1996/97 STATE TRANSIT ANNUAL REPORT
Report on Operations Part 1
Report on Operations
State Transit operates bus and ferry services in Sydney and Newcastle. Its bus operations in Sydney extend from Palm Beach in the north to Carlingford, Lidcombe and Bankstown in the west and Miranda and Hurstville in the south.
State Transit's ferry services in Sydney cover the Inner Harbour, Parramatta River and Manly.
The Newcastle services operate over an area which extends from Caves Beach in the south, north to the Hunter River and from Newcastle CBD in the East to Sandgate in the west. Two ferries operate a link across the Hunter River between Newcastle CBD and Stockton.
At 30 June 1997, State Transit had 1,629 buses and 29 vessels in service and employed over 4,300 staff.
Full time equivalent staff levels increased by over 200 in 1996/97, in line with increases in the business and fleet.
Key Achievements
- Increased patronage by 3.3% with the following highlights:-
services in the Ryde area grew by 7.7%,
Northern Beaches services grew by 13% after a review of services,
Eastern suburbs services grew by 6%,
services in the Kingsgrove area grew by 4%, and
the Harbour Beaches summer ferry service experienced a 50% increase.
Patronage Growth
- Secured contract for Kingsgrove, Arncliffe and Rockdale by purchasing lines of route from Sydney Coachlines and Moores Tours - patronage in the area increased dramatically (3,000 - 17,000 passengers per week).
- Successfully trialed time-based fares in Newcastle for 6 months - wide acceptance by bus drivers and passengers and the new form of ticketing has been successful in reducing fare evasion. It has been decided to make time-based ticketing a fixture in Newcastle as a result of the positive responses and increases in core patronage of 4.7%.
| State Transit received its 100th low-floor bus |
- Introduced first wheelchair accessible bus service.
- Successfully used the RiverCat to supplement the Manly JetCat service for the first time.
- Launched the newly refurbished Lady Street ferry to meet the growing needs in the harbour cruise market.
- Carried the "Two Millionth Passenger" on the Parramatta RiverCat Service.
- Reduced fare evasion on Sydney's ferry services by introducing permanent transit liaison officers and removing concession tickets from vending machines.
- Introduced frequency based timetables for the Parramatta River services, resulting in increased patronage.
- Introduced new staff newspaper to keep all staff informed of issues affecting the business and changes in policies and procedures.
- Reopened Leichhardt depot following $1.75 million in refurbishments, including, a new bus wash, refurbished depot administration and maintenance facilities and a relocated refuelling facility with greater storage and delivery capacity. The newly refurbished depot will help deliver a better standard of service to customers and better facilities for staff.
- Committed to expanding the HASTUS scheduling system to improve bus service information and asset productivity.
- Commenced the development of a strategic property plan to consolidate State Transit's functions to one on-site location. Plans are in place to test for private sector participation in building at an existing bus depot.
New and Improved Services:
Bus Services
- Improved services across the Sydney system, including:-
- almost 200 extra bus journeys per week introduced on the Northern Beaches,
- limited stop and express services on all Northern Beaches services,
- faster trips between Mortlake and the City, and new peak period limited stop services to the City from Abbotsford and Mortlake,
- faster trips to the City, new late night services, and increased service frequency in peak periods in the Ryde area,
- reviews in Willoughby, Kingsgrove and southern areas improving services to customers,
- improved Epping Road services to improve reliability, frequency in peak periods and provide additional services to Marsfield,
- increased day time frequency to 5 minutes on Route 400 between Bondi Junction and East Gardens, and
- Hurstville community now serviced with a cross regional bus service.
- Revised Newcastle timetables to better meet community needs with the network expanded to service Marketown shopping centre and service frequencies improved to Belmont.
- Improved school services in Newcastle, including, new and additional services.
Ferry Services
- A number of new services were introduced, particularly for the tourist market:-
- to Pyrmont, after the new ferry wharf was opened in October 1996,
- to Fort Denison and Goat Island undercontract to National Parks and Wildlife Services ($75,000 per annum),
- "Nightzoo" - provided as part of the regular Mosman night service to provide transport for visitors to the zoo at night, and
- special services, such as, cruises to Navy open day, Australia Day, New Year's Eve and garden cruise.
- The Parramatta River service continued to grow and this year the Parramatta and Meadowbank services were combined to provide increased frequency and capacity. The Parramatta River service experienced total growth of 40% this year.
Harbour cruises grew by over 30% -
tourist services are now a significant growth area for State Transit
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- Harbour cruises continued to grow, particularly after the cruise formats were changed to two, one hour morning harbour cruises rather than one longer cruise.
- The Lady Street and Queenscliff vessels were refurbished and the Lady Street launched as a cruise vessel.
- An additional three return trips on the Stockton ferry service on Sunday nights and Public Holidays were introduced.
Integrated Services
State Transit improved the integration of bus, ferry and rail services providing:-
- improved bus/ferry connections at Manly and Meadowbank,
- reviewed timetables for buses to ensure connections maintained with changed CityRail timetables, and
- integrated CityRail passenger signage at Strathfield, Burwood and Kingsgrove stations.
Integrated public transport advertising programs have been used for special events, for example, Sydney Swans AFL games and New Year's Eve celebrations.
Integrated ticketing products were also implemented for major events and tourist activities, for example, DinoPass, SwansLink and Australia DayRover.
Fleet Enhancement
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State Transit's bus fleet increased by 6% in 1996/97, with delivery of 90 new air-conditioned, low-floor accessible buses.
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As at 30 June:
- 17% of State Transit's fleet was air- conditioned,
- a further 205 low-floor buses were on order of which 192 will be fully wheelchair accessible, and
- a tender for a further 300 buses had been advertised with the outcome to be determined in October 1997.
During the year, thirty new 32-seat, air-conditioned "Midi" buses were introduced; 24 in Newcastle and six at North Sydney to service the inner harbour ferry wharves where manoeuvrability is required.
| With the Parramatta River service continuing to grow, State Transit placed an order for 2 new 150-seat passenger vessels in February 1997.
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The vessels will be able to operate at 22 knots and are expected to be in service by June 1998. The new vessels will be used on the Parramatta River and also for some Inner Harbour services.
To improve the presentation of the current fleet, earlier model buses are being refurbished with 386 refurbished in 1996/97.
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