Victorian Budget sets aside funds to increase number of bus services and improve transport coordination
May 8, 2013
The Victorian Government has announced little specifically for bus transport in its 2013 Budget, with most public transport headline spending, at $520 million, reserved mostly for rail.
It will, however, spend $25 million to increase the number of services in key growth areas, improving transport coordination for commuters. Precincts include St. Albans, Caroline Springs, Wyndham, Bacchus Marsh and Warrnambool.
The Budget says this is on top of an additional 800 weekly bus services already being provided in the Latrobe Valley. The new bus services run more frequently, for longer hours, and have expanded network coverage in Traralgon, Moe, Morwell, Churchill and surrounding smaller townships.
It has set modest ambitions on service and satisfaction levels for regional bus and coach services.
Regional bus punctuality expectations have been lowered from 99 percent to 94 percent to reflect “the application of a more comprehensive methodology to operator performance self-reporting rather than an expected fall in performance”.
A customer satisfaction target score of 81 is roughly in line with but slightly above previous years’ performances and is expected to reflect an “increase in customer satisfaction in line with increased performance on the regional coach network”.
Regional bus kilometre totals are scheduled to rise from to 23 million in 2013-14 from 21.9 million in 2011-12, in line with government plans.
