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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-11-13 Daily Xml
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Bus Services

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:30): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Can the minister explain to the house how it is value for money providing $1.7 million for two bus services, while cutting or shortening 1,200 bus services, saving $3.5 million?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:31): Mr Speaker, this is—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is on two warnings.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Let's try to break this down for the member for West Torrens. Maybe his maths doesn't add up that well.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The whole point of what we are seeking to do—which, by the way, we publicised for the past seven or eight months and haven't heard a whisper from the opposition, so I figured everything was sweet except that now, after the fact, someone wants to have a dig—the point of a trial, is that we need to set up a scenario in which we can test whether this works, and there is an up-front capital cost to undertaking these trials. You've got to buy some smaller buses because you can't really run big articulated or the Scania buses down backstreets. It doesn't work that well, so we have to buy some new buses.

We also have to make sure that we can integrate this technology with our existing system and make sure that integrates not only with the ticketing system but also more generally with the operational systems that are in place. This is new to South Australia. It costs money to set up, but there is an opportunity here if we get this right, and we get the level of patronage right and we get the level of coverage and frequency right, to actually provide a better service that picks you up closer to your house so you don't need to stand in the rain or in the searing heat waiting for a bus to come and drops you where you need to go. This can be done cost effectively and with greater use of the existing asset base. Having a bus driving around in a loop picking up nobody is not an efficient use of resource.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Using technology—something which by the way—

The Hon. Z.L. Bettison interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Ramsay is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —has disrupted the taxi industry and has been uncomfortable for the taxi industry—Uber has shown that you can use an app-based algorithm to improve point-to-point transport services and do them more cheaply. This is a way for us to deliver a more frequent service that picks you up closer to your house and means that you don't have to deal with the elements.

Also, for those who have impacted mobility, especially elderly people, the opportunity for them not to have to walk those hundreds of metres which they can't do and actually get closer to their house I think is a fantastic step forward. Yes, it costs money. We haven't hidden that fact. Again, it's in our press release. The point here is that if this works, then we've got an opportunity to look at where it can work in various parts of our network. Unlike trials that have happened interstate, we think that this could be a solution for low-frequency areas of our network.

I had occasion to go to Sydney and have a look at the on-demand bus trial being run by Torrens Transit in South Western Sydney. They were essentially having a fixed-route service on a high-frequency line from point to hub (the hub being the train station) competing with an on-demand service. That on-demand service was turning into an almost fixed-route service because of the frequency and the way that the patronage patterns happened. Essentially, if your on-demand service turns into a semi fixed-route service, is it actually delivering something that's substantially different?

But here in South Australia, in Adelaide, it is fair to say that we have many pockets across especially the outer suburbs that have a low frequency of service. I have had a number of letters, for instance, from the member for Napier about the fact that some of the emerging areas in his community—Angle Vale and the like—don't actually get the—

An honourable member: Taylor.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Sorry, the member for Taylor. He used to be the member for Napier. He moved seats. So for these low-frequency areas, to be able to provide a cost-effective solution that delivers a better service that is cost effective to actually help unlock and improve patronage across our public transport network, to me, seems like something we should be investing money in. To me, $1.7 million, seems like a smart use of money, given the hundreds of millions of dollars we spend on public transport services every year, to see if this works and we can deliver a better outcome.

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