The Public Transport Authority (PTA) is immensely proud of the Transperth bus, train and ferry services it delivers to the community of Perth. The people, systems and processes used to deliver these important community services are quite unique, like the operating model used by PTA to deliver Transperth bus services.
For over twenty years, representatives responsible for the delivery of urban public bus services from around Australia and across the world have visited and contacted Transperth to obtain a better understanding of the Transperth operating model and in many instances have gone on to adopt this model of operation for their own public transport networks. For those in the industry, our contract arrangements follow ‘world best practice’ that maintain an appropriate balance of commercial risk between Government and its contracted service providers, but most importantly, places the needs of Transperth passengers to the fore and promotes an industry-wide culture of continuous improvement.
Transperth’s comparatively low-density operating environment brings with it the very difficult challenge of balancing its obligations to provide a reasonable level of service to the more vulnerable people in our community, who often have no alternative transport options, and making the most efficient use of our available resources. As with any business arrangement, the Auditor General has found some areas of improvement, like the need to improve some of our service planning processes and documentation arrangements, which we will attend to as a priority.
As always, Transperth is looking at new and innovative ways of improving patronage. Passengers using our new Perth Busport with its state-of-the-art dynamic stand allocation system can now wait in air-conditioned comfort for their bus, and very soon we will deliver a real-time bus tracking system that will provide passengers with accurate real time predictions of bus arrival times via mobile apps and the website, taking away the uncertainty of travel times. Despite these initiatives and all-time high customer satisfaction levels, the recent unprecedented decline in the local economy has been particularly challenging for Transperth, as it has been for many other service related businesses in Perth but we are confident that as the economy improves, so too will our patronage levels.
Most importantly, PTA are most pleased to see that the Auditor General has confirmed that Transperth is meeting or exceeding targets for accessibility, reliability, safety and customer satisfaction, as these matters represent aspects of our business that we and our passengers believe are vitally important to making public transport more desirable.