The quality and timeliness of any service is critical for any business if it wants to remain relevant or survive in a competitive market place. And this applies to public transport. The service might be underwritten by the State government but delivery of poor service, that no one wants comes at a huge cost so why does the government continue to disrupt services on a regular basis.
There was a time when public transport operators in this State put their passengers first, when infrastructure projects and essential maintenance works were carefully planned to ensure passenger services were not disrupted and took responsibility for ensuring passengers were not inconvenienced.
“ If your train is late it’s a 100% failure on our part (Ian Hodges, General Manager, Vic Rail, in reference to an inquiry into factors leading to and causes of failures in the provision of metropolitan and V/Line train services 1978). In the 1970’s when VicRail was starved of funds due to cost overruns of the Underground Loop and cut backs in railway expenditure its General Manager would still take responsibility for service failures. But not the new operator, Connex, who would simply apologise for the “inconvenience” and was not even liable for compensation unless a service was grossly late.
The situation is even worse now. The government assumes it is ok to disrupt services and advises travellers to check whether services are running before making their trip. It is obvious that building mega infrastructure projects has a higher priority now than running an essential service. Just imagine if Qantas adopted a similar approach, apologising for a flight cancellation but advised that substitute buses were available whilst important capital works such as a new terminal were being carried out. It would be out of business in less than a week.
This new government philosophy shows scant respect for the travelling public but also makes no financial sense. It simply does not pay to run a lousy service. Fixed costs are still incurred whether trains run or not and substitute buses do not come free. Disruptions invariably result in lost patronage, and once lost are difficult to get back. It is easier to get new customers than get the lost ones back, who have often committed themselves to alternative travel arrangements such as buying a car.
The impact extends beyond the public transport service’s financial bottom line. It is passed on in the form of more road traffic, pollution, accidents and the demand for more spending on road works. All of this is happening when there is an urgent need to reduce transport greenhouse emissions.