It’s that time of year again – the ACT community has been invited to share their views on what the forthcoming ACT Budget for financial year 2024-25 should look like.
PTCBR has taken this opportunity to encourage the ACT Government to get back to basics with public transport. Let’s ensure that the fundamentals are done properly and done well.
Our submission calls for immediate improvements to Canberra’s bus and light rail network, as well as a better a focus on long-term transport planning. Building on PTCBR’s 5 point plan for improving public transport in Canberra, our submission contains ten recommendations under five categories: expand light rail, frequent services, timed connections, faster services, and integrated active travel.
You can download and read our ACT 2024-25 Budget Consultation submission HERE.
Key recommendations include:
- Funding to investigate and implement improvements to bus punctuality
- Funding to enable minimum one-hourly bus frequencies seven days a week
- Funding allocated for the final stage of the Belconnen Transitway
- Funding for prefeasibility work on future stages of light rail as identified in the refreshed Light Rail Network Plan
Our submission also calls for the creation and implementation of a public transport infrastructure standard that sets a basic standard of amenity for bus stops and interchanges across the ACT, ensuring that passengers have appropriate shelter, seating, maps, directions to key nearby locations, and more.
In addition to this, we call for funding for the full implementation of the 2018 Transport Canberra Style Guide – a fantastic document with guidelines and designs for all aspects of Transport Canberra branding and communication, including wayfinding, printed maps, and online and in-person communication. While some elements of this document are now dated or redundant, such as the MyWay branding info, we think it has many fantastic elements that should be considered again and put into practice in order to enhance passengers’ experience using our public transport network and strengthen the Transport Canberra presence and brand in our city.
We know that Canberrans want public transport that is on time, frequent, reliable, and pleasant to use. Our recommendations to the ACT Government seek to reflect that. These are basic elements of a good public transport system – it’s the minimum that we should be able to expect from our bus and light rail network. We also know that the ACT Government wants more people to use public transport. For that to happen, public transport has to be a genuinely great option. It’s time the ACT Government adequately funded our public transport network to ensure all aspects of service are done well, seven days a week.
All publicly-released submissions to the ACT 2024-25 Budget Consultation process are available to read HERE. The submission period is still open – get involved!