News & Discussion: Regional Transport

[SBD]

It's barely regional, but lots of chatter today with people questioning the rail strategy of the government.

Mali has been telling people to leave early for the Lyndoch game since there's only one main road there, meanwhile the train line runs right next to the oval. With a relatively modest investment the government could have had diesel trains running right from the Gather Round festival area at Elder Park to the stop right next to the oval at Lyndoch.

I can’t argue against that, even though I don’t in general support extending the metro rail. I want to see us reestablish regional cities and towns, not allow the Adelaide urban sprawl to stretch out to reach them.

Didn’t the contracts with private operators require them to have to restore the line in short notice?

[dbl96]

Rather than investing hundreds of millions of dollars into a regional rail network the government should make regional transport cheaper, more frequent and integrated into the Adelaide Metro system. This means being able to use Metrocards (with a higher charge, but not the crazy costs we have now), Google Maps and making sure buses connect to trains in places like Gawler and Seaford. Some of this already exists with the services to Victor Harbor, but the prices are still too high.

Once the demand has been proven and mode shift has occurred we can think about extending the rail network into regional areas. Let's start with simplifying things before we move to the tough, expensive decisions.

At a bare minimum, LinkSA needs to give their timetable data to Google Maps. I recently caught a public (LinkSA) bus to Murray Bridge from Adelaide. I previously had no idea you could even do this, but it turns out there are six or so services per day. I only found out about after some detective work online about options for getting there on public transport. If you just wack Murray Bridge into Google Maps as your destination, it will tell you to catch the twice weekly Overland.

At this point I’m not sure what the point is of the distinction between LinkSA and Stateliner. It would seem to me that the best option would be to set up a properly integrated state-wide bus network along the lines of V-Line’s system.

[dsriggs]

At a bare minimum, LinkSA needs to give their timetable data to Google Maps. I recently caught a public (LinkSA) bus to Murray Bridge from Adelaide. I previously had no idea you could even do this, but it turns out there are six or so services per day. I only found out about after some detective work online about options for getting there on public transport. If you just wack Murray Bridge into Google Maps as your destination, it will tell you to catch the twice weekly Overland.

At this point I’m not sure what the point is of the distinction between LinkSA and Stateliner. It would seem to me that the best option would be to set up a properly integrated state-wide bus network along the lines of V-Line’s system.

According to this, it costs $24.20 to get from Murray Bridge to Adelaide, but only $15.20 to get from Murray Bridge to Mount Barker. If you go from Murray Bridge to Mount Barker, then change busses to the T800 to Adelaide, it'll cost you $19.60 peak or $17.70 off-peak, a saving of $4.60-$6.50 depending on the time. Just an example of how convoluted & confusing regional transport is here.

[Modbury_Man]

Rather than investing hundreds of millions of dollars into a regional rail network the government should make regional transport cheaper, more frequent and integrated into the Adelaide Metro system. This means being able to use Metrocards (with a higher charge, but not the crazy costs we have now), Google Maps and making sure buses connect to trains in places like Gawler and Seaford. Some of this already exists with the services to Victor Harbor, but the prices are still too high.

Once the demand has been proven and mode shift has occurred we can think about extending the rail network into regional areas. Let's start with simplifying things before we move to the tough, expensive decisions.

At a bare minimum, LinkSA needs to give their timetable data to Google Maps. I recently caught a public (LinkSA) bus to Murray Bridge from Adelaide. I previously had no idea you could even do this, but it turns out there are six or so services per day. I only found out about after some detective work online about options for getting there on public transport. If you just wack Murray Bridge into Google Maps as your destination, it will tell you to catch the twice weekly Overland.

At this point I’m not sure what the point is of the distinction between LinkSA and Stateliner. It would seem to me that the best option would be to set up a properly integrated state-wide bus network along the lines of V-Line’s system.

Agree, it's frustrating that regional operators information isn't shared with Google - especially when LinkSA already have their bus tracking data available online via the TransportME app - https://transportme.com.au/passenger-app/

LinkSA is owner by French-Australian joint venture company Keolis Downer and operate in several of the regional SA bus contract areas (e.g. Murraylands, Barossa, Northern Adelaide Hills, Fleurieu etc), and Stateliner is a locally owned SA company who operate regional route services as part of a contract with the State Government.

The main difference between Victoria and SA's regional coach/bus system is that Victoria tenders out the regional bus/coaches much like we do for AdelaideMetro services e.g. the coach/bus company put in a tender for how much they can run the services for, the Government selects the best tender and then the Government pays the company to run these services and all fare revenue comes into the State Government - and all operate under the Vline/PTV livery/banner.

In SA, regional bus/coach geographical areas/routes are put up for tender, and companies submit offers to the Government. The successful tenderer gets the contract and the SA Government provides them with a small subsidy which I think it meant to largely cover the cost of cheaper children/concession fares, however in the main adult fares aren't subsidised - hence why they cost so much. The operator gets to keep all the fare revenue, however due to this, they operate fewer services to ensure they're only running services at times of peak demand (as they need to recover their costs from the fares sold essentially). Recent Auditor-General documentation shows that the annual SA Government budget for regional bus/coach in SA is about $25 million - whereas in Victoria, the annual budget for Vline for regional bus/coach/train is over $1 billion!