Metropolitan Transport Forum, 1 May 2019
Introduction
The Metropolitan Transport Forum (MTF) is a group intended to assist Local Councils in their own public transport advocacy roles by providing information and resources. It holds meetings on the first Wednesday of each month at Melbourne Town Hall, starting 6pm, and larger public forums around Melbourne in the lead-up to each State election. Most attendees to the smaller meetings are councillors or officers, with the vast majority of Metropolitan Melbourne Councils sending between one and three attendees each, or representatives of kindrid organisations. Members of the public are welcome to attend and contribute, and I have been present at the vast majority of MTF meetings over the last decade, generally as an observer and occasionally to provide technical information.
While the MTF deals with all aspects of (land) transport, including private motor cars, public transit and cycling, a commonly raised issue is Melbourne's bus system or lack thereof. This in particular has been highlighted in the pre-State Election and ongoing billions4buses campaign.
The Meeting
The meeting held on 1 May 2019 had two guest speakers scheduled, followed by a general council information sharing session.
The first speaker was Davey Smith, an officer of the Mornington Peninsula, who reported on largely unsuccessful attempts to date by the Council requesting further investment in public transport around the borders and across the middle of the LGA. He reported that the bus system has been largely unchanged for over 15 years, and that while there was some enthusiasm for bus improvements in the lead-up to the State election, the elected MP has since ignored all requests for meetings and provided no indication of intending to follow through with proposals to improve the quality of service in the region.
Note that at the above debate, David Davis at left was representing the Liberal Party in lieu of the then- and current-MP, David Morris.
The MTF committee provided some suggestions on how to proceed with the advocacy strategy, and Smith et al. made contact with a number of other council officers who had been in similar situations. It seems likely that the best strategy will be to bring the media into the fold at some point, possibly after the federal election.
The second presentation was by Kelvin Yip representing Xemo, a possible new contender in the "last-mile" transit system which plans to use 12-seater minibuses to provide pre-booked trips from fixed points to random drop-off locations or viceversa. The concept is essentially UberPool on steroids (including the variable pricing structure), and Xemo appeared to be using the presentation as an advertisement rather than a request for assistance. They did mention attempts to integrate their payment system with Myki's Android app, and requested that Councils provide them reserved parking spaces at relevant nodes (discounting that railway stations, for instance, are generally VicTrack property and outside the scope of Council control).
Following these, the meeting continued with a general council information sharing session. The standing topic of buses was raised in relation to both Mornington and Xemo's experiences. It was reported that "whispers from high up" were indicating that the State was essentially fed up with the bus system, refusing to provide funding necessary to fix problems with the system because patronage is declining. However, it is at least likely that the present round of bus operator contracts will contain performance clauses and patronage bonuses, and will be the last to permit area-based monopolies. These measures are due to advocacy on the part of MTF and similar organisations and, while not directly affecting the customer, will make it easier to improve the network over time.
I raised concerns regarding the Doncaster Busway proposed as part of the North East Link project, particularly relating to its lack of conformance to the international BRT Standard; at present the route scores about 20-25/100 and with the improvements it might manage to get to 35/100. The MTF chair agreed to forward my research to all Councils (including Mornington, who were particularly interested), because the Standard is a useful tool for building a "shopping list" of necessary system improvements, and with a bit more pushing I there is a reasonable chance that the Standard, or something like it, could be incorporated into future advocacy work.
Reflections
Xemo's presentation was basically a waste of time; normally the MTF schedules speakers who highlight one or two issues in the transport sector that Councillors or Officers need to act on. Improving Melbourne's bus system is going to be a long uphill battle, but the MTF is well-poised as a peak advoacy body in this regard because it has the combined power of most of Melbourne.
Mornington could well make an interesting case study, drawing on experiences following the redesign of the bus networks in Wyndham, Brimbank and Whittlesea over the last few years which all appear to have bucked the trend of decreasing patronage.
The Metropolitan Transport Forum (MTF) is a group intended to assist Local Councils in their own public transport advocacy roles by providing information and resources. It holds meetings on the first Wednesday of each month at Melbourne Town Hall, starting 6pm, and larger public forums around Melbourne in the lead-up to each State election. Most attendees to the smaller meetings are councillors or officers, with the vast majority of Metropolitan Melbourne Councils sending between one and three attendees each, or representatives of kindrid organisations. Members of the public are welcome to attend and contribute, and I have been present at the vast majority of MTF meetings over the last decade, generally as an observer and occasionally to provide technical information.
While the MTF deals with all aspects of (land) transport, including private motor cars, public transit and cycling, a commonly raised issue is Melbourne's bus system or lack thereof. This in particular has been highlighted in the pre-State Election and ongoing billions4buses campaign.
The Meeting
The meeting held on 1 May 2019 had two guest speakers scheduled, followed by a general council information sharing session.
The first speaker was Davey Smith, an officer of the Mornington Peninsula, who reported on largely unsuccessful attempts to date by the Council requesting further investment in public transport around the borders and across the middle of the LGA. He reported that the bus system has been largely unchanged for over 15 years, and that while there was some enthusiasm for bus improvements in the lead-up to the State election, the elected MP has since ignored all requests for meetings and provided no indication of intending to follow through with proposals to improve the quality of service in the region.
Note that at the above debate, David Davis at left was representing the Liberal Party in lieu of the then- and current-MP, David Morris.
The MTF committee provided some suggestions on how to proceed with the advocacy strategy, and Smith et al. made contact with a number of other council officers who had been in similar situations. It seems likely that the best strategy will be to bring the media into the fold at some point, possibly after the federal election.
The second presentation was by Kelvin Yip representing Xemo, a possible new contender in the "last-mile" transit system which plans to use 12-seater minibuses to provide pre-booked trips from fixed points to random drop-off locations or viceversa. The concept is essentially UberPool on steroids (including the variable pricing structure), and Xemo appeared to be using the presentation as an advertisement rather than a request for assistance. They did mention attempts to integrate their payment system with Myki's Android app, and requested that Councils provide them reserved parking spaces at relevant nodes (discounting that railway stations, for instance, are generally VicTrack property and outside the scope of Council control).
Following these, the meeting continued with a general council information sharing session. The standing topic of buses was raised in relation to both Mornington and Xemo's experiences. It was reported that "whispers from high up" were indicating that the State was essentially fed up with the bus system, refusing to provide funding necessary to fix problems with the system because patronage is declining. However, it is at least likely that the present round of bus operator contracts will contain performance clauses and patronage bonuses, and will be the last to permit area-based monopolies. These measures are due to advocacy on the part of MTF and similar organisations and, while not directly affecting the customer, will make it easier to improve the network over time.
I raised concerns regarding the Doncaster Busway proposed as part of the North East Link project, particularly relating to its lack of conformance to the international BRT Standard; at present the route scores about 20-25/100 and with the improvements it might manage to get to 35/100. The MTF chair agreed to forward my research to all Councils (including Mornington, who were particularly interested), because the Standard is a useful tool for building a "shopping list" of necessary system improvements, and with a bit more pushing I there is a reasonable chance that the Standard, or something like it, could be incorporated into future advocacy work.
Reflections
Xemo's presentation was basically a waste of time; normally the MTF schedules speakers who highlight one or two issues in the transport sector that Councillors or Officers need to act on. Improving Melbourne's bus system is going to be a long uphill battle, but the MTF is well-poised as a peak advoacy body in this regard because it has the combined power of most of Melbourne.
Mornington could well make an interesting case study, drawing on experiences following the redesign of the bus networks in Wyndham, Brimbank and Whittlesea over the last few years which all appear to have bucked the trend of decreasing patronage.
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