Buses out of ACTION

[Ed]

Buses out of ACTION

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/buses-out-of-action/2257674.aspx

BY MICHAEL INMAN
14 Aug, 2011 12:00 AM
FOUR ACTION buses break down every day, with a fault recorded every five hours they're on the road.
But ACTION's director of bus services James Roncon has defended the network, saying the numbers can be misleading.

ACT Government figures show the public transport provider experienced 1416 breakdowns in the 2010-11 financial year.

The number is a spike of more than one-third on the previous year's 1045 breakdowns, according to answers to questions on notice provided to the ACT Liberals.

ACTION provide a fleet of 447 buses across its transport network on average 19 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The 1416 breakdowns means an ACTION bus breaks down an average of every five hours the network is in operation. This is a rate of 3.75 faults each day.

With bus breakdowns leaping in the past financial year, Opposition transport spokesman Alistair Coe said it's unacceptable for Canberrans to be paying for an unreliable and infrequent bus service.

"Canberra taxpayers give $321 every year for ACTION buses, whether or not they are in the 8 per cent who actually use the service," Mr Coe said.

"This is a significant taxpayer contribution towards a service that is still so poorly managed by the Government. I urge ACT Labor to make tangible changes to improve the efficiency of the ACTION network and to ensure taxpayer dollars aren't misspent.

"Canberrans should not be paying through the roof for an unreliable service."

But Mr Roncon said portraying breakdown figures by an hourly basis was not industry practice.

Instead, the industry standard was to measure breakdowns according to the number per 100,000km. Mr Roncon said ACTION suffered 5.33 breakdowns per 100,000km, which was better than the industry benchmark of six per 100,000km.

He said this was an impressive feat considering the ACTION bus fleet travelled about 24 million kilometres last year.

"If you look at the number of kilometres we travel each year with a fleet of [447] buses, if you're only having 1400 breakdowns a year, it's not a big problem," Mr Roncon said. A $75 million program to replace 135 buses is due for completion in 2013 and Mr Roncon hoped breakdown numbers would decrease with the upgraded fleet.

ACT Transport Workers Union secretary Klaus Pinkas was also unconcerned by the breakdown rate.

Mr Pinkas said new and old buses provide the bulk of problems in heavy vehicles maintenance.

But he expects the number to stabilise and possibly decrease in the future.

Source: Canberra Times

[Irisbus Rider]

The fact that a photo of an Irisbus is used in the article is very apt IMO

I saw some figures which compared ACTION's breakdown rates to Sydney Buses', and ACTION had a lower breakdown rate. If the figures are correct, it's an interesting comparison which was made. However, breakdowns in Canberra would be felt by passengers much more than in Sydney, due to the difference in the frequency of the services.

[belcodriver]

I'm surprised it's been such a long time between beatup non-stories about ACTION in the CT.

[Kramden]

Yes, I've noticed how they (the CT) like to sink the boot in on a seemingly regular basis.  Must have been a slow news day.

[belcodriver]

According to a fellow driver, in the late 80s the TWU blacked Canberra in solidarity with an ACTION drivers strike and the CT couldn't get their paper and/or ink and have hated us ever since.