28 September 2013

Pining for Mussolini

| johnboy
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The Liberals’ Alistair Coe is expressing concern (with attachment at the general deterioration of ACTION and the one in three buses not running on time:

Shadow Minister for Transport Alistair Coe has highlighted that ACTION’s performance has deteriorated under Shane Rattenbury’s first year in charge, with not one performance indicator showing improvement.

“ACT Government annual reports show one in three buses aren’t running on time meaning they’re either more than a minute early or more than four minutes late,” Mr Coe said today.

“56 percent of ACTION’s customers aren’t satisfied with the bus network.

“On top of that ACTION is now subsidised to the tune of 86 percentor $109 million annually.

“Everything from the cost of the service to customer satisfaction has gone backwards as already low performance indicators fall further.

“ACT Labor and Green Minister Shane Rattenbury need to detail a plan to fix ACTION for users and get better value for Canberra taxpayers’ investment,” Mr Coe concluded.

Here are some graphs he made:

graph1 graph2

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The problem with fare free public transport is the perversity of human nature. If we don’t pay for it, we don’t value it. If we don’t value it, we treat it badly. Complaints will go up, drivers will get abused, and everyone will hate the bus.

All the people who drive to work because the bus doesn’t go from or to anyplace convenient, will still drive, because the buses still wont go from or to anyplace convenient. The biggest uptake will be in former cyclists and pedestrians (tightwads), who weren’t the congestion problem anyway.

All those people who used to beg for $2.00 dollars for the bus will ride the bus for free (It is so for the bus. It totally isn’t for goon), increasing graffiti and drunken loonery. Those folks who are white-trash averse will stay away from buses, because f__k sitting on a bus with 5 drunken mouth breathers.

I don’t mind paying $5 a day. Perhaps that $5.00 can be used in improving the service.

If we eliminate fares, the buses will run much more quickly and cost less to run.

Buses should be like the roads themselves – we don’t pay a fee everytime we use a government-built road. We use it “for free”, and it is maintained by government using money they collect from everybody in other ways.
Public transport should be approached as part of Canberra’s overall transport infrastructure.

thebrownstreak6911:39 am 01 Oct 13

Just make the damn things free. It costs a little more, but then we’ll have less congestion on the roads, less hassles with parking, etc. It would be interesting to run a trial to see just how many additional people would get on buses if they could do so for no cost.

Seriously, now that taxpayers are paying 86% of ACTION’s costs, can’t we just pay the extra $18mil (the remaining 14%) and make the buses free? Surely that will increase customer satisfaction and usage, and it’s not that much more for the government to pay.

HiddenDragon11:08 am 01 Oct 13

Don’t worry about boring, day-to-day stuff like this, Alistair – as this infomercial points out, there’s a brave new world about to come into being:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/canberras-future-ambitious-but-it-can-work-20130929-2umd5.html

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Next week: Coe notices libraries subsidised 100 per cent, says somebody should ‘detail a plan’ but doesn’t have one of his own, proposes book burning in Garema Pl, free black shirts for all.

As with most young wanna be gangsters who would piss their pants if they ever found themselves in South Central LA, Alistair Coe (and his attendant conservative sycophants) would s*** themselves if ever confronted with a real fascist.

These people learn and model their outrage from books. 99% wouldn’t be able to fight their way out of the proverbial wet paper bag; Mummy’s boys the lot of them.

poetix said :

The headline makes me picture Alistair Coe in a black uniform with long black boots…

Damn you!

Funny, but I always imagine Alistair Coe in an ill fitting school uniform, lying face down on the floor while kicking, screaming and crying because he can’t have it all his own way.

Woody Mann-Caruso2:31 pm 30 Sep 13

Next week: Coe notices libraries subsidised 100 per cent, says somebody should ‘detail a plan’ but doesn’t have one of his own, proposes book burning in Garema Pl, free black shirts for all.

Not sure what Mr Coe is trying to prove here. Surely it is better that buses are a few mins late, than early. I understand (from a driver) that there is a timing buffer built into the scheduling, and that the stats actually show that almost all buses arrive at end destination on time.

The general public reasonably expects public services (such as buses) to be subsidised by government through the taxation process, as they are, in fact, services for the public good.

Certainly the current balance between bus usage and govt expenditure is not great, but this is because of generally patchy coverage/routes (ie some areas are far better served by bus than other areas). Nothing about this balance problem will change while the govt persists in its bizarre rationale (‘supported’ by the limited MyWay stats) which ‘justifies’ why no service=no demand=no service, ad infinitum.

ACTION buses would, of course, be easily improved if the govt decided to target this problem using some of the $600 mil they intend to waste on a daft light rail project that only benefits one favoured sector of Canberra. I suggest they fix weekend timetables for a start: it is unbelievable that we STILL don’t have the promised old weekend timetable restored. It’s been at least five years since this was promised.

poetix said :

The headline makes me picture Alistair Coe in a black uniform with long black boots…

Seek help. Right now. Before it is too late.

The headline makes me picture Alistair Coe in a black uniform with long black boots…

Damn you!

newvista20 said :

I`m a regular traveller on Action but admitedly only on the Tuggernong-Woden-Civic-Belconnen route, with occassional trips on the hospital run but I have never experienced a late bus over the past 4 years, fair dinkum. Maybe there are other routes that have more congestion or more stops, I do not know but some things I do know is that nowhere in the world have I experienced such consistant cleanlyness of the buses, friendlyness and courtesy of the drivers. This seems to be a hobbyhorse issue of Mr. Coe. Perhaps he has another agenda?

I’ve been on the same route and had a different experience. I started catching an earlier bus to get home than I normally would because the bus I was catching was hit and miss on whether it was going to even turn up. After a succession of buses not turning up in a matter of weeks it got to the point where I rang up to complain, normally I wouldn’t even bother but it happened so often. In the last couple of weeks I’ve had a couple of buses not turn up as well.

710 and 313 seem to ‘skip’ a round particularly in the afternoon peak and you have to wait (and hope) that the one after actually turns up.

I’m going to play devils advocate and suggest that in order to lower the cost per passenger, we need to increase ridership. One way to do that may be to eliminate ACTION bus fares all together? This may also decrease peak hour congestion, remove motor vehicles off roads thus reduce wear and tear on infrastructure. So additional savings could also be gained.

We also need some perspective on these figures. Motor vehicle registration costs and fuel taxes don’t cover all road infrastructure and maintenance costs. A lot of road funding comes from general taxation and federal/state/territory/council revenues.

How much does the “Canberra taxpayer” contribute for the average 9-5 office worker to commute ~40 km per day in their own car with no passengers? What’re the environmental costs? What’re land use costs for car parking, particularly considering space used for our city car parks doesn’t generate anywhere near as much revenue per m2 as office/retail space(1). Private motor vehicles are also more likely to be involved in collisions than public buses(2), what’re the additional medicare costs associated with this?

I have been in agreement with Mr Coe on some things in the past, but I feel this claim is a bit shallow.

I`m a regular traveller on Action but admitedly only on the Tuggernong-Woden-Civic-Belconnen route, with occassional trips on the hospital run but I have never experienced a late bus over the past 4 years, fair dinkum. Maybe there are other routes that have more congestion or more stops, I do not know but some things I do know is that nowhere in the world have I experienced such consistant cleanlyness of the buses, friendlyness and courtesy of the drivers. This seems to be a hobbyhorse issue of Mr. Coe. Perhaps he has another agenda?

The trams will fix all that.

If ACTION were nuked, overnight, there would be many tens of thousands of people who would be without transport. Bus services are an expense for the city, but they serve a great purpose, like sewer systems, street lighting and city parks and garden maintenance. Busses are essential infrastructure. Not some bargaining chip for politicians to throw into an arena and shout about. Fair warning: I don’t have a car, and I use ACTION regularly.

HiddenDragon10:42 am 28 Sep 13

Looks like ACTION need to get some tips from TAMS in running customer surveys.

And this $7 per passenger is without the extra cost of a dedicated right-of-way that trains (or light rail…) also have to pay for. Will ACTION be running the trams, if they ever happen?

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