Re: Re: Perth public transport use falls for fifth year in a row, with many preferring traffic to trains
  Geoffrey

One issue I had with Perth was the difficulty in buying a single trip ticket from a machine without the right coins and a train approaching although I now think the Sydney Ticketing system isn't perfect.


Regards

Geoffrey


________________________________
From:TramsDownUnder@... TramsDownUnder@...> on behalf ofprescottt@... [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@...>
Sent: Tuesday, 12 September 2017 11:31 PM
To:TramsDownUnder@...
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] Re: Perth public transport use falls for fifth year in a row, with many preferring traffic to trains

Follow the Australian economy and you'll understand the background rather than the beat-up. This appalling news piece is from the ABC after all - like they say in UK, is it true or did you hear it on the BBC? If it wasn't so bad, it's hilarious that the ABC disregards years of extensive public surveys that show over 90% customer satisfaction in favour of 450 people on their own Facebook page which apparently reveals "an intense dislike of buses and trains" (it's Facebook, what do they expect?). ABC News belongs in the dustbin like the Guardian.

This coverage is far more responsible (Fairfax making a big effort to recover its lost reputation and profits): http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/perth-public-transport-patronage-down-as-wa-pumps-13-billion-into-metronet-20170912-gyfqhj.html

[http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/f/q/m/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gyfqhj.png/1505191732141.jpg] href="http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/perth-public-transport-patronage-down-as-wa-pumps-13-billion-into-metronet-20170912-gyfqhj.html">http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/perth-public-transport-patronage-down-as-wa-pumps-13-billion-into-metronet-20170912-gyfqhj.html

Perth public transport patronage down as WA pumps $1.3 billion into Metronethttp://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/perth-public-transport-patronage-down-as-wa-pumps-13-billion-into-metronet-20170912-gyfqhj.html
www.watoday.com.au
Patronage on Transperth services has dropped for the sixth year in a row as the McGowan government announces a $1.3 billion boost to extend Perth's public transport network.


For some years there has been a mining construction boom in WA and this phase is now basically completed and the flood of interstate and overseas migration into WA (and particularly into Perth) has slowed to a trickle. Most cities' core public transport market is the CBD, no different in Perth, and the economic contraction has impacted that with a rising office vacancy rate and contracting CBD workforce translating to a recent ongoing loss of some 5 to 10 million public transport journeys per year. It is also reflected in a drop in car journeys to work and thus a fall in parking revenue, which isn't reported in the news (because it's more fun for the press writing bad news about public transport).

Perth commuters also like a whinge and, due to their isolation, they don't actually know how good they've got it compared to other Australian cities. If you read reviews of the public transport from overseas and interstate visitors on Tripadviser for example, you get a completely different picture which can be summarised as "wow".

Perth is basically wealthy autopia epitomised, without even the carless poor and inner city markets that Sydney and Melbourne have, and the public transport gains that have been made in this very hostile environment (ease of car-use, low density, plenty of parking) have been nothing less than extraordinary. Rail patronage has increased 700% since 1990, bus patronage 50%, both infinitely greater than in any other city in Australia, and the train journeys are the fastest in Australia. Perth has achieved good public transport in a city that's hostile for it, compared to cities like Sydney that have poorer public transport in a city that should be good for it (indeed it lost its once-good public transport). There's plenty of substance to claims of their achievements.

On a more positive note there's this, an Australian system-wide first, apart from the single-line Sydney metro:

https://www.railexpress.com.au/wa-budget-fund-planning-for-new-atc-signalling-systems-for-perth-network/

Presumably this will allow them to close train headways even further to enable them to fit in the extra trains to service the new lines such as Morley-Ellenbrook without having to go to the expensive alternative of quadding track.

Tony P

---InTramsDownUnder@..., <mcloughlin.dj@...> wrote :

Greg Sutherland posted a link to:

> Perth public transport use falls for fifth year in a row, with many preferring traffic to trains


I read this last night, but assumed it was Fake News, because it goes against everything that's been posted here about Perth having the second-best public transport in the entire world!

:-O


david mcl, Wellington