Exploring bus innovations
At the heart of every successful modern city, there’s an effective and efficient public transport system. Improving Hobart’s public transport has always been a high priority for me.
Ferries are an exciting and attractive opportunity to better use our Derwent ‘river road’, but improving bus services in central Hobart also needs attention. At our recent Council meeting, I put a motion to explore expanding city bus options, including a free inner-city loop. I was delighted that Council voted unanimously in favour of the motion. We can all see that improvements need to be made to transport in the city.
The benefits of good public transport are well known: keeping people moving quickly and easily around a city is good for the economy; fewer carbon emissions from privately owned vehicles is a win for the environment; and for individual residents, access to public transport can help with the cost of living and social connections.
There’s a downside to having a city that’s over-reliant on private vehicles as the only way to get around. Our heritage street grid creates a physical limit to the number of vehicles that can easily be accommodated in the CBD. When that number is exceeded, roads in the city becomes congested and we’re just one accident away from peak-hour gridlock
I’ll continue to lobby the State Government to invest more in Tasmania’s overall public transport budget, which has the lowest per person spend in the nation. But it’s also worthwhile for Council to see if we can take some initiative to improve the choices available to people.
Free City Loop Services are provided in several other capital cities funded by state governments, including in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. These routes tend to connect popular city attractions, transport hubs, hospitals, universities, retail and dining precincts. They’re well used and generate a large number of passenger trips beyond existing networks that connect suburbs to the CBD.
Closer to home, the City of Launceston sponsor their Tiger Bus Service which covers four different routes at low frequency, along with a higher frequency commuter service. Could a similar service work in Hobart to better connect North Hobart to Sandy Bay, running via Salamanca?
Another option worth investigating is a free bus travel zone in central Hobart and for targeted passenger groups at particular times.
Free CBD travel is the norm in Melbourne, where there is a sizeable free tram zone, as well as in Perth and Adelaide. A 2km free travel zone around Hobart’s City GPO would include shopping areas in North Hobart and Sandy Bay, as well as parts of South and West Hobart – and would make these short city centre bus trips a much more appealing and affordable prospect.
Free off-peak travel for seniors is also widely available in Australia, and I’d like to see Hobart aligned with other capital cities in offering this incentive. Seniors tend to have more flexibility than other bus users around when they travel, and free travel at off-peak times would reduce CBD traffic and parking pressure.
This kind of option will require negotiating with the state government, but given City of Hobart passengers are paying more per km for their Metro bus ticket than outer suburbs, perhaps there’s some room to negotiate? Every inner Hobart resident who travels by bus to the CBD frees up more room on the road for people having to travel by car over longer distances.
Finally, we’re going to examine whether there could be a role for On-Demand minibus services in the city. Such a service could be run by one of the numerous private operators that have emerged around the country in recent years. Transport NSW and SA are trailing arrangements with these companies that run minibuses for low fares within certain catchments. They’re ordered via app like an Uber and rather than following a fixed route or timetable, they pick up passengers from their own homes or from an easy-to-access location.
An evening and weekend trial in our neighbourhoods that aren’t so well serviced by Metro, like Mount Nelson, Tolmans Hill and Lenah Valley, for example, might be a great place to start. There have been around 50 on-demand bus trials across Australia since October 2017, providing over 1 million rides to residents.
The motion that was passed by Hobart City Council requests that the CEO engage in discussions with a whole range of stakeholders, including State Government, Metro and other bus operators, to explore all three of these options: a free city bus service, a free bus fare zone, and new on-demand bus services. Council will then be provided with a full report to help inform what actions we take going forward.
There’s lots more work to do but it’s heartening that all elected members see that we need to be proactive on transport. Whatever the outcome of the discussions, I remain fully committed to improving public transport within Hobart - offering residents more transport choices, and making it cheaper, easier and more environmentally friendly to move around our city.