A transport expert has called for the Victorian government to focus on making bus networks in and around Melbourne more frequent following a push for free bus fares to increase ridership in Parliament.
While a proposal to make Melbourne buses free to ride for 12 months was ultimately shut down in Victorian Parliament recently, Professor of Public Transport at Monash University Graham Currie wants policymakers to focus on larger issues at hand.
“I want to focus on the bigger problem, which is the lack of services and the gaps in the network – free fares don’t address that,” Currie told ABC.
“The single biggest issue with Australian public transport is the lack of buses, particularly in the middle and outer suburbs of major cities where there’s a glaring gap.
“When discussing this issue, bus fares haven’t been mentioned once. Fares are only a very minor barrier to public transport use and are already very heavily subsidised in Australia.”
With the state of Victoria being in debt, Currie says one thing the state right now needs is money, with free fares potentially costing hundreds of millions of dollars when it comes to critical revenue.
Instead of seeing taxpayer money going into subsidising bus fares for Victorians, Currie would rather the money go into updating the bus network to ensure more people are reached by bus services each day.
“You could argue that free fares could harm future plans to have more frequent improved bus services that fill gaps in the network,” he says.
“Another factor is people tend to value things they pay for – there has been evidence of a free fare system resulting in poor behaviour shown from young people using the services.”
Despite these negatives with the free fare proposal, Currie says there are some benefits that come from the idea. As seen in Brisbane recently with the trial of 50c bus fares, subsidised services see increased ridership.
“But will it address social disadvantage? There’ll certainly be people who take buses now that will appreciate the reduced fares when it comes to cost of living, but people living nowhere near buses will get the chance to enjoy this initiative,” he says.
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“Of the people that have low incomes and are struggling financially but want to use buses, only 20 to 30 per cent of them have access to buses currently.”
Currie remembers this issue first arising roughly a decade ago while presenting at a national conference in Melbourne. While there, he asked a cohort of people struggling to secure employment and mobility if they would like him to spend in the realm of $100-$200 million to make fares free in their cities, or if they’d rather him spend that money to improve bus services so that they cover more areas.
“99 per cent of the people said the latter – if the buses are free, it means nothing if there aren’t any in their region,” Currie says.
“The reason why we see this push for free bus fares is because the global challenges mean governments can’t invest in helping people, and the one thing they can do quickly is change the setting on smart card systems to make public transport free.
“While it’ll certainly help people, in the broad context of what is needed, it’s quite a small fringe benefit. I’d certainly rather see more spending and time go into improving services as it’s a much higher priority.”
Currie notes there’s been a lack of major policy and investment into Victoria’s bus network since the 1990s when the state government provided nearly $2 billion to create the Smart Bus network loops.
With the current focus being on zero-emissions bus networks, Currie is concerned that the funding provided for electrification will make buses more expensive to run, meaning they lose their competitive advantage financially over other forms of transport, namely rail and light rail.
“I accept that electrification plays a vital role in curbing climate change, but it’s also making bus services more expensive – we’re in danger of requiring an additional driver for every two or three buses,” Currie says.
“We need to find ways to improve bus coverage and make it more efficient to provide a better service for people.”
The two MPs, David Ettershank and Rachel Payne from the Legalise Cannabis party, who brought the motion to Parliament recently, say they were disappointed to see the free fare proposal shut down, but are still intent on pushing for bus network reform that aligns with Currie’s calls.
“We’ll continue to campaign – having spoken to politicians from both major parties, they think that there are no votes in buses,” Ettershank told ABC.
“When I talk to members from these outer suburbs, they say the opposite. Most of the people in my north-western region are acutely aware of the fact that bus services is a big issue around here, so our role is to not let the issue drop.”
Payne told ABC that she wants to continue community conversations on improving bus services in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs.
“I want to work with government on this – they agreed that action is needed on improving bus services in and around the city,” she says.
“I feel like they may be making announcements soon considering they strongly agreed with our ideas, so hopefully we see network improvements coming soon.”
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