The Transport Canberra public transport network is at the core of Canberra’s integrated transport system. Every day, 1.3 million trips are made across the city with public transport accounting for approximately 85,000 of them. As our city grows, the role of public transport in delivering social, economic and environmental outcomes for our city will become critical.
In 2019, the ACT Government introduced a new public transport network to drive the step change needed to deliver a high-quality, modern and sustainable public transport service.
The network is based on connected, frequent and integrated design principles and comprises a 3-tier service hierarchy:
- Rapid
- Feeder and Local
- Flexible
The network also comprises dedicated school bus services, a smaller number of Peak Express services and special needs transport. Transport Canberra buses travel nearly 22 million service kms per annum. The majority of service kilometres are generated by the rapid network and the local/feeder network.
Service type (buses only) | 2019/20 service kms |
---|
Rapids | 9,739,740 |
Regular local and feeder | 11,280,373 |
Dedicated school services | 589,366 |
Peak | 153,967 |
Total | 21,763,446 |
Operations
Transport Canberra buses are publicly owned, operated, managed and maintained.
This is in contrast to many other Australian cities which feature some or all services franchised to the private sector, mostly through periodic competitive tendering.
The ACT Government owns the bus fleet and bus depots (in Tuggeranong and Belconnen with Woden currently under development) and is responsible for delivering public transport infrastructure including terminals and layovers.
Transport Canberra directly employs all executive, administrative staff, bus drivers, transport officers and workshop mechanics in its bus operations.
Transport Canberra not only sets policy for the transport network, it is responsible for strategic network and operational planning, management of network operations, service monitoring, maintenance and reporting. City to Gungahlin Light Rail is the first stage of Canberra's light rail network. It is maintained and operated for Transport Canberra by Canberra Metro.
Fleet
A reliable, efficient and comfortable fleet is essential to providing a public transport service that is attractive to the customer, meets network requirements and is sustainable. As buses age they become more expensive to maintain and less reliable, leading to poorer customer satisfaction for existing customers and less likely to attract new customers.
The Transport Canberra fleet, summarised in Table 1 below, comprises 451 vehicles housed across two depots. The fleet is powered by a combination of diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) buses with one electric bus also in service.
The current fleet contains high capacity rigid and articulated buses, as well as standard 12.5 metre single-deck rigid buses.
A substantial proportion of the fleet is facing retirement in the next decade and will require replacement. This includes 34 Renault buses. These vehicles pre-date euro-emissions standards and do not meet the Disability Discrimination Act standards due to be enforced at the end of 2022. Approaching 30 years in age, these buses place an increasing service risk to Transport Canberra.
As the network and population expand, so too must the fleet. Transport Canberra will need to grow the total number of fleet, as well as its infrastructure and workforce, to keep up with both population growth and a forecast increase in mode share overtime.
As Canberra city matures and travel behaviours change, we can make better use of the fleet we do have. The total fleet size is dictated by the number of vehicles needed in the peak period. Where a city has a very high peak and no demand during the day, a large number of vehicles will sit unused. By providing more frequency throughout the day, Transport Canberra can provide more transport choice, more services and reduce peak crowding without an increase in overall fleet numbers.
Depot and infrastructure
Transport Canberra currently operates from two depots at Belconnen Town Centre and Tuggeranong Town Centre. Depots provide a place for bus maintenance, bus storage and charging of battery electric buses, midday and overnight layover as well as driver break facilities. Both depots are currently operating over their design capacity.
To address these capacity issues and maximise operational efficiencies, Transport Canberra is in the process of constructing the new Woden bus depot. This depot, located at the site of the previous depot, is due for completion in 2024.
More depot space will be needed however to accommodate further fleet and service growth in the future with Transport Canberra investigating options for further depot sites in Canberra’s north.
Workforce
Transport Canberra employs over 1000 staff. Bus drivers comprise the majority of the workforce, with some 800 employees. They are often the public face of our organisation and supported behind the scenes by our Transport Officers, workshop staff, fuelers, starters, depot managers and administration.
Transport Canberra also employs a small team of service schedulers, planners, communications staff, policy makers, finance, procurement and system leads to manage day to day operations as well as long term service needs.
Together this workforce contributes to the delivery of a reliable, safe and efficient public transport journey for Canberrans every day.
Emissions
Transport Canberra buses comprise around 3 per cent of total emissions in the ACT but over 50% of ACT Government emissions. Total vehicle emissions have reduced over time, with heavy particulate matter reducing most significantly between non-euro and euro standard vehicles. Table 2 outlines the changing emissions factors over different generation euro-emission standard vehicles. The latest technology, Euro VI, emit lower greenhouse gas emissions and lower particulate matter. Since achieving 100% renewable electricity, electric vehicles produce no emissions from the tailpipe.
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