Concerned that Canberra’s public transport system does not meet the city’s needs, the ACT Greens and Public Transport Canberra (PTCBR) have called on the ACT Government to invest more in buses.
In the Legislative Assembly this month, Jo Clay MLA, Greens spokesperson for transport, took her own government to task. (She posted her speech on Facebook on Friday.) Canberra’s bus network has deteriorated over the last 30 years, she argued. The outspoken backbencher criticised the new bus timetable, the government’s slowness in procuring disability compliant buses and in delivering transport infrastructure on time, and remarked that Canberra has fewer buses than it did in the early 1990s, despite a much bigger population and a larger city area.
“This network has gone backwards,” she said. “Canberrans want a better bus network. People from across Canberra in all parts of the community and from all walks of life have spoken to me about the need to improve our bus network.”
PTCBR also believe the public transport system is struggling. “Our light rail vehicles are full, our buses are delayed, and our roads are clogged,” PTCBR chair Ryan Hemsley said. “Transport Canberra’s response is to deliver fewer services, despite having more resources. Continuing this ‘business as usual’ approach will only see things get worse.”
Canberra Liberals MLA Mark Parton, Shadow Minister for Transport, described the public transport system as “a shambles”.
“The ACT Government has failed to deliver bus routes that would promote patronage, failed to recruit enough bus drivers, failed to replace the diesel buses when they reached the end of their life, and failed to deliver a modern ticketing system,” he said.
“This is happening at the same time that traffic congestion is at its all-time peak with Civic and Woden road closures and more than 600 city car parks having been removed. You couldn’t stuff up traffic in this city any more if you tried.”
Canberra Daily contacted Transport Canberra and City Services (TCCS), the ACT Government directorate that manages Canberra’s public transport system, for comment. They will provide their response tomorrow.
New timetable: ‘Bus users are not happy’
Three weeks ago, on 30 January, the ACT adopted an interim bus timetable, during city works for light rail, designed to cope with the worst of the “disruption”. But that new timetable is unpopular, Ms Clay maintains.
“Canberra’s bus users are not happy. I have heard this loud and clear,” she said.
- New interchange and bus timetable to cope with worst months of ACT’s light rail disruption (23 January)
- Canberra’s bus routes chopped in 2023 timetable (14 December 2022)
The Greens, the Canberra Liberals, and PTCBR have all objected to cuts to the number of trips on many routes, night services finishing earlier, and no increase to weekend trips – despite Ms Clay’s motion, for minimum hourly services and for the full bus network to return after the pandemic, passing the Legislative Assembly.
“Unfortunately, we have not seen either delivered yet,” Ms Clay said.
Similarly, Mr Parton recently said the Liberals were “flooded with complaints about traffic disruptions, major delays, and gaping holes in the bus timetables as a consequence of the government’s failures in this space”, while low-income workers could no longer rely on buses on weekends.
Disability compliant buses
Ms Clay, like Mr Parton, is concerned that not all buses are compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act, despite the ACT Government having 20 years to make them so.
The Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002 required all low-floor buses, bus stops, and interchanges to be 100 per cent compliant with all the Transport Standards by 31 December 2022.
Last year, transport minister Chris Steel announced that the government would lease 26 low emission diesel buses short-term to phase out 34 non-compliant Renault orange buses this year. Due to supply chain issues, however, the 26 buses were not delivered by 31 December.
Last month, the government said it would phase the 12 battery electric buses and 26 low-emission diesel buses into the fleet to replace the 34 non-compliant Renault diesel buses over the first half of this year. The first battery electric bus, a Yutong E12, began service at the end of January. Meanwhile, the Renaults were being used as backups.
But Ms Clay was not impressed that the ACT Government only procured the last 26 leased diesel buses in March – nine months before the due date.
“In an environment where we knew that COVID was creating significant supply chain constraints, we should not have left such an important procurement until five minutes to midnight,” Ms Clay said.
“Accessibility is essential for many Canberrans who have no other option but to rely on our public transport network. I want many more to use our public transport network as their best and first choice, not as their only option. We must do better. All of these people have been let down by the delays in this procurement. We need to plan our upgrades better and implement them earlier.”
Infrastructure delays
Ms Clay is worried that the Woden Bus Depot is behind schedule, and a promised fourth depot for zero-emissions buses might also fall behind.
“We are not on track,” she said. “We are delayed.”
The completion of the Woden Zero-Emissions Bus Depot has been delayed by more than two years, Ms Clay noted. The ACT Government signed contracts four years ago, in 2018, for the depot; in September 2020, the ACT Government’s Zero-Emission Transition Plan for Transport Canberra stated that the Woden depot would be completed by 2022, Belconnen and Tuggeranong depots would be converted to zero-emissions, and another zero-emissions bus depot built by 2026. A new depot in Canberra’s North is also a stipulation of the Labor-Greens Parliamentary & Governing Agreement.
But in November 2022, Ms Clay was told that the Woden Depot will not be completed until late 2024. It was only three weeks ago, at the end of January, that the ACT Government announced $26.3 million for electrical infrastructure upgrades at the Woden and Tuggeranong depots.
No announcement has been made about electrical upgrades to facilitate zero-emissions buses at Belconnen or any other future northside depot, Ms Clay remarked.
The Transition Plan stated that a Depot Feasibility Study would identify the timing and scoping of future needs. Ms Clay has asked Mr Steel if this has been completed; and if so, what locations were canvassed, the future capacity for bus depots, and barriers for full conversion to a zero-emissions bus fleet in current and future depots. She has also asked what the barriers were for delivering a Woden Bus Depot at the end of 2022, and whether the government still intends to complete an additional fourth depot by 2026.
“I am concerned that this new zero-emissions depot may not be completed by the original deadline of 2026 based on what I’ve seen so far,” she said.
Ms Clay also wants to know what outcomes the $350,000 2020-21 Better Infrastructure Fund investment into a feasibility study for future depot requirements delivered.
“We need a greater level of investment into building new infrastructure, including the long-awaited Woden Bus Depot, so that we can expand the bus network,” Ms Clay said.
Not enough buses
Canberra needs more buses, Ms Clay argues. “We have not increased our bus fleet in line with our growing city and growing population; in fact, in the last 33 years, our bus fleet has shrunk.”
In 1990, the ACT had 282,000 residents and 479 buses (1.7 buses per 1,000 people); in 2022, it had 456,000 residents and 456 buses (1 bus per 1,000 people). While the population grew by 61 per cent, and new suburbs have been built (Lawson, Whitlam, Molonglo, Ginninderra, Jacka, Kenny), the bus to population ratio fell by 59 per cent.
“We do not have enough buses,” Ms Clay said. “How can we deliver improved services to all these new suburbs and new people, and maintain our existing suburb routes, if we are running fewer buses than we had over 30 years ago?”
ACT Government must invest more
Ms Clay called on the ACT Government to make public transport and active travel a priority for Canberra, and to invest more in buses.
“Light rail is our great public transport success,” Ms Clay said. “I love light rail. The people who use it love it. I want to see it expand as soon as possible. But light rail is just one part of our public and active transport network.
“We must also invest more in buses. We must transition faster to zero-emissions buses. We need more bus lanes and bus priority measures, more bus shelters and better footpaths connecting them. Without this investment, next year’s bus network will be no better than this year. That will be the same story every year until we plan properly and invest sufficiently. We won’t have a better bus network until we have more buses and improved bus infrastructure …
“We need to plan well and follow through. We need to invest properly. We need to prioritise clearly. If we don’t, we will continue to have a bus service that does not meet the needs of our people.”
PTCBR supported the ACT Greens’ call for a more ambitious approach to public transport.
“If the ACT Government is serious about providing Canberrans with real transport choice, it needs to get on the front foot and properly invest in public transport,” Mr Hemsley said. “We can’t afford to wait until the end of the decade to extend light rail to Woden, and we can’t afford the ongoing embarrassment of two-hourly bus services on weekends. At some point you have to say: ‘This isn’t good enough’.
“We can have a world-class network by acquiring more buses, hiring more drivers, building more depots, and getting on with the job of extending light rail to Woden, Belconnen, Tuggeranong, Fyshwick, and Molonglo. It really is that simple.”
The Canberra Liberals’ Mark Parton, however, believes that a change of government come 2024 is the answer.
“This government is obsessed with delivering the slow tram to Woden at all costs, and bus patrons are paying a heavy price,” he said.
- Light rail has gone off the rails, Canberra Liberals say (5 December 2022)
- ACT government vetoes opposition call to stop light rail (8 February)
“Instead of Canberrans having to rethink their travel, they should really rethink whether this Government deserves to be voted back in or not.
“Canberrans deserve a better Government and a better bus system.”
