The Chief Minister is in damage control over ACTION’s performance following a question asked of him in November 2009 by Alistair Coe, Shadow Minister for Transport Services.

ACTION-Euro5“The truth behind the spin is that the empty ACTION buses cost the ACT taxpayer almost $30,000 every weekday.  ‘Dead running’ (empty buses) travel over 12,000 kilometers every weekday with no one on board,” said Mr Coe.

The question on notice, lodged on 19 November asked about the cost of ‘dead running’ – the term used to describe the travel between the depot and the start of a route and subsequent travel between the end and beginning routes. Ministers are meant to respond to questions within 30 days yet this question took more than 100 days to be answered.

“In a shallow display of politics, the day the answer was made available to the Opposition, Mr Stanhope put out a statement calling on ACTION to consider the use of ‘satellite bus depot sites’ to try and soften the bad news. (Jon Stanhope Press Release, 11/3/10)

In the 15 weeks that has elapsed between asking the question and Mr Stanhope responding, $2,417,794 has been spent on 1,037,850 km of dead running buses.

ACTION Buses (Network and RedEx)

Week Day Saturday Sunday Weekly Fortnightly Yearly
$29,499 $8,130 $5,563 $161,186 $322,373 $8,381,686
12,665km 3,482km 2,383km 69,190km 138,380km 3,597,880km

“The above figures highlight the gross inefficiencies in the ACTION system and money that could be better spent on providing better route services for Canberrans,” Mr Coe said.

“Instead of spending more than 100 days working out how to spin the appalling figures, Mr Stanhope should have been addressing the excessive waste.

“The Chief Minister needs to state whether these figures are acceptable and if not, what immediate action he will take to reduce them,” Mr Coe concluded.