Victoria’s Auditor-General has released a report into the performance of the state’s public transport facilities, finding inadequate funding levels and a disappointing effort by the previous government to properly estimate the boom in patronage.

 

“Public transport has grown rapidly between 2005–06 and 2010–11. The Department of Transport (the department) expects further strong patronage growth over the next decade driven by a growing population, rising traffic congestion, high fuel prices and lifestyle changes,” the report found.

 

The audit examined the effectiveness of the state’s public transport services by assessing whether agencies had:

 

  • delivered effective public transport services
  • adequately prepared to improve and then sustain performance in the future.

 

The audit concluded that the department was not prepared to effectively manage the exponential growth in public transport patronage, and that it did not have the capability to foresee the growth or properly understand the root causes behind poor performance.

 

“Satisfaction for all public transport modes deteriorated over the past decade, and performance has mostly fallen short of government targets in the past five years. The decline was greatest for metropolitan trains. The response to this decline was partial and uncoordinated, with an incremental approach to changing timetables where complete revamps were necessary if the drivers of poor performance were to be addressed,” the report concluded.

 

However, the report finds that the department’s actions in 2008 to renegotiate contracts has led to a solid, evidence-based understanding of the performance issues surrounding the public transport network.

 

Although the Auditor-General praised the department's recent efforts, it made the following recommendations that the department:

  • finalise its draft process for setting its State Budget targets, and apply it to contract thresholds and other targets;
  • progress plans to monitor performance against accessibility, sustainability and coordination objectives, and develop rigorous plans to better manage these in the future;
  • address residual gaps in its measurement framework;
  • develop its plans for buses, trams and regional trains to the same level of detail it has applied for metropolitan trains;
  • develop the capability to forecast the performance implications if plan components are delayed or omitted; and
  • benchmark public transport operating costs and devise a long-term plan to improve efficiency.

 

In order to provide the necessary improved services, the Auditor-General has called for the expansion of funding of public transport over the next 10 years to the order of $30 billion. This represents a tripling of the average capital spending on public transport from $1 billion to $3 billion per year.

 

However, Victorian Minister for Transport Terry Mulder has said that his government lacks the requisite funds for outlined by the report, saying that the Federal Government must provide more funding.