After years of neglect and a lack of leadership, inefficiencies within ACTION are almost beyond the control of the Chief Minister and ACT Labor, according to the Shadow Minister for Transport Services, Alistair Coe.

The accountability indicators in Budget Paper 4, (Pg 131) show that ACTION is failing against almost every measure. These disappointments are in addition to the high occurrences of accidents and $30,000 wasted every weekday of dead running buses.

The key findings in the budget are:

  2009-10 Target 2009-10 Est Outcome Change
Timeliness 83% 82% -1%
Customer Satisfaction 85% 80% -5%
Increase in Modal Share 2.9% -5% -7.9
Increase in Patronage 529,000 -801,000 -1,330,000
Cost per KM $4.06 $4.13 2%
Total Cost per Passenger $5.43 $6.30 14%
Fares as % of Cost 21 20.1 -0.9
Staff (FTE) 715 775 60
Employee Expenses $57,576,000 $60,133,000 4%

“Rather than increasing, the proportion of people using buses (modal share) decreased by 5% and there were 1.33 million less customers than targeted. This is perhaps the most disappointing aspect given ACT Labor is actively trying to force Canberrans out of their cars with higher parking fees and reduce car parking space.

“This Government wants to use an increase in the cost of parking as a tool to get people on buses – this is simply an attack on Canberrans for whom ACTION buses are not an option.

“Despite all these poor results, ACTION employed an additional 60 full time staff at a cost of more than $2.5 million.

“While the overhead costs of ACTION continue to increase, it will increasingly become harder to improve routes and patronage.

“As a matter of urgency, Mr Stanhope needs to outline his plan for improving ACTION,” concluded Mr Coe.