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| TransLink Spin |
Page 39 - When there was a massive fare increase in 2009 commuters were promised 301,000 extra seats on public transport by July 2010, of which 83,400 would be on trains. Whilst TransLink met the 301,000 target, only 30,000 of those seats were on trains. So the quote " TransLink successfully delivered the full 301 000 seats per week in July 2010 " is a bit of a porky isn't it? It should also be noted that some of the 301,000 extra seats went on school buses.
Page 45 - This page references the unpublished March 2010 QR Passenger Load Survey with the quote " The March 2010 survey identified that the overall percentage of morning peak-period train services that exceeded their comfort measure of one person standing more than 20 minutes was 28 per cent in 2009–10, down from 33 per cent in 2008–09. The proportion of afternoon peak-period train services that exceeded benchmarks was 20 per cent in 2009–10, down from 21 per cent in 2008–09". However, TransLink failed to mention that this decrease in overcrowding was because the am peak train patronage fell by approximately 4%. A bit ironic given that the title of this page is "Growing capacity to meet peak passenger demand". By the way, this patronage decrease was not due to previous pre go card miscalculations, this load survey was performed by actually counting the numbers of passengers on trains. The fact the TransLink have failed to increase passenger numbers on trains on 2009/10 shows that TransLink's price hikes and lack of action in improving train services is discouraging commuters from using the rail network. This is a serious TransLink failure!
Page 45 and 46 - At the bottom of page 45 the report mentions that bus service kilometres increased by 7%, and train service kilometres increased by just 3% in 2009/10. On page 46, place kilometres across the network increased by only 5.6%. Yet fares increased by between 20-40%. Go figure!
Page 49 - The quote " Under the new fare structure, go card fares in 2010 are the same price or less than single paper ticket fares were in 2007. go card fares are now also approximately 30 per cent cheaper than a single paper ticket in 2010. " is a prime example of TransLink spin which does not fool commuters. The reality is that for the average commuter, weekly fares are 30-40% higher than in 2007. Yet surprisingly, this fact isn't quoted in the annual report. Lets also not mention the quote on this page about removing legacy paper tickets.
Page 55 - On this page, one of TransLink's achievements was " the completion of the Northern Busway (Royal Children’s Hospital Herston to Windsor) ". No mention of the fact that many commuters endured 7 months of hell until TransLink extended the route 66 bus from QUT Kelvin Grove to RBWH. Another serious TransLink fail in 2009/10.
Page 84 - This page looks at TransLink's plans for 2010/11. Good news for commuters on the Ipswich/Richlands/Caboolture Line. But absolutely no mention of any extra services on the rest of rail network. This is very disappointing, given that QR informed community reference group members in late 2008 that new timetables were expected for all lines in 2010. There is also no mention on this page of increasing bus frequencies to reduce the occurrences of full buses on popular Buz routes.
Report grade - F. Must try harder!
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