Melbourne bus patronage numbers down as rising traffic congestion bites commuters

BUS patronage in Melbourne has fallen significantly as passengers flee from the mode of transport due to an issue which is estimated to cost Australian cities $16.5 billion a year.

BUS patronage in Melbourne has fallen significantly because of rising traffic snarls and congestion which is estimated to cost Australian cities $16.5 billion a year.

Gridlock is adding 34 minutes to the average daily commute in Melbourne, says a report to be released tomorrow by Tourism and Transport Forum Australia.

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The Public Transport Barometer report says the city was among the most congested in the world.

It ranked 58th, but was less congested than New York (49), Auckland (40), Paris (35) and Sydney (29).

Buses in traffic gridlock on the Eastern Freeway.

Mexico City, Bangkok, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro and Beijing were the most congested cities.

In 2017, Melburnians took 237 million rail trips — up 1.5 per cent on the previous year — and 204 million tram trips — up slightly on 2016.

But the number of bus trips fell by almost 4 per cent to 118 million, the study by L.E.KConsulting found.

TTF chief executive Margy Osmond said Melbourne’s booming economy and growing workforce were the primary drivers of a surge in public transport last year.

“(But) getting on the bus was found to be a decreasingly popular option, which is partially attributable to increasing congestion and improving popularity of the tram system due to recent government promotional efforts,” she said.

Bus patronage numbers in Melbourne are declining. Picture: Sarah Matray

L.E.K. Consulting senior partner Simon Barrett said rising congestion was costing Australian cities $6 billion in private time costs, $8 billion in business time, $1.5 billion in extra vehicle operations and $1 billion in added air pollution costs.

Meanwhile, another report to be published today says less than 3 per cent of workers in Melbourne’s western suburbs relied on trains or buses to get to work.

“Nearly 70 per cent of the west’s workers do not have frequent weekday services within walking distance of their house,” said Leadwest’s report, The Future is West: Investing in Melbourne’s Newest Generation.

Rail trips are up due to massive population growth.

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The report called for more investment in high-quality public transport

It said that not doing so would unnecessarily divert scarce funds into roads, “entrenching disadvantage through the high and rising cost of owning and operating a car”.

About 250 babies a week are born in the west, and the region’s 835,000 population will have added the equivalent of two Canberras by 2030.

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@JMasanauskas