Filling In 'The Gap' - SMH

The Sydney Morning Herald ran a story this week about the difficulties some people in Sydney face while trying to access the bus system.

People associated with WSPTU groups in Mt Druitt and Bankstown are in the story.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/for-many-public-transport-is-now-a-private-hell-20121110-294wx.html

The Sydney Alliance has created maps showing where services aren't available within 400 metres and with a frequency of 15 minutes. The Sydney Alliance have created a formula for quality services: 400:15:1 SCAA.  This means 400 metres to the nearest stop, every 15 minutes, available on 1 ticket, safe, clean, accessible and affordable.

Here is a story in the SMH about how people could be linked to high-frequency services through the use of local-level 'feeder' services and 'flexible' transport services. Prof Corrine Mulley from the Institute of Transport and Logistics at Sydney Uni is quoted. Professor Mulley has presented at the WSPTU Symposium.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/linking-services-vital-to-get-the-city-moving-20121111-296h0.html

Bus Users Survey Report Now Available

The Independent Transport Safety and Reliability Regulator (ITSRR) has released the results of their survey of bus users in Sydney. In general, the results show very high levels of satisfaction, over 70%, for all the things that they asked about except one. On-time running was around 60% satisfaction because of more dissatisfaction with the Sydney Buses (mostly buses nearer to Sydney city) running not according to the timetable. Interestingly, the private bus operators, including all the Western Sydney operators, rated well; better than Sydney Buses for on-time running but worse for having timetables on bus stops.
You can see the report here: Bus Users Survey
You can go to the ITSRR website: www.transportregulator.nsw.gov.au

Annual Taxi Licences To Be Issued

From NSW Transport and Infrastructure:
http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/taxireform/

The NSW Government has announced reforms to the taxi industry which aim to get more taxis on the road, improving services for passengers. A new type of licence will be introduced which can be renewed each year and that will allow more people to get into the taxi market.

Anyone interested in running a taxi, including existing taxi operators and drivers, will have the option to obtain a new annual non-transferable licence from NSW Transport and Infrastructure. Existing transferable licences will still be able to be bought, sold and leased on the open market, but the Government will not be issuing any further tradeable licences.

For the Minister's Press Release click here

WSPTU has just made submissions regarding the improved use of taxi resources, particularly the use of multi-hire maxi-taxis, to assist fill the gap between the route bus system (which can require a lot of walking), the existing taxi system (which can be expensive) and the intensive door to door service provided by Community Transport for HACC elligible people (which has narrow elligibility criteria). This gap is effecting active people, who want to live independently, but who have some mobility difficulties and don't drive a car. This can be well older people, people with disabilites or single parents with young children - particularly if they are trying to do their shopping.

While simply increasing the number of licences will not directly help with that issue, it does show that there is some interest from the Government in improving the system for passengers. The reforms advocated by WSPTU require some regulation and legislative changes as well as some community education. The WSPTU changes would make the system more flexible and useful for a broader range of people.