South Australia’s route bus operators are still in the firing line, as scrutiny continues over on-time running
August 22, 2012
South Australian bus operators have been given a cautious ‘thumbs up’ by the state’s government with the recent release of a quarterly review into on-time running.
Transport Services Minister Chloe Fox says Australian Transit Enterprises (South Link) and Transit Systems (Torrens Transit) have met contractual performance benchmarks in all four of their contract areas and will not have fee adjustments applied to their payments for that quarter.
That means neither operator will see a repeat of the previous quarter’s below par performance which attracted heavy fines.
“I am pleased that these two companies are working hard to improve their performance,” Fox says.
However, Transfield’s report appears less than satisfactory, although improvement was reflected in the review.
Transfield’s light city bus services showed on-time running improvements in their Outer North East contract area, but will be slugged with a $70,000 ‘adjustment’ – which Adelaide’s media outlets recently referred to as a ‘fine’ for on-time running ‘issues’ in its north-south bus runs.
Fox says the company was informed in writing of the penalty and was also asked to explain why they had failed to show significant improvements in this contracted area.
Fox adds the SA Government had met bus contractors ‘halfway’, acknowledging congestion issues and implementing changes to 86 of 97 timetables across the network on July 1 to better reflect realistic running times.
Priority bus lanes on Currie and Grenfell Streets in Adelaide were also introduced to improve bus movement through the CBD.
Fox says as these two initiatives were introduced in July, their impact will not be reflected until the July-September quarterly performance review.
“We have worked hard to introduce these changes which are aimed at improving the reliability and efficiency of our transport system and giving commuters priority over those that drive in private cars,” she says.
“Initial feedback from the bus contractors and my department indicate the timetable changes and priority bus lanes have been implemented smoothly and we are seeing improvements on some routes.”
In May, Fox imposed fee adjustments (fines) of $121,345 on Transfield, $46,043 on Transit Systems and $50,455 on Australian Transit Enterprises for the January-March 2012 quarter.
The April-June service standards reports can be accessed at www.adelaidemetro.com.au/bus-service-report.