The Canberra Liberals today released their “People-focused public transport” policy, which commits to restore the bus network it says the current government has neglected, and to make Canberra a major manufacturing hub for electric buses.

It would, party leader Elizabeth Lee said, “get Canberrans where they want to go when they want to”, while being faster and more affordable than light rail.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr, however, said the Canberra Liberals’ policy would not deliver the public transport network Canberra needs.

The ACT Government will spend more than $5 billion on light rail over the next decade, but less than 7 per cent of the population uses public transport, the Canberra Liberals state; instead, the “sacrifice” of the local bus network to light rail has increased car usage, congesting roads and increasing costs for households.

“There’s absolutely no doubt that our policy will actually get more people out of cars and onto public transport,” shadow transport minister Mark Parton said. “The public transport policies that have been rolled out by this government have not actually met the needs of this city.”

Decline in buses

The bus fleet has not kept up with Canberra’s bigger population, the Liberals state. Their figures tell a narrative of stagnation and decline. Canberra is twice as big as it was 1991, but has only half as many buses per capita. (0.95 per thousand people, with a population of 478,000, in 2024, compared to 1.96 buses per thousand people, with a population of 250,000 people, in 1991.)

“This Labor government has not prioritised buses as part of their public transport policy,” Ms Lee said. “Buses are considered as almost a second class to the tram.”

In the 1980s and 1990s, Canberra had the highest per capita level of public transport usage in Australia, Mr Parton stated.

“We did it without a tram; we can do it again; and we will,” Mr Parton said.

In the year to April 1986, more than 18 million boardings were made on the bus network, according to the Canberra Times from that year, and more than 11,200 people – 9 per cent of the workforce – caught public transport to work.

Canberra’s population has grown by 82 per cent since then, but the percentage of workers using public transport has dropped substantially: only about 6 per cent of workers commuted by public transport in 2021. In 2022–23, there were 17.7 million passenger boardings on bus and light rail (down from a pre-COVID peak of 20 million in 2018–19). Public transport patronage per capita had not increased even with the introduction of the tram, Mr Parton remarked.

A seven-day bus network

The bus network, the Liberals say, is complex and too infrequent, especially on weekends and in outer suburbs; many bus routes go round in circles, require many transfers, and are unreliable; and many Canberrans choose to drive instead. The Liberals ascribe the disruption to local bus services to buses being redirected to feed the light rail service from Gungahlin to the City.

The Canberra Liberals promise to bring back a seven-day network that is easy to understand and use, and remove two-hour waits, Ms Lee said.

Weekday Xpresso services – which the Liberals say the government cut, forcing Canberrans to catch several slower buses instead, and more than doubling the length of commutes from 40 minutes to 90 minutes – would run again from the outer suburbs to Civic and the Parliamentary Triangle every half-hour during weekday peak periods.

Rapid buses would run at least every 15 minutes (or five to seven minutes in peak hours).

Local buses would run at least every half-hour (more often in peak hours), rather than two hours on weekends.

On-demand services would be trialled for end-of-trip journeys during off-peak hours, weekends, and late at night.

School buses

In 2018/19, the government cut many school bus services, in the name of a faster network. The outrage, Mr Parton said, was palpable, and the Liberals tabled a petition to restore the services.

Since then, the Liberals say, many parents have chosen to drive their children to school, rather than putting them on network buses; this increases congestion around schools and makes life more difficult for families.

The Liberals would restore the school bus network and set up more services where needed.

“Over the last five years, parents have just made the call that they cannot use the public transport system to get their kids to school,” Mr Parton said. “We want to change that.”

Bus corridor

The Liberals would build a dedicated bus corridor from Civic to Woden by 2027, and from Woden to Mawson by 2028 – long before the government’s proposed light rail routes 2A and 2B would be constructed in the mid-2030s.

The busway would connect the City, Acton Waterfront, Commonwealth Park, Adelaide Avenue, and Woden, and make travelling to the city faster from Woden, Weston Creek, Molonglo, and Tuggeranong, the Liberals say.

Should light rail reach Woden, Mr Parton warned, the current government would cancel buses from Civic to Woden (which take a quarter of an hour) to force people to use light rail (which would take twice as long).

“Who would rock up to the Woden interchange and choose a 32-minute tram over a 16-minute bus?”

Cheaper bus fares

The Liberals would introduce a $25 weekly cap on bus fares, which they estimate would save passengers more than $1,000 every year. A single one-way fare costs $3.55; commuters would save between $5.50 and nearly $20 weekly, or $1,024 annually.

Civic would become a free travel zone, reducing car usage in the city centre. Woden bus dépôt would be upgraded, a new dépôt be built on the northside, and a new bus interchange be built in Civic.

Manufacturing electric buses

Canberra would become a manufacturing hub for electric buses. The current government intends to have 106 zero emission buses by 2026, and transition the rest of the fleet by 2040.

But this would only replace the older types of gas and Renault buses, and not increase services, the Liberals say.

They propose procuring 500 new electric buses over the next decade: replacing the 400 diesel and gas buses in the fleet, and at least 20 more buses each year.

“It’s ambitious, but it is something that is needed because for far too long, the Labor-Greens government has allowed our bus fleet to deteriorate,” Ms Lee said.

To meet that target, they would partner with an electric bus manufacturer to build electric buses here, then make the vehicles for the rest of the country.

Mr Parton said that four bus manufacturers are already “extremely excited” by the prospect.

That facility, Mr Parton said, would be up and running long before any tram got to Woden.

Besides, Tasmania, which has a similar population to the ACT’s, has already started manufacturing buses: “If Tassie can do it, we can do it,” Mr Parton said.

“This is an exciting, emerging new industry, and the broader benefits to our city, our community, and the economy will be huge,” Ms Lee said.

Cheaper than light rail

The Liberals would establish an ACT Transport Taskforce by mid-2025 to report on Transport Canberra issues, including neglect in funding bus services, passenger satisfaction, workforce shortages, weekend bus frequency deficiencies; light rail; and the Zero-Emission Transition plan for Transport Canberra.

As for light rail, the Liberals would honour the contract for light rail 2A (Alinga Street to Commonwealth Park) but stop all work on light rail stage 2B. They have estimated stage 2A would cost $1.46 billion and stage 2B more than $4 billion.

Conversely, the Canberra Liberals say their transport package would cost $450 million – less than a tenth of light rail to Woden. Completing the light rail network to Ginninderry or the airport would cost $20 billion, Mr Parton said.

“This city doesn’t have those funds. Our policy will get more people out of cars and onto public transport much quicker.”

ACT Government response

The Chief Minister dismissed the Liberals’ policy.

“This is the sort of public transport announcement you make when you are not really committed to public transport,” Mr Barr said.

“The Liberal policy will not deliver the public transport network Canberra will need as we grow beyond half a million people in the next few years. This proposal is essentially doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different outcome. We already have buses running on transit lanes from Woden to Civic.  

“Canberrans would see no housing benefits, job opportunities or economic gains that light rail has delivered for our city. The world’s greatest cities are not built on bus networks. They all have mass transit. It’s more of the same from the Canberra Liberals.”

Liberals’ rejoinder

“Public transport policy should be about public transport outcomes,” Ms Lee said. “What is clear is that the public transport policy platform that has been adopted by Labor and the Greens is a political deal done to stay in power with the Greens, and is about development, not about public transport outcomes for Canberrans.

“Our public transport policy is firmly based on providing the best public transport options for Canberrans, so we can get them where they want to go, when they want to get there.”