Queensland election 2017: Labor accused of hiding transport data

THE State Government has been accused of sitting on the latest public transport data because it is a bad look before the election.

COMMUTERS continue to abandon public transport, ­despite the State Government cutting the cost of travel.

New Brisbane City Council analysis shows patronage across trains, buses and ferries fell 1.5 per cent – or 2.7 million trips – in the year to the end of June.

This is despite the Fairer Fares package introduced last December, which the Government predicted would add eight million trips.

Commuter advocates have accused the Government of sitting on public transport patronage and performance data to avoid embarrassment.

The release of regular public reports from TransLink are well behind schedule.

“We suspect they have been prepared, that the data is available, but is not being released. They must be bad,” Rail Back On Track spokesman Robert Dow said.

TransLink’s monthly public transport performance snapshot, which measures customer satisfaction, has not been published since May.

The last report showed deteriorating ratings for rail services.

Transport Minister Jackie Trad in Parliament. Picture: Glenn Hunt/AAP

Likewise, the TransLink Tracker report for the three months to the end of June has not been released.

That contains details of patronage across public transport modes, punctuality results and customer complaints.

Mr Dow said the fact that Transport Minister Jackie Trad referred to on-time performance data for the September quarter in Parliament last week indicated her office had the information, but it was being kept from the public.

“The only reason I can think of is that the election is imminent and they don’t want negative feedback,” he said.

The council analysis shows the number of passengers has dropped 9.5 per cent since 2008-09. This included a period where fares were increased by 15 per cent every year for three years from 2010-11.

Brisbane City Council public transport committee chairman Adrian Schrinner said the fare reduction was welcomed, but it failed to go far enough.

A spokeswoman for Ms Trad accused council of deliberately releasing “selective analysis” on day three of the election campaign.

“As we have said previously, patronage would increase gradually under Fairer Fares, but we do know that since its introduction public transport satisfaction has reached its highest levels since 2012,” the spokeswoman said.

Originally published as Queensland election 2017: Labor accused of hiding transport data