ACTION obviously cannot please all of its customers all the time. Yesterday it introduced its new timetable at the same time instituting a new workplace agreement with its employees. The new timetable has been greeted with much grumbling. Of course, all those whose route has been made longer, less regular or more expensive complained bitterly, while those who benefited by a shorter, more regular or cheaper route remain quietly pleased. They think that is their entitlement.
ACTION has reduced its costs to the taxpayers in the past five years, but it is still at between $40 million and $45 million a year, depending on whose view of the figures you take. That is about $150 per head. There is plan to more than halve that loss. Part will come from the workplace agreement and part from hoped-for increased patronage as a result of the new timetables.
There may be more optimism than reality here. The patronage will need close monitoring, judging by the complaints. Whether the workplace agreement meets expectation is also problematical in a climate of hostility to change and entrenchment of conditions.
It may be the last gasp for ACTION as we know it: a modern bus fleet that seeks mass patronage by delivering comprehensive service. Instead ratepayers may decide that, given Canberrans cannot be enticed from their cars, there is no point paying such a large subsidy for such a grand service when a lesser subsidy will produce an adequate, if reduced, service for those who don’t have cars.