Some Adelaide bus commuters have suffered a slight drop in on-time running over the past 12 months, although the troubled North-South contract area is slowly improving, along with East-West routes.
The latest bus performance data, released a short time ago, show that on-time running on the North-South routes is trending upwards, despite a dip in the January-March 2014 quarter compared to the previous three months.
East-West routes also improved, but there were falls in on-time running across a range of other contract areas over the quarter, compared to the same period 12 months ago.
Bus contractors have told the State Government that bus priority lanes in the city are helping drivers to more reliably negotiate the CBD.
In January to March 2014 figures released today, on-time running was above 85 per cent in every contract area except for the North-South routes, which fell from 80.1 per cent in October-December 2013 to 74.3 per cent.
However, this was still a considerable improvement on the same period 12 months ago when the contractor, Light-City Buses, managed to get only 69.5 per cent of the North-South services to run on time.
The contractor is blaming the combination of Mad March events and the Victoria Square upgrade for holding up its buses in January-March 2014.
Data for the next quarter will show whether the underlying improvement over the past 12 months has been sustained. North-South on-time performance improved dramatically in the last half of 2013, before hitting the Mad March blip.
You might like
The East-West routes also improved, from 82.2 per cent in January-March 2013 to 85.2 per cent in the same period this year.
There were falls in on-time running in a range of other routes for this quarter year-on-year (scroll down for full table).
All contractors exceeded their performance benchmarks for trips run, connections met, vehicle condition and driver quality.
Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan said the data released today, which covers the six-month period from September 2013 to March 204, showed that all contractors had met their overall performance benchmark for the past three quarters.
He said contractors had told him that bus priority lanes on the Grenfell Street-Currie Street corridor, and West Terrace-Anzac Highway, had contributed to a better performance.
“Our bus priority lanes through the CBD have given operators and drivers greater reliability to cater for morning and afternoon peaks,” he said.
“Many contractors are reporting consistent improvements on cross-CBD routes, with drivers able to bypass peak traffic.”
To avoid a fine or adjustment of their fee, contractors need to meet an overall benchmark calculated from a combination of all performance measures.
These benchmarks have been met in the last three quarters, and no fine has been issued since April-June 2013.
Since the troubled contracts were awarded in 2011, the Government has handed contractors more than $56o,ooo in fee adjustments for failing to meet benchmarks.
Stay informed, daily
On-time running – January-March 2013 and January-March 2014
Contractor and route Jan-Mar 2013 Jan-Mar 2014
Light-City Buses
Outer North East 86.2% 85.8%
North-South 69.5% 74.3%
Torrens Transit
East-West 82.2% 85.2%
SouthLink
Hills 93.4% 87.7%
Outer South 90.2% 87.5%
Outer North 88.9% 86.5%
Want to see more stories from InDailySA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDailySA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDailySA". That's it.
