Ambulance membership fees drop by half this Friday
I missed the media coverage of this: Coalition cuts ambulance membership fees in half:
“From July 1, ambulance membership costs will drop from $150 to $75 a year for families and $75 to $37.50 a year for singles – that is just 20 cents a day for families and 10 cents a day for singles,” Mr Davis said.
While some might have concerns that the ambulance service needs more investment to keep up with demand, I thought this was a good policy. For many people, $150 is enough for a family subscription that you’d think twice before paying it. Halving it to $75 makes it pretty much a no-brainer.
I’m not even sure if a measure like this necessarily means a lot more demand for ambulances. In fact it might well attract a lot more subscribers (apart from the increased government subsidy to cover the price drop).
So… if you were thinking about joining or renewing, given they don’t seem to have announced anything around refunding or extending existing memberships, you might want to wait until Friday when the prices go down!
(Knowing the Coalition had this policy, this is why at the start of this year I renewed for one year, not three as they were suggesting.)
The 2011 state budget
One would hope that the budget following an election would fulfil the promises made during that election, although it would not be beyond the bounds of reasonableness to spread them out over the term of government.
Somewhat surprisingly, at least to me, the Baillieu government has largely fulfilled all of its promises with its first budget, delivered on Tuesday. Perhaps the most glaring omission was the pledge on teacher wages.
That said, there are some niggles. In transport for instance:
- There’s funding for all the rail extensions and new stations and grade separations promised, but it’s all planning, not construction. This is perhaps understandable in that the planning has to happen first — obviously it hasn’t happened yet, unlike roads, where Vicroads always seems to have done their homework and has them ready to go. It means to properly meet the pledges, the government will need to follow through in the next couple of years.
- The funding is only for the first seven trains (of 40 total). The election pledge said seven in the first term of government. I don’t see this as a big issue, because remember that we’re about halfway through an existing order of 38… and it’s not clear yet what those will all be used for. The extra seven will be more X’trapolises, and the 33 remaining (not yet funded) are flagged to be a new high-capacity model.
- Roads money was 50% higher than PT money, and a bunch of that was continued expansion of the Western Ring Road, which I’m not even sure was an election promise. Maybe they’ve already forgotten that they came to power on the back of PT issues, not roads.
- There was nothing for buses or trams, apart from $8 million to restore a handful of W-class trams (which at best is a heritage investment, not a transport investment — and at worst could cause major disruptions if speed-hobbled Ws get placed onto busy routes, even outside peak times).
I understand one reason there wasn’t more was due to the cost overruns on the Regional Rail Link project and Myki. Mind you it’s still not clear if Myki is being kept or scrapped — there were conflicting messages on this on Tuesday.
The good news is that the Public Transport Development Authority got funding. If this is done right, with expertise and independence, it should help guide future government spending to the right solutions, as well as overhauling things like service coordination and planning.
What was your take on the budget?
The Fkn line and the state election result
A number of seats in the November state election were won and lost because of public transport — and the Frankston line in particular.
Statistics continue to show that the line is the worst for punctuality in Melbourne, with a 12 month average of just 69.6% of trains on-time within five minutes.
Perhaps it’s fitting that the official abbreviation for it is Fkn.
The impact was acknowledged by both sides of politics.
Bentleigh, Mordialloc, Carrum, Frankston: four seats through which the Frankston Line runs like an artery, four seats that bled Labor to political death.
…[Former Bentleigh MP Rob Hudson]: “But it’s a big commuting suburb. Ten thousand people pass through Bentleigh railway station every day, and the Frankston Line . . . has had reliability issues that have been frustrating commuters.”
– The Australian, 4/12/2010
…it is a terribly performing line. It’s a line that’s enraged and upset people massively.
– David Davis, Liberal Party, election night during ABC TV’s coverage
On the Frankston line, we lost five seats. On the Lilydale line, if you count Mount Waverley to the south, we lost four.
– Nick Reece, ALP State Secretary, address to Melbourne Press Club, 15/12/2010
(Nick Reece appears to have included Prahran, the eastern end of which is served by the Frankston line.)
So new Bentleigh MP Elizabeth Miller must be acutely aware of public transport issues in the area. In fact she raised the topic of Southland Station last week in parliament.
During the election campaign I made a commitment to my electorate of Bentleigh to see a railway station built at Southland shopping centre. This is a piece of infrastructure that is long overdue, which is symbolic of the previous Labor government’s inability to provide for our growing community. I ask the minister to provide an update on this commitment and on when my electorate can expect construction of this railway station to commence.
Good to see.
It’s just a shame it’s been decided that her electorate office will be moving from its current spot, a few doors from Bentleigh Station, down to East Bentleigh — a long way from the station.
One would hope this doesn’t mean she’s running away from the issues, and that she realises how important improvements in public transport (not just trains, but also trams and buses) will be if she is to retain her marginal seat, and indeed if the government is to retain power in the next election.
I for one look forward to progress on Southland Station and other key promises, particularly the Public Transport Development Authority, which if done right will reform the poor transport planning that’s got us into the current mess.
Update Sunday 17/4: A notice in Elizabeth Miller’s office window now says the move is not happening just yet.
Don’t just complain. Take action.
(Pic originally posted in October. Accompanying Facebook group.)
No doubt this will sound familiar to those who are active in voluntary advocacy groups:
“I DEMAND TO KNOW WHY YOUR GROUP OF OVERWORKED VOLUNTEERS, WHICH I AM NOT A MEMBER OF, IS NOT PURSUING MY PERSONAL GRIEVANCE.”
I suspect many people have a genuine grievance, but think that complaining to the advocacy group is going to get action, when in reality they’re already snowed-under.
In many cases there are more appropriate places to direct your complaint. Actions more likely to get a result include (with examples from the public transport sector that I’m most familiar with):
- go to the appropriate/responsible organisation (eg the operator)
- if no response or an inappropriate response, go to the organisation that has review powers (eg the Public Transport Ombudsman)
- particularly for services managed or funded by government, also contact the office of the responsible government minister (eg the Public Transport Minister)
- contact the media: the local newspaper or (for anything likely to be a systemic problem thus will get coverage) the daily newspapers. This might mean contacting a journalist, or just writing to the paper. Radio and TV can also be good avenues, depending on what the issue is.
There’s any number of avenues to pursue ahead of just whinging to an advocacy group which probably has lots of other higher priorities to pursue, limited resources, and overworked volunteers.
By all means copy those groups on your correspondence, so they know your issue is happening (and may see patterns or a wider problem emerging, and perhaps even be able to run with it), but don’t assume they have the time and resources to do much with it… if YOU care about it, YOU need to get the ball rolling.
Baillieu and the Clearways
Seems the more cynical (especially on the left) are panicking about the new Coalition government in Victoria, including with regard to public transport — trams in particular.
Remember Kennett!
Well no, hold on. Baillieu is not Kennett, this is not 1992, and the economy is not stuffed. There is no mandate nor need to drastically cut government debt, nor cut government spending.
And unlike any time in the last few decades, public transport patronage is increasing, there is public demand for investment, and there is not even the scope nor opportunity for Kennett-style work reforms (such as the mass removal of staff). On the contrary, the Coalition has come in pledging 940 security officers for stations, as well as 40 more trains, and feasibility studies for four new rail lines (Doncaster, Rowville, Tullamarine and Avalon).
Removal of Clearways is anti-tram!
First of all, no Clearways are being removed. Rather, the hours they apply is being rolled back to how they were a couple of years ago. Under Brumby these crept into off-peak business hours, up to 10am in the mornings, and from 3:30pm in the afternoons.
Secondly, there are questionmarks over whether the benefits of Clearways is compelling against the pain suffered by shopping strips — not just removal of parking, but general poor amenity — window shopping and al fresco dining are not very pleasant with cars zooming by at 60 km/h. Parked cars provide a buffer.
In strip shopping centres with no clearways, such as Centre Road (where widened footpaths physically prevent it) there is activity on the street as early as 8am, with cafe patrons sipping coffees and eating breakfast.
The obvious question must be: are streets just for traffic, or for everybody?
In any case, opinions differ on how much travel time is saved with Clearways. Some tram drivers say there’s a noticeable difference. But the only hard figures that have come out are that on High Street there is saving 5% time for trams, and 9% for cars. So it benefits motorists more than tram passengers. And for trams, that adds up to just 36 seconds along the affected section. (It’s not even clear if this applies to the peak of the peak, or the 9am-10am and 3:30pm-4:30pm periods now rolled-back, when traffic is much lighter. It’s also not clear if it’s in the AM peak direction, which includes a tram-only lane, or in the PM peak direction as well, which has no tram lane.)
On Sydney Road, where the Clearway is not accompanied by a tram-only lane, a study indicated the time difference for trams was next to nothing: just 7 seconds — with adjoining section along Royal Parade actually being slower, despite it having a dedicated tram lane.
This reflects the fact that most of the delays are at traffic lights; in fact Yarra Trams figures indicate delays at traffic lights account for 17% of travel time across the tram network, much higher than in many other tram cities — including those similar to Melbourne, with older networks running in mixed traffic.
Traffic light priority, if done well, could be highly beneficial to tram users, but barely noticeable to most other people.
Other solutions (particularly relevant for the south end of Sydney Road) would include traffic metering, to reduce the number of cars able to enter the street ahead of the trams (which could easily be carrying 150 cars-worth of passengers), and subtly encourage (but not force) motorists onto other (non-tram) roads.
Don’t panic
The Coalition said little about trams (or buses) during the election campaign. Neither did Labor. Let’s face it, trains get most of the publicity. That doesn’t mean it’s time to panic just yet.
Of course, they’ll probably need some nudging, particularly with regards to issues like traffic light priority for trams.
Long live the queen
The electorate office of new member for Bentleigh, Elizabeth Miller, has been vandalised.
The stencil, which reads “Long live the queen” with an image of Miller, appears to indicate some preparation was involved.
Given the “The king is dead, long live the queen”, I can’t work out if this is pro-Miller, or pro-ex-member Hudson, or both, or neither.
Update: It turns out Miller has taken over Hudson’s old electorate office, making the vandalised shopfront just a (temporary, one would assume) campaign office.
Sign of the times
A sign of the times: former Bentleigh MP Rob Hudson’s office, now vacated and up for rent.
I wonder if anything gets handed across to the new member Elizabeth Miller’s office? In Federal land, Greens MP for Melbourne Adam Bandt took over former member Lindsay Tanner’s office, but I suspect there was a big clearout of papers first.
Progress in the PT debate
The PTUA’s Annual General Meeting was last night. There was some optimism amongst the committee and membership about where public transport is going since the change of government, but even before that, the political debate has been moving along nicely.
An example we talked about last night…
At a parliamentary hearing last year as part of the Train Services inquiry, the view that buses don’t connect properly with trains was flatly denied by the government.
Mr BOWEN — You will certainly find that the buses to Daylesford still connect properly with the trains at Woodend, but if you try that in any of Melbourne’s suburbs, more likely than not you will find that there is no connection and no attempt at coordinating bus and train services.
Mr VINEY — That is not right. That is just not right.
I’m not sure what planet Mr Viney is living on. Perhaps the only train/bus connection he has ever encountered in Melbourne is one of the two that are specifically coordinated. I think the rest of us fully well know that it’s not the case elsewhere — and this is a major barrier to public transport not playing a greater role, because most suburbs will never have train lines, and most trips around greater Melbourne can’t be made on one service alone.
Assisted by the release by the government of all its timetable data, the PTUA’s study into train/bus connections proved connections are mostly poor, and got proof of the problem publicised.
A subsequent study showed that in fact, coordination largely doesn’t happen because nobody is responsible for it.
The debate shifted. It became generally accepted that services don’t connect. I knew this was the case when I heard Steve Price on MTR, a man who I’m betting probably doesn’t catch a lot of buses, mention it explicitly.
The government went from denial to excuses.
Mr Pakula was questioned about why the Government was unable to get bus and train times co-ordinated.
“It isnt simple to co-ordinate every bus with every time,” Mr Pakula said.
“Buses and trains run at different frequencies.”
Who’s responsible for setting the frequencies? The government of course.
But this is progress. The first step to fixing a problem is to accept there is a problem.
And the Coalition realise it. This and other campaigning this year has helped push them into supporting a Public Transport Authority. It’s not expensive, but it has a lot of potential to improve things. Provided they get it right, it’s going to be an interesting, exciting year in public transport.
As for the AGM… there were no other suckers nominations for President, so it looks like it’s me for another year!
And a special thanks to Vaughan Williams, who is retiring from the Committee after some twelve years hard labour, and was awarded Life Membership in recognition of this.
Tags: buses, connections, PTUA, public transport, trains
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