On 20/03/2023 2:19 pm, Tony Galloway wrote:
>
>
> All aboard the pirate bus
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/02/mutiny-on-the-sydney-commute-pirate-bus-hits-the-road-after-privatisation-leads-to-axed-routes
Mutiny on the Sydney commute: ‘pirate bus’ hits the road after
privatisation leads to axed routes
Ken Wilson, whose crowdfunded service was created in frustration, says public transport needs to be in public hands
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/02/mutiny-on-the-sydney-commute-pirate-bus-hits-the-road-after-privatisation-leads-to-axed-routes#comments
At 8am in south Willoughby in Sydney’s north, Ken Wilson ferries commuters on to what appears to be a stock standard bus about to take the roughly 12-minute journey into the city.
Except there’s a twist.
The Wednesday service is the first to make the journey in Wilson’s “pirate bus” movement, a crowdfunded one-off bus route created in response to frustration after privatisation led to cuts to the area’s bus trips.
“It is a bit of a stunt and protest against what the government selling off our buses has meant for our community,” says Wilson, dressed in a pirate costume with a toy parrot on his shoulder. “It’s also a proof of concept on whether we can do this ourselves if the government won’t.”
Across Sydney commuters have become frustrated by bus services plagued by delays, cancellations and axed routes.
Privatisation has failed. Australia needs to ditch the ‘incentives’ rhetoric and simply spend money on things we need
Richard Denniss
Read more
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/25/privatisation-has-failed-australia-needs-to-ditch-the-incentives-rhetoric-and-simply-spend-money-on-things-we-need
Last year theNew South Wales https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/new-south-walesgovernment conducted an inquiry into the privatisation of bus services, finding the claim the move would deliver better services to commuters had not come to fruition. It found privatisation had led to worse services and recommended returning them to public hands.
Transport will be a key issue when voters cast their ballots come late March. NSWLabor says https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/abject-failure-parliament-committee-want-to-roll-back-sydney-bus-privatisation-20220920-p5bjky.htmlit’s open to bringing services back into public hands once the contracts with private companies are up.
Commuters board the chartered bus
Commuters board the chartered bus.Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian
But Wilson is taking matters into his own hands. He launched a GoFundMe page in December which raised enough to charter its first bus, mirroring part of the trip made by the old 272 bus service, at a cost of $420 a trip.
The group plans to run more services each time it raises $420. Commuters can ride for free but are encouraged to contribute.
“[Privatisation] can’t keep going, otherwise in a few years we won’t have any more buses,” he says.
Several commuters have already moved to use Uber each morning since bus routes were axed, Wilson says.
‘The difference between getting somewhere on time and not getting
there at all’
Aboard the bus are passengers who share Wilson’s frustrations. Some are on the journey purely in support, others have used the service to get to work.
Robert Samuel, a Willoughby councillor, is catching the bus to the city on the way to a meeting in Bondi.
“I’m going to Bondi, but not on the 340 like I should be because it’s cancelled,” he says, referring to one of a number of routes that has been canned in the aftermath of privatisation.
Eden Taylor (left)
Eben Taylor says his bus is ‘supposed to come every 10 minutes, but then suddenly it can be every 20 or 30 minutes’.Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian
Eben Taylor is sitting near the back of the bus, talking to his friend Umaima Patni, also both dressed in pirate costumes, as the bus barrels across Sydney Harbour Bridge. He is a student at University of Sydney and says it’s not unusual to watch two 120 buses fly past his stop during rush hour because they are too full to take on more passengers.
“It’s supposed to come every 10 minutes but then suddenly it can be every 20 or 30 minutes,” he says. “It’s the difference between getting somewhere on time and not getting there at all."