Australia’s public transport sector needs to take advantage of the “heaven-sent opportunity” presented by the current fuel crisis to change the way the public thinks about mobility, says Jeroen Weimar, Secretary of the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning.
Speaking at the PTAANZ Public Transport Policy Symposium at Metropolis in Melbourne this week, Weimar said: “With people spending $200, $250 to fill up the tanks [of their cars], we can’t waste this crisis.
“Our colleagues at Monash University and every other research institution would give their right arm for an opportunity like this to see – what will this do to our system? How will travel patterns change?”
With Victoria offering free public transport across the months of April and May – which will be followed by half-price fares for the rest of the year – Weimar said the state has seen a 25 to 35 per cent uptick in demand across trains, trams and buses.
Weekend patronage on V/Line services has more than doubled, with many people taking advantage of recent good weather to explore regional towns.
“Last week, we carried 1.64 million more people than we did in the same week last year,” Weimar said.
“That means for every four people we carried last year, we’re now carrying five – across an increasingly diverse and complex set of journeys.
“We’re now back to pre-Covid levels in terms of demand on our daily transport system.”
Weimar said the challenge for the industry is to “milk” this period of increased public transport patronage as much as possible.
“How do we ensure the majority of those passengers who are traveling with us for free stay on the journey when those fares go up to half price?” he asked.
“We have five weeks to make the most of this.”
He said it’s imperative that the public gains more understanding of public transport and how it integrates into their lives.
“We have to build loyalty from these bold experiments [such as making public transport free],” he continued.
“That will come back to our fundamentals – reliability, frequency, customer service, good support and staff, and giving people a sense of how the systems work for them. But it’s also about network improvement.”
