Adelaide commuters stick to cars over public transport options
Public transport use in Adelaide is still a long way off pre-COVID levels despite traffic jams being back in town. But the State Government says it is still spending up big to get more people on public transport.
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Public transport patronage in Adelaide continues to be shunned despite traffic tracking close to pre-COVID levels, new figures show.
Transport Department data shows bus, train and tram use is still down by about a third from the same time last year.
There were 815,806 trips across the bus, tram and train network last week – compared to 1,259,558 trips for the same week in 2019.
However, the numbers are a vast improvement on travel during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, when trips dropped by about 75 per cent to 300,000 in the one week – at the end of March and start of April.
In comparison, The Advertiser earlier this month revealed 90 per cent of the traffic pre-COVID was now back on the road.
Acting Transport Minister Rob Lucas, who is filling in for an on-holiday Corey Wingard who had replaced Stephan Knoll after his resignation last month, said the figures were to be expected.
But they have prompted calls for the State Government to continue to work on plans to lift the number of public transport users, after bold plans to overhaul the system were scrapped.
Mr Lucas said early drops made sense, as South Australians heeded SA health advice to stay at home, where possible. “Of course, there remain many people right across Adelaide who are choosing to continue to work from home .... others may be choosing to take the car, for the time being, as a way of promoting physical distancing,” Mr Lucas said.
The government is building almost $1bn worth of public transport infrastructure including new and expanded Park ‘N’ Ride facilities along the O-Bahn, new Flinders Link Project in the southern suburbs and the Gawler Rail Electrification Project in northern Adelaide, Mr Lucas said.
RAA spokesman Charles Mountain said the government needed to continue to examine the reason why people were using public transport, or continuing to shun it.
“We need to continue to look at other ways of delivering public transport whether it’s light rail or some other form of technology including things like trackless trams,” Mr Mountain said.
“All of these things need to continually looked at to see whether they can provide the missing links in our public transport infrastructure ensure its sustainability and attract more people to use it.”
The data also shows that public transport patronage between January 1 and July 31 this year was 34.4 per cent down on the same period in 2019.
Total validations, across the bus tram and train network dropped from 40 million to 26 million.