of explaining why we don’t have a good system, but the Swiss do.

Roads are NOT provided “for free”. Our taxes and vehicle registrations pay for them, and everything else that the government administrates. They don’t give us anything for free.

that’s a lot of ‘s’s for Alistair

Gungahlin Al said :

Bussie said :

@qbngeek, I’d be pretty surprised if any cities in the developed world have profitable public transport systems. But if you can give any actual examples from among your “many, many places around the world” please do so.

They use a funding model where the responsible agency calculates the saving to the community in raod construction/maintenance

exactly, more passengers carried on public transport mean fewer cars on the road, which means the government needs to invest less public money in expanding road infrastructure.

It is hardly fair to demand that public transport users bear the full cost of saving the government money. Especially while the government continues to provide roads for free.

Also, there was an article on the ABC’s Drum a while ago talking about how Zurich’s public transport system operates at a much smaller loss than Melbourne’s. This is despite the fact that they are roughly comparible. The link is here: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/40728.html.

The article does a very good job of explaining why we don’t have a good system, but the Swiss do.

steveu said :

00davist said :

I can agree with an awfull lot of what you are saying there, except can we be carefull what we say about further fee’s for rego, it already costs a sustanial amount, and even if you do use public trasport (which is not for everyone) many still need a car, unless you want to rule out travelling to much of this country!

Good point. We pay enough for rego, and you are right, they will just use it as licence to double the fees etc.

Yep, they will!

I agree with finding ways to encourage the use of public transport, but not methods that disadvantage drivers, cars are still needed, and not all of us have easy access to busses, for me, its a long walk before i can get to a bus stop, a very long walk!

00davist said :

I can agree with an awfull lot of what you are saying there, except can we be carefull what we say about further fee’s for rego, it already costs a sustanial amount, and even if you do use public trasport (which is not for everyone) many still need a car, unless you want to rule out travelling to much of this country!

Good point. We pay enough for rego, and you are right, they will just use it as licence to double the fees etc.

steveu said :

Stuff trying to run them at a profit. Make them free. Put a fee on rego if they are serious about encouraging people to use public transport. Make school carparks park and ride so familes can drop their kids off to school and then catch the bus to work from there. Be couragous! While you are at it, let the ANU students finish their Iphone app instead of wasting taxpayers money by doing it yourself. Im sure the students can do it in a cheaper way.

I can agree with an awfull lot of what you are saying there, except can we be carefull what we say about further fee’s for rego, it already costs a sustanial amount, and even if you do use public trasport (which is not for everyone) many still need a car, unless you want to rule out travelling to much of this country!

Maybe we need something new, some innovation. It might turn out to be something that wasn’t invented 100+ years ago, and which takes into account the reality of our city / population / cost etc.. and Canberra could lead the way in new futuristic transport ideas (viable for modern small country towns)

However, I suspect we’ll just get a bigger stick. That’s how we roll.

Stuff trying to run them at a profit. Make them free. Put a fee on rego if they are serious about encouraging people to use public transport. Make school carparks park and ride so familes can drop their kids off to school and then catch the bus to work from there. Be couragous! While you are at it, let the ANU students finish their Iphone app instead of wasting taxpayers money by doing it yourself. Im sure the students can do it in a cheaper way.

Waiting For Godot3:49 pm 06 Jul 11

00davist said :

damien haas said :

When anyone asks me how public transport pays for itself, i ask them how their private car that they park for 9 hours a day in a carpark pays for itself.

Well, it may not actually pay for itself, but it certainly means i can get to work, and thus have money!

. . . and I don’t have to worry about my car going on strike, having to allow extra amounts of time due to circuitous routing, risking my safety waiting at Interchanges and having to stand squashed in like sardines having people sneezing and coughing over me.

damien haas said :

When anyone asks me how public transport pays for itself, i ask them how their private car that they park for 9 hours a day in a carpark pays for itself.

Well, it may not actually pay for itself, but it certainly means i can get to work, and thus have money!

Gungahlin Al1:17 pm 06 Jul 11

Bussie said :

@qbngeek, I’d be pretty surprised if any cities in the developed world have profitable public transport systems. But if you can give any actual examples from among your “many, many places around the world” please do so.

They use a funding model where the responsible agency calculates the saving to the community in raod construction/maintenance and builds some of that into the business plan as a “Community Service Obligation”.

It is an approach whereby many government business entities can be and are run in business-like manners either directly or via subcontracting, and without being pawned off to private industry under the economic rationalist mantra that “governments can’t run businesses”.

When anyone asks me how public transport pays for itself, i ask them how their private car that they park for 9 hours a day in a carpark pays for itself.

Jim Jones said :

What public transport does Queanbeyan have?

Paddy wagons is the only one I can think of.

Good jokes aside, Deanes buses provide public transport in Qbn which while private are subsidised by the NSW govt.

What public transport does Queanbeyan have?

Paddy wagons is the only one I can think of.

Bussie said :

@qbngeek, I’d be pretty surprised if any cities in the developed world have profitable public transport systems. But if you can give any actual examples from among your “many, many places around the world” please do so.

+1

Even if many, may exist. There are also many, many who have given up trying to make it profitable and instead are focussing on making it efficient and getting people out of their cars and onto the buses. In some towns in my European country of birth, they actually offer FREE public transport to residents. And I doubt they make that much money of visitors that they’d make a profit of them.

@qbngeek, I’d be pretty surprised if any cities in the developed world have profitable public transport systems. But if you can give any actual examples from among your “many, many places around the world” please do so.

qbngeek said :

creative_canberran said :

Given he claims to support private enterprise and small government, it would be contrary to want more investment in a bigger government bus network. First chance he gets he’ll sell it off.

While I don’t like the man, I should point out that in many other states and many, many places around the world, privately owned bus companies manage to turn a fair profit. Why is ACTION finding it so difficult to do the same? Like all ACT Government businesses they have become used to using the taxpayers money to line the pockets of a few directors or CEOs and then cry poor. Hands up if you remember Rodium?

The other states and many, many places around the world where privately owned bus companies turn a fair profit are all big cities with centralised population hubs, though, aren’t they?

Complaining that the public transport system of a small town of 350,000 or so isn’t as profitably as those of major metropolises = comparing apples and oranges.

Other cities also manage to sustain giant underground train networks at a fair profit. But for some reason I just can’t see it working in the ‘berra.

creative_canberran said :

Given he claims to support private enterprise and small government, it would be contrary to want more investment in a bigger government bus network. First chance he gets he’ll sell it off.

While I don’t like the man, I should point out that in many other states and many, many places around the world, privately owned bus companies manage to turn a fair profit. Why is ACTION finding it so difficult to do the same? Like all ACT Government businesses they have become used to using the taxpayers money to line the pockets of a few directors or CEOs and then cry poor. Hands up if you remember Rodium?

creative_canberran7:20 pm 05 Jul 11

Coe’s website is so thread bare, it’s a testament to his lack of substance and his dedication to opportunism and rhetoric.
It’s telling that he devotes the grand total of 4 sentences to talking about his electorate, one of them simply listing suburbs. He finds space though for a whole page on himself plus a transcript of his maiden speech which is paragraph after paragraph of biography.

Given he claims to support private enterprise and small government, it would be contrary to want more investment in a bigger government bus network. First chance he gets he’ll sell it off.

What Alistair would do differently is to gut the public transport system.

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