News & Discussion: Public Transport Contracts, Service & Policy

[PeFe]

From InDaily

End nigh for paper multitrip tickets

Adelaide | Paper multitrip public transport tickets will become invalid on buses, trains and trams from December 31.

This morning Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan said the successful introduction of the Metrocard had made the old multitrip tickets redundant.

“Less than half of one per cent of the travelling public still use a multitrip ticket instead of the new metrocard and they are now to be retired from service,” Mullighan said.

The use of the smartcard has grown to 86 per cent of all validations on public transport since its introduction. Adelaide Metro stopped selling multitrip tickets in June last year.

Mullighan said mulitrip ticketholders could transfer remaining trips or money to their metrocard, or exchange the remaining trips for single trip tickets.

Customers can make the exchange until February 28 next year.

Visit an Adelaide Metro InfoCentre for more information.

http://indaily.com.au/news/2014/12/02/e ... p-tickets/

I can't believe its taken this long to get rid of paper multi-trips. I thought they were phased out 6 months after the Metrocard was introduced.

[monotonehell]

Why would they bother making existing paper multitrips invalid? Stop selling new ones and the job will be done once they are all used.

[Llessur2002]

From: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-04/a ... s_adelaide

Adelaide needs London-style cabs fleet, Hotels Association boss urges



The head of the Hotels Association says South Australia's Premier seems receptive to the idea of running a fleet of London-style taxis on Adelaide's streets.

Australian Hotels Association president Peter Hurley said he returned from a trip to London impressed by "what a practical form of transport they were" and how well they coped with the amount of luggage he and his wife had.

Mr Hurley told 891 ABC Adelaide he got a chance to pitch the idea to Premier Jay Weatherill at a business lunch.

"The Premier was imploring the business community to come up with ideas," he said.

"They wanted to make some bold decisions, they wanted to set Adelaide apart from the pack.

"Because of the recent experience in London I said, 'Well Premier, very soon in Adelaide, unless something changes, there'll be no cabs in Australia that are manufactured or assembled by Australian workers'.

"The best, and the tried and proven taxi, is the London cab. Why not either get them assembled in Australia or do a job-lot purchase and mandate them under the licensing system here in Adelaide and we'd have a real point of difference and a very practical taxi?"

The hotels executive said Mr Weatherill seemed to like the suggestion.

"He was very receptive to the idea and I know that he has mentioned my suggestion in various other business meetings," he said.

Mr Hurley acknowledged a small fleet for Adelaide was unlikely to justify local manufacturing, at a time when car maker Holden was making plans to close its northern Adelaide plant..

There are already London Taxi Company vehicles in Perth, the fleet is all white to help reflect the summer heat.

An Adelaide taxi driver Attila told 891 ABC Adelaide he had checked out the London-style cabs in use interstate and understood they were imported from China and cost about $55,000 each.

I love London cabs and this would be something a bit quirky for Adelaide (although apparently there are some in Perth)...

Thoughts?

[claybro]

I can confirm there are quite a number of these in Perth. The opinion here is mixed. Evidently they are not well suited to Perth roads (higher speeds, harder breaking, higher temps etc.) there have been some mechanical issues and compliance issues relating to the above. They mainly service the inner suburbs. To be honest, I think they look out of place in a warm sunny modern Australian city, at least thay are painted white and not black. Not sure really what the point of London cabs is...Not like someone will ring up and specifically ask for a London style cab...they just want to get from A to B, or if style is required, book a town car or limo service.

[Llessur2002]

We went over to London in July and whilst starting with all good intentions to save money and get the tube everywhere, we ended up just using black cabs for the majority of our trips. We were on holiday after all... Despite being from the UK myself I haven't really used London cabs before and was quite surprised at the practicality of them. So easy to get in and out of - meaning you can get that speedy entrance when you've flagged one down on a busy road in the rain, loads of luggage space and easy seating for 5 people in the back. Plus there's passenger controls for the air con, intercom, windows, lighting etc. These are more benefits of a vehicle that has been purposely designed as a taxi cab rather than the London taxi itself - I think Nissan make one for the New York and other American markets that's probably just as good. I think a purpose-built taxi vehicle would be worth considering - providing it's well suited to the climate and either creates or doesn't negatively impact local jobs.

[sib]

Paper Multi trip ticket have not been sold by Adelaide Metro for a long time. It was just that the machine was still able to except them for people that still had them. That is what will no longer be happening

[monotonehell]

Paper Multi trip ticket have not been sold by Adelaide Metro for a long time. It was just that the machine was still able to except them for people that still had them. That is what will no longer be happening

That was understood. There's no reason to stop accepting them however. Single trip tickets are still on paper. In theory multitrips bought back in 1988 should still be accepted until they are all used.

[jk1237]

well DPTI have finally released their 2013/14 annual report, and in amongst the pages of irrelevant crap, near the end is a half page details of some very basic PT data.

So for 2013/14, total boardings were up 2.7% to 63,312,184.

Then they only had data on initial boardings (not transfers) - Bus 39.957 million, Tram 2.288 million and train 8.23 million, and initial boardings up by 3.8% - great, but more information please

So slightly heartening, especially that during the last half of 2013, the Noarlunga line was completely shut down. Would be interesting to see total boardings on the Glenelg tram, since the city and to Hindmarsh is free and DPTI don't seem to factor this in, so total boardings may in fact be double. To my surprise they actually did estimate that about 230,000 people took advantage of free PT (this would be for football at the AO) in the first half of 2014

Interesting that Auckland releases monthly stats on its PT system, right down to stats on their individual train lines

[[Shuz]]

DPTI is incompetent, that's why.

[monotonehell]

DPTI is incompetent, that's why.

That's probably unfair. Politically driven looks the same as incompetent from the outside. Politicians need to step back from many processes and let them be run scientifically.

[PeFe]

From the 'Tiser

Public transport to be cut on festive season working days to save State Government about $150,000


Cuts in public public transport services during the festive season are expected to save the state coffers $150,000 - but is this justified? Source: News Corp Australia


PUBLIC transport services will be cut on working days this festive season to save the State Government about $150,000.

Passengers will face reduced frequency of train, tram and bus services for 12 days of the Christmas and New Year period, from Monday December 22 until Friday, January 2.

This period includes seven working weekdays which the “special’’ timetable will apply.

More than 100 bus routes across the metropolitan area will be running reduced services, as will all tram services and the Seaford, Gawler, Outer Harbor and Belair train services.

The Transport Department said the frequency cuts “reflect demand’’ during the festive season.

But Passengers for Public Transport president Thanasis Avramis said the decision to reduce services on working days was wrong.

“There are plenty of people still going to work and they don’t want to change their transport arrangements,’’ he said.

“Even with the best publicity in the world there will still be people who won’t find out (about timetable changes) and I don’t think this will be very pleasing for them.’’

Mr Avramis said he hoped the special timetable did not become a regular feature on the public transport calendar.

A department spokeswoman said “some services levels will be reduced as the public transport network experiences lower patronage demand with many people taking leave during this time’’.

“On normal weekdays between Monday 22 December 2014 and Friday 2 January 2015, the buses, trains and trams listed on the Adelaide Metro website will operate to a special Christmas and New Year’s timetable.

“Normal weekend and public holidays timetables will be in operation on 25, 26, 27 & 28 December, and 1 January (unless stated on the Adelaide Metro website link).’’

She has encouraged all passengers to visit the Adelaide Metro website to check if their services will be affected by the timetable changes.

Opposition road safety spokesman Corey Wingard, who raised questions about possible timetable changes in parliament earlier this month, said the special timetable “shows no respect’’ to passengers.

“Public transport users deserve better treatment, this is a Government being sneaky about changes,’’ he said.

Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan said passengers were being informed of timetable changes through on-board signage, SMS and email, the Adelaide Metro website, social media and bulletins being handed to customers on all affected services.

Mr Mullighan has urged people to relax and take advantage of public transport this festive season.

“Along with our bus, train and tram fleet, more than 1000 taxis will hit the streets to cater for demand and ensure people travel safely and stress-free during the festive season,” he said.

“Extra tram services will operate on Boxing Day for the sales, and bus and train services will be ready to operate at maximum capacity if required.”

Mr Mullighan said there would be free public transport from midnight to dawn on New Year’s Day across Adelaide Metro trains, buses and trams to help revellers arrive home safely.


Originally published as The 12 days of reduced public transport services

http://www.news.com.au/national/south-a ... 7159935291

What a piece of "dishonest" drivel from the Advertiser, the tone of the article implies this is "something new" or emergency cutbacks
due to budgetary problems, in fact, this has happened every year for the last 20 (or maybe even longer).
Even if you live in Sydney or Melbourne you get reduced public transport services over the Christmas/New Years period when half of Australia is on holidays.

[Norman]

Just your average David Nankervis article... Nothing to see here...

[[Shuz]]

Good call. $150,000 isn't that much, but whatever helps to keep our state debt down.

[crawf]

Bad call

Wouldn't it be better to start the reduced services from Christmas Day?, rather next Monday. There is still plenty of people working next week (including myself), not to mention the last minute Christmas shoppers.

Unless I'm going blind, but I have not seen any notification until today... despite catching the train daily.

[The Scooter Guy]

The second Adelaide double-decker will hit the streets in the hills from Monday, 5 January 2015.
The double decker will be used on the hills T840 route to provide additional capacity for this highly patronised route.
For further information please visit: http://bit.ly/13pF0Zc