The ratepayers of the ACT have subsidised the public bus system to the tune of $40 million to $50 million a year for the best part of two decades. This has been done under the rationale that a subsidised public system will provide services not capable of being provided by an unsubsidised private system. The theory has been that the taxpayer ought to subsidise a public system for the benefit of people who cannot afford cars or to reduce the reliance on the private car, particularly at peak periods.
That is a fine theory. But now we learn that the public subsidisation of the bus service in the ACT has been in vain. The service is no better, indeed it is worse, than many unsubsidised private systems. A report by Roger Graham and Associates presented to the ACT Government last week paints an almost laughable picture of bungling, inefficiency, incompetence, red tape, union recalcitrance and management spinelessness. It would be laughable if it were someone else’s bus service.
The appalling thing is that this story is not especially new. When Labor was in office, the picture was similar. There was a little tinkering around the edges. There were some painfully drawn out concessions to slightly modify some bad work practices. The public subsidy was reduce from the palpably ridiculous to the merely unacceptably high.
In the very week that the report came out a further example of the fundamental problem emerged: any slight suggestion of change is met by bullying resistance by bus drivers and their union, the Transport Workers’ Union. They opposed an eight-week weekend trial to allow the Queanbeyan-Canberra bus operator, Deane’s, to pick up and set down passengers within the ACT. They imposed bans not to collect fares, which is tantamount to going on strike because it sets an unacceptable condition upon work.
On virtually every benchmark, ACTION underperformed. True, the history of ACT planning and charges for ground infrastructure by the ACT Government make some comparisons difficult, but even allowing for this, the under performance against other public and private operators was significant.
Of greater significance was the overall customer dissatisfaction with the service. The report painted the picture of people getting off at cold, desolate interchanges only to see the tail lights of their connecting bus disappear into the twilight.
The Graham report cited both union and management deficiencies. But to be fair to management, there has been a mindset in ACTION that change will be resisted or seen as an excuse to tweak higher pay. The fact remains that the radical changes required to deliver better services to Canberrans for the same or less money cannot be achieved under present structures. In particular, driver shifts are hopelessly inefficient. The ratio of part-time and casual drivers to full-timers is too low and shift starting and finishing times are too rigid.
Customers and the ever-suffering ratepayers are not getting value for money. Ratepayers would not mind paying a subsidy if some passenger satisfaction resulted. At present passengers and ratepayers are getting the worse of both worlds, and have been doing so for decades.
It is time for the ACT Government to take competition and privatisation off the hidden agenda and put them right up front.