Public transport patronage has soared in Western Australia this financial year, with multiple long-standing record broken as residents made public transport a part of their regular travel pattern.
More than 144.2 million train, bus and ferry boardings were recorded in 2023-24, a 17 per cent increase on the previous year and the best boardings total in almost a decade, falling just short of 2015-16’s 145.6 million.
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Buses continued to be the most popular mode of public transport with 83.6 million boardings – the best since 2014-15 (84.1 million).
Ferries recorded their best year ever with more than 871,000 boardings, a 16.5 per cent increase on the previous record of 747,881 in 2016-17.
Trains also had a big year in Western Australia, with 59.7 million boardings – the best since 2018-19 (61.5 million). All lines, except the partially-closed Armadale Line, experienced significant growth in patronage numbers when compared to the previous 12 months.
“What this record-breaking year shows is that Western Australians are choosing to make public transport a regular part of their travels to work, school and leisure activities,” transport minister Rita Saffioti says.
“Our Government has implemented several policies within the public transport space over the past few years and it is encouraging that passengers have shown their ongoing appreciation by jumping on a train, bus or ferry.”
Several State Government policies focusing on reducing public transport fares to help ease cost-of-living pressure – including free weekday travel for students, free travel every Sunday, and the ongoing two-zone fare cap have contributed to the successful increase.
As patronage climbs, so does customer satisfaction, with about 90 per cent of passengers reporting very high satisfaction levels across all modes of public transport.
Thousands of passengers were surveyed in Transperth’s annual Passenger Satisfaction Monitor (PSM), an independent survey of regular public transport users that covers all elements of their travel experience.
Satisfaction levels across all modes remains high, with 9 in 10 respondents expressing their satisfaction with Transperth services, including 97 per cent of CAT bus users and 99 per cent of ferry users.
“These patronage numbers and PSM results show that our public transport continues to meet the needs and expectations of passengers, and of course it is their opinions which matter the most,” Saffioti says.
“We expect to see those numbers continue to grow in the years ahead as more people use public transport, and access grows through major projects like the METRONET Morley-Ellenbrook Line and Armadale Line transformation.
“We’ve long known that Perth has one of the best, most affordable, cleanest and safest public transport networks in the country, and it’s really encouraging to see within the PSM results that the vast majority of our passengers feel the same.”
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