Perth transport delays and disruptions on the rise as Metronet rattles along

Transperth’s latest passenger survey has found dissatisfaction with Perth’s network is growing off the back of long delays and disruptions caused by Metronet.

The survey conducted by Painted Dog Research for the Public Transport Authority showed the impact of the state government’s record $11 billion investment had caused significant pain for many passengers.

A new survey shows there is growing frustration with many aspects of Perth’s public transport system.Credit: iStockphoto

Nearly 45,000 passengers were surveyed on all elements of their travel experience from the frequency of services to the cleanliness of train stations.

Armadale passengers, burdened by the extended rail line closure, expressed significant dissatisfaction with bus services.

About 20 per cent of bus passengers in Armadale and Southern River were unhappy with the peak service frequency, and that grew to almost 50 per cent on weekends. They were significantly less satisfied with connection times than other users – potentially due to their lower satisfaction with journey duration and punctuality, resulting in passengers missing connecting services.

Security concerns at night also rose – with one-in-four passengers feeling unsafe while waiting for public transport, and 20 per cent of bus passengers feeling unsafe while on the bus, with many reporting verbal threats and harassment.

More than 144 million train, bus and ferry boardings were recorded in 2023-24, a 17 per cent increase on the previous year and the best boardings total in almost a decade, falling just short of 2015-16’s 145.6 million.

Buses continued to be the most popular mode of public transport with 83 million boardings – the best since 2014-15 (84 million) – while ferries recorded their best year ever with more than 871,000 boardings, a 16.5 per cent increase on the previous record of 747,881 in 2016-17.

Trains notched 59 million boardings – the best since 2018-19 (61.5 million). All lines, except the partially-closed Armadale Line, experienced significant growth in patronage numbers when compared to the previous 12 months.

Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said passengers outlined the success of state government policies focused on reducing public transport fares to ease cost-of-living pressure – including free weekday travel for students, free travel every Sunday, and the ongoing two-zone fare cap.

“What this record-breaking year shows is that Western Australians are choosing to make public transport a regular part of their travels to work, school and leisure activities,” she said.

“We expect to see those numbers continue to grow in the years ahead as more people use public transport, and access grows through major projects like the Metronet Morley-Ellenbrook line and Armadale line transformation.”

The survey revealed around a third of bus patrons experienced a disruption to their journey in the past 12 months – up significantly from last year and continuing the undulating trend seen since this metric was tracked.

Patrons of services in the Rockingham and Mandurah corridor were most likely to have experienced impacts (63 per cent), while 32 per cent of Southern River and Armadale passengers experienced impacts.

More than half of train passengers experienced service disruptions in the past 12 months with the biggest impacts felt on the Airport line (63 per cent), followed by Joondalup (62 per cent), Mandurah (56 per cent) and Midland (50 per cent).

Overall satisfaction with the PTA’S bus and CAT service sits at 90 per cent.

Following last year’s slight dip, ferry passenger satisfaction has recovered to 99 per cent. There were no dissatisfied ferry passengers, consistent since 2020.

Satisfaction with bus frequency on weekdays has fallen significantly, to 82 per cent this year, with satisfaction with bus frequency during peak times falling significantly to a 10-year low.

Safety perceptions at night have fallen significantly with the proportion who always felt safe below 50 per cent among Fremantle, Cockburn and Circle Route patrons.

Nighttime safety on board buses is lowest among users of services in Midland with a third of passengers reporting they don’t feel very safe on board at night.

Overall 24 per cent of passengers felt unsafe, a jump from 17 per cent the previous year and the highest level since 2015. Around two in five felt unsafe due to the lack of transit security officers present with drunks, drug users and ‘strange people’ among the most cited reasons for feeling unsafe.

Significantly more train passengers are dissatisfied with the availability of space on the train.

Compared to passengers of the other train lines, Midland passengers were the least likely to be very satisfied with the punctuality of the train.

WA Opposition leader Shane Love MLA said the results of the survey were unacceptable.

“The Cook Labor Government must act urgently to restore public confidence in the safety of our transport system,” he said.

“Passenger safety, service reliability, and declining satisfaction are interconnected and point to the strain that Metronet is placing on the WA families and visitors who utilise our public transport network.”

A Climate Council analysis in July found more than 1.2 million people living in Perth don’t have access to frequent, all-day public transport, making Perth the second-worst out of Australia’s five largest capital cities for access to frequent, convenient and reliable public transport.

The minimum level of public transport service considered to be necessary for people to choose it over a car trip is a service running every 15 minutes between 7am-7pm, within 800 metres of the home.

Some of the biggest service gaps across the country are in Kwinana, Mandurah and Armadale. The best availability in Perth is in the CBD, Belmont, Victoria Park and Fremantle.

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