Government slammed for $3.10 bus trips that taxpayers subsidise by $2000 per journey

PASSENGERS are paying $3.10 for a bus service that is costing taxpayers a staggering amount of money, in what has been labelled an “absolute debacle”.

A 3km bus journey, that costs passengers just $3.10 each, is being subsidised by the taxpayer by a staggering $2000 per person, government data has revealed.

A trial of Uber-style on-demand buses in parts of New South Wales has proved so spectacularly unsuccessful that the few passengers climbing on board are paying just 0.2 per cent of the actual cost of the trip.

The worst example is in the Central Coast where a service introduced in May was taken up by just 233 passengers. The service cost $481,582 to run, or $2067 per person per trip.

Labor has said the trials have been an “amazing and absolute debacle” and the millions spent could have been better directed to improving standard bus routes.

But the NSW Government has defended the millions lavished on on-demand buses and said the trial was “all about learning and continuous improvement”.

Transport for NSW (TfNSW) said some of the pilots have been extended due to demand but the public body conceded other trials have seen empty buses trundling around empty streets.

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance and NSW Finance Minister Victor Dominello at the launch of the on-demand bus service last year. Picture: ABC

In total, more than $7 million has so far been spent by the NSW Government on the rollout of on-demand buses across Sydney, Newcastle and the Central Coast.

The vehicles don’t serve predetermined routes. Rather, locals can order a bus, via an app, to come direct to their door within a defined area for about the same price as a timetabled bus.

“We have on-demand movies, on-demand food, and finally — NSW will have on-demand transport,” NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance said at the service’s launch last year.

“Imagine not having to check a timetable because you know your service will be there when and where you need it.”

But, as the Government has found, that convenience comes at a high cost. In July news.com.au reported how some journeys were subsidised to the tune of almost $200 a journey. The new figures show in some cases, the subsidy is far higher.

A trial of on-demand buses in Wetherill Park, in Sydney’s southwest, cost just shy of $1 million, reported the Fairfield Advance.

But it was scrapped after just 1062 passengers used the buses. That worked out at $940 per journey, yet the fare was just $3.10, or 0.3 per cent of the cost per journey. Taxpayers were forking out $936.90 every time someone took a ride.

In Wetherill Park, just 50 passengers used the on-demand buses in one month compared to the 16,000 passengers who use Sydney’s busiest bus route, the 400 from Burwood to Bondi Junction via the airport, each day.

The buses can be booked to pick up from any home or business in given areas and generally link to transport hubs, schools and hospitals. Picture: AAP Image/Angelo Velardo

A new trial introduced in the Central Coast in May, connecting the Woy Woy peninsula to the town’s railway station, has proved even more expensive.

Costing $481,582 to run, only 233 passengers had used the on-demand bus service during the first month of its operation. That equated to a cost of $2067 per trip with the actual passenger contributing just 0.2 per cent of the cost.

Of the 11 trials, four have per journey costs that amount to hundreds of dollars; two were in the thousands.

Labor MP for Prospect, Hugh McDermott, who is also the chair of the party’s Waste Watch committee, said while the per trip cost of the Central Coast trial would fall as more people used the service, he predicted taxpayers would still be forced to offset each fare by hundreds of dollars.

Mr McDermott, who received the farebox figures through a freedom of information request, told news.com.au the Government hadn’t planned the trials properly, many of which were concentrated in industrial areas with few residents.

There are calls for the millions spent to be redirect to standard bus services. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

“It’s a massive failure. They haven’t really thought this out before they started wasting millions of dollars on rushed and flawed trials just to show they’re doing something.

“It’s a quite amazing and a massive debacle. Those millions could have been spent on a normal bus service instead of this ridiculous idea of a bus service.”

Mr McDermott conceded other trials had been more cost-effective. On-demand buses in Manly, on Sydney’s northern beaches, cost $11 per trip with the passenger contributing $3.10 with the service area recently extended. But he said that was due to the area being underserved by regular buses.

The NSW Government has pointed out that no transport mode in the state, and few worldwide, fully cover their cost by fares alone.

About 20 per cent of the cost of providing transport services in Sydney is recovered from fares, similar figures to many Australian cities.

Wellington and Chicago residents pay more than half the cost of their trips. But only a few transport systems, such as the London Underground and Hong Kong’s MTR, pay for themselves.

Labor MP Hugh McDermott said the on-demand buses were a waste of money. Picture: AAP/Carmela Roche

But even averaged out across the 11 trials, the on-demand buses have a high contribution from taxpayers. About 80,000 individual on-demand trips was made between October 2017 and June 2018 costing an average of $90 each when you divide the total contract cost by each journey. If each passenger paid $3.10 they financially contributed just 3.4 per cent of the trip, low by any standard.

TfNSW said each trial was different, with different vehicles, and couldn’t be compared.

The organisation pointed out some pilots had been more successful than others with services in Manly and the Sutherland Shire attracting more than 20,000 passengers each. More than 100,000 journeys have now been made across the service and as patronage grew the cost per trip would come down.

“On-demand transport pilots are trialling different service models that provide greater flexibility and mobility for customers,” a spokeswoman said.

“On-demand pilots are all about learning and continuous improvement and, importantly, allow us to obtain significant new data, including where and when people actually want to travel and the innovative services they’re willing to try.

“This data is expected to inform improvements and changes in the entire transport network - investment is required to achieve this.”

The organisation said it had axed some unpopular pilots due to low patronage during the trial.

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