Ministerial
Brief
To:
The Hon Jackie Trad MP, Deputy
Premier and Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure,
Local Government and Planning and Minister for Trade
By:
The Translink Ripoff, March 2015
PURPOSE
The
Purpose of the meeting is to discuss the current status of, and a
reform agenda for public transport in south-east Queensland.
BACKGROUND/
VISION
What
do the great cities of the world have in common? Efficient,
affordable, easy-to-use public transport (PT) systems. We envisage a
world-class SEQ PT system that is integral to the social and economic
fabric of the region that people feel good about using.
The
reality is that our PT system is woefully inadequate, expensive, not
easy to use and needs complete reform to begin to drag it towards
world best practice. Currently, it is a transport mode of last
resort.
Why
is Brisbane PT so inadequate and expensive in comparison to other
Australian and international cities? (It’s not density. Perth, for
example, has similar densities).
Decades
of underdevelopment, neglect and corruption under the Country/
National Party of Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen meant that the Goss
Government had a huge reform task when elected in 1989. Also
Brisbane’s low-density and low population meant that traffic
congestion arrived later than elsewhere. The size of the reform task
combined with the unique huge local government which had
administrative control of buses in a bus-dominated system, meant that
PT was not prioritised by the State and left largely to the BCC.
This situation has continued for far too long.
Public
transport policy inertia during a time of rapid population growth has
resulted in a 1990s transport system for a city that purports to be
‘world-class’.
We
acknowledge and are encouraged by the Transport Minister’s stated
commitment to introducing concession fares for Health Care Card
holders, abolishing the TTCC and duplicating the Sunshine Coast rail
line. However, these measures, while vitally important, are only
‘playing catch-up’ and addressing individual aspects of a system
in need of root-and-branch reform.
SEQ
PT system reform would commence with a broad inquiry with authentic
community consultation which would inform the process. Reform would
include organisational restructuring and cultural change, new key
infrastructure components, greater emphasis on rail and light rail
rather than buses, fare reform and greater coordination between rail
and bus modes. This task won’t be easy, and requires a visionary
Transport Minister and government who can see Brisbane as a world
class city with a world class PT system. PT system reform undertaken
by former WA Transport Minister Alannah McTiernan during the previous
decade, which included streamlining the bureaucracy into the single
TransPerth entity and constructing new and highly utilised train
links, exists as evidence that it can be done.
The
challenge for the state government is to reform SEQ PT into an
affordable, efficient, fast, coordinated system that compares well
with other affluent cities.
ISSUES
SEQ
PT issues are many and varied and complex. These include but are not
limited to:
Compares
poorly with other cities:
More expensive than anywhere else, and not as good as anywhere else
(see our blog).
Too
bus reliant, a
unique feature of the system and a key reason for the high cost and
poor quality. Buses will always be an integral component, but they
are inefficient in terms of capacity and contributing to traffic
congestion, particularly peak times in the CBD. (The Springfield and
Redcliffe rail links and the GC light rail are steps in the right
direction).
The
only State capital without concessions for Health Care Card holders:
High fares and no concession means low income earners must severely
ration their PT use. In other words they can't afford to use it.
Unemployed people can't canvass for employment, perform voluntary
work or connect with friends and relatives. A human rights lawyer
told us an anecdote about a junior basketball team of African
immigrants who jogged across multiple suburbs to get to games
because they could not afford bus fares. We spoke to an apprentice
chef who is spending over half his income on train and bus fares.
We could go on and on…
Poor
community attitude toward SEQ PT: Very
few people like our PT system. We have been out on the streets
canvassing support for system reform and gauging community concerns
for over three years, and living here for much longer. There is
very little community support for, and indeed significant hostility
toward, the Brisbane PT system. It is the transport mode of last
resort.
Catching
a taxi or buying an old car is often a better alternative:
A taxi is usually a better option for 2 or more people. In other
Australian cities this is the case for 3, 4 or 5 or more people. We
often hear from people, and read in internet comments, that people
believe it is cheaper and easier to buy and maintain an old car than
to rely on PT. This has indeed been the experience of some TLR
activists.
Tourists
do not embrace our PT:
Visitors from interstate or overseas are generally stunned at the
high cost and poor quality of our PT. Moreover, Brisbanites who
travel are amazed at how cheap and easy PT systems are to use in
cities elsewhere.
The
bureaucracy is fractured and cumbersome:
BT and QR work in isolation and with hostility towards each other
rather than cooperatively, and Translink doesn’t have the
political or legal backing to adequately address this. We have
three organisations where other cities have one. This is a core
problem.
Real
costs of sub-standard PT, (congestion, pollution, social isolation),
are externalised; Any
discussion of running costs occurs in isolation. For example in
2010 when the ALP government was promoting the ‘need’ for 80%
fare increases over 5 years based on ‘the 75% subsidy’. This
has to change to build political momentum for reform. The state
government needs to view PT delivery as a core responsibility, like
public safety, which delivers real environmental, social and
economic benefits, not as a burden that has to be subsidised.
Generally
not easy to use;
unless you are a well-organised, regular user (It is difficult, for
example, to find somewhere to recharge a Go Card after hours, and in
many suburbs at any time of day).
Those
who defend SEQ PT obfuscate and highlight specific services that work
well for those that live near and use them, but this does not counter
the reality of the inadequate and uncoordinated system as a whole.
Moreover, Translink’s self-reviewed performance is designed and
framed in ways that conceals this reality. (The contrast between
Tranlink’s customer satisfaction reporting with the hundreds of
comments from frustrated SEQ PT users under every media article on
the topic is stark.)
There
is no coherent SEQ PT vision or plan, or if there is, it hasn’t
been/ isn’t being implemented. Historically governments either
wouldn’t or couldn’t tackle the long-overdue task of reform and
have instead resorted to ad
hoc,
reactive PT policy.
Examples
and evidence of ad
hoc
policy include the non-alignment of zones across bus and rail modes
(and generally complex zones), annual rolling 20% and 15% fare
increases, the open-to-rorting 9-trips-then-free, the free Kangaroo
Point ‘City Hopper’ ferry, the creation of special tourist fares,
the TTCC and the CCR/ BAT as political football (see Appendix for
more discussion of these policies).
RECOMMENDATIONS
A
wide ranging SEQ PT inquiry or review that would include authentic
community consultation and involve comparing costs, organisational
structure, efficiencies and outcomes with other cities,
(benchmarking) and consider the costs of having a sub-standard system
and the benefits of having a good one. The inquiry would inform a
reform process that would get Brisbane and SEQ moving, bring our PT
up to a standard that compares well with other cities, and deliver
huge social, environmental and economic benefits. Reforms would
probably include:
Organisational/
Institutional reform
to get the different arms, BT, QR and Translink, leaner and rowing
in the same direction. We need an integrated public transport
organisational structure, (BrisMetro?), with a transparent,
cooperative and user-focused culture.
Commitment
to undertake authentic community consultation to
inform the SEQ PT inquiry and reform process.
More
emphasis on rail and light-rail rather than buses; Brisbane’s
bus-centric PT is unique and unsustainable for a city of its size
and projected growth.
Rail
or light rail links to new big residential developments;
like Kurilpa Point and The Gap Cedar Woods mega-suburb. Developers
will contribute to infrastructure costs. Adding a few more buses as
is currently proposed won’t cut it.
Rationalising
zones;
most other cities haves 1 or 2 zones in an area where we have 7 or
8. Brisbane Zone 1 is 1.5km while Perth’s is 7km and Sydney and
Melbourne’s are 10km. Also the bus and rail zones do not align.
Cross-River
Rail that would feed into an underground inner-city loop;
Urgently-needed
infrastructure that would increase rail capacity and efficiency. An
inner city loop would have stops at existing Central and Roma
Street, as well as new CBD stations, and provide for future rail
expansion.
Duplicating
the Sunshine Coast line; Urgently-needed
infrastructure that would revitalise the Sunshine Coast and connect
it with SEQ, increase liveability, tourism and promote economic
growth.
Fare
reform; concession
fares for health care card holders (like every other big Australian
city), more flexible ticket options to enable people to save based
on their usage patterns (like every other big Australian city).
Lower fares across the board to increase usage, decrease congestion
and pollution, and get our City moving.
SEQ
PT is in desperate need of reform. Let’s get SEQ PT up to scratch
and get our region moving.
 |
Jackie Trad, Queensland Transport Minister as of February 2015
|
References
Unearthed
2004 Zone Map: What it shows us.
It's
Election Time: Compare the State Capitals
http://ttripoff.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/its-election-time-compare-state-capitals.html
Brisbane
commuters abandon buses, choose cars instead, Brisbane Times, 12/9/14
Kelly,
J.F. and Donegan, P. 2015. City
Limits: Why Australia’s cities are broken and how we can fix them,
Melbourne University Press: Parkville.
Appendix:
Examples
and evidence of ad
hoc
PT policy
The
zones.
When the system was ‘integrated’ for ticketing purposes BT
refused to consider zone reform. This is why there are so many
zones in comparison to other cities and also why the bus and rail
zones don’t align.
Annual,
rolling 20%-15% fare increases
commencing in 2010 for a total 80% fare increase planned by Labor
over 5 years, effectively doubling fares. A knee-jerk response to
falling revenues and increasing running costs that gave little or no
consideration to system reform, how fares compared with other cities
and the economic, social and environmental impacts of high fares and
a poor system. This is the perennial Brisbane PT
dog-chasing-its-tail dilemma; revenues fall because the system is
inadequate and expensive to use, so governments increase fares,
which causes patronage to fall again, and so it goes.
10-trips-then-free;
the 2012 11th
hour ALP election promise, (which was subsequently trumped by the
LNP’s 9-Trips). This was policy on the run, open to rorting, and
tacit acknowledgment of the impact of, and people’s hostility to
rolling annual fare increases and the highest fares in Australia.
The
free ‘City Hopper’ cross- river Kangaroo Point ferry;
While the vast majority of residents were paying the highest fares
in Australia for sub-standard service, out of the blue the BCC
establishes a FREE ferry for one select group of residents. We are
yet to hear a satisfactory explanation for the existence of the City
Hopper.
The
creation of ‘special’ tourist fares:
These have included the SEEQ Go Card, the Go Explore card for Gold
Coast tourists and the G20 Go Card. These were proposed and
developed is a result of tacit acknowledgment of and embarrassment
about the high cost and poor quality of SEQ PT, and the potential to
create a bad impression upon visitors.
The
Tertiary Transport Concession Card (TTCC);
an expression and result of misplaced paranoia about fare evasion.
The TTCC was a solution in search of a problem that unnecessarily
placed a significant administrative burden on students, tertiary
institutions and government.
CRR/
BAT; the
desperately-needed rail link as political football. (We believe CRR
was/ is a good option within the given policy context, albeit
undertaken at the 11th
hour. The BAT was Simpsons ‘Springfield Monorail’-esque bad
policy that would have further entrenched Brisbane’s unique and
unsustainable bus-centrism).
