Editorial: Get on board Hobart bus solution

Two Tasmanian mayors are to be congratulated for finding out first-hand what the issues are for everyday bus travellers — the challenge now will be to get some concrete action to solve some of those problems.

AT the start of February two Greater Hobart mayors set themselves a challenge to see which one could rack up the most bus trips.

In taking part in the friendly competition Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds and Glenorchy Mayor Kristie Johnston hoped to encourage others to use Metro’s buses and to highlight the need for greater investment in public transport.

At the halfway point of their trial the mayors have found that while there are benefits, their trips have revealed some of the problems of trying to use public transport to get around Hobart.

Metro bus driver Andrew Wiggins, Glenorchy Mayor Kristie Johnson, Associate Professor Verity Cleland and Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds on a Metro bus at Moonah. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

Cr Johnston pointed out one instance where she wanted to travel from her home to Glenorchy City Council chambers in time to arrive by 8.30am on a Saturday. Her travel planning app advised she would need to leave the night before.

A post on the Mercury’s Facebook page showed the problems highlighted by our civic leaders resonated with many readers.

A common response was “welcome to my world”. Many highlighted problems of irregular services outside peak hours. Readers from Taroona, Kingston and beyond in the south, Lindisfarne and Warrane on the Eastern Shore and Berridale in the north expressed how challenging the public transport system can be.

The two mayors are to be congratulated for mixing it in the real world and finding out first-hand what the issues are for everyday bus travellers. The challenge now will be to get some concrete action to solve some of those problems.

Greater Hobart has the lowest uptake of public transport of any Australian capital and it’s easy to see why. A broad criticism of the Metro service is that while travel at peak times is relatively good, for non-peak times the service drops off quickly. Many routes only offer a bus every hour after about 6.30pm. On weekends and public holidays it’s even worse. The further out from the CBD you go, the worse it gets. Booming suburbs like Sorell, Margate, and Brighton have poor bus services, which simply doesn’t make a lot of sense. Commuters from these suburbs are forced into cars, which adds to Hobart’s congestion woes.

The Government is trying to encourage more public transport use by offering free bus travel for commuters before 7am — but it is for a limited time (it runs for less than four weeks and ends on Friday) and to be frank is unlikely to ease congestion. If you travel in a car between 8 and 9, you are hardly likely to jump on a bus to arrive at work an hour early. If the Government is serious about encouraging Metro use, perhaps it could offer free trips at more convenient times and for longer periods.

It’s a bit of a chicken or egg argument — if we want more people to use public transport, we need to offer more services, but it’s difficult to justify expanding services, if few people are using them.

No one is pretending this is an easy problem to fix. Changing work patterns, a rental crisis and lack of inner-city housing make the public transport puzzle difficult to solve. But taxpayers are already propping up Metro to the tune of $101 million a year — surely we should get a better service for that sort of money.