Metro Tasmania has welcomed the key findings of the Tasmanian Audit Office’s report on
service standards.
Metro’s Chief Executive Officer Heather Haselgrove said the report highlighted the high
level of passenger satisfaction with the safety and comfort of Metro services, cleanliness of
buses, the standard of services for people with a disability, the provision of bus schedule
information and Metro’s response to complaints.
“In the main the report is positive but it does highlight a number of areas where Metro can
improve,” Ms Haselgrove said.
Ms Haselgrove said that some of the recommendations would simply require refinement of
initiatives already put in place by Metro.
“For example, over the past three years we have progressively introduced a Journey Planner
to allow people to find what bus to catch, at what time and where they have to change
buses to get from point A to point B. This is available on the Metro website and the Audit
office has recommended that Metro look at ways of making this tool even more available on
all pages of its website which Metro has undertaken to investigate,” Ms Haselgrove said.
Ms Haselgrove said Metro acknowledged criticism of its record on meeting bus schedule
early departure and late arrival benchmarks.
She said Metro agreed there was a need to increase the number of key bus stops that
instructed bus drivers not to leave before a set time and would progressively introduce
more ‘Not Before’ bus stops across the state.
“However Metro does not agree with the recommendation to clearly require no early
departures from any bus stops which would be impractical.
“Without extensive bus priority across the network it is unrealistic to expect a bus to run
to schedule at every bus stop. Predicting when a car will reach its destination is difficult
enough without having to stop every 500 metres, pick up and set down an unknown
number of passengers at those stops and deal with varying traffic and weather conditions.
“Nor do we agree with the recommendation to provide timetable information at every
stop as this is cost-prohibitive and resource intensive. Metro’s contract with the
Government only requires 50% of stops to have timetable information.
“Metro is also developing an app to provide customers with timetable information, access to
the journey planner and to manage their Greencard. Metro believes this is a much better
use of its limited resources than providing timetable information at every stop and upgrading
the website,” Ms Haselgrove said.
She said Metro acknowledged there were issues with the accuracy of ticketing system
information in relation to departure times and arrival times at bus stops and was currently
working with the system suppliers to resolve them.
“Metro is currently working on improving the information about services with low floor
accessible buses for people with a disability and is progressively increasing the number of
wheelchair accessible buses as finances allow.
Ms Haselgrove said Metro management and employees were continually striving to improve
and refresh the quality of its services to all our customers and stakeholders.
“This imperative is embedded in our corporate plan and is a central component of the
Company’s cultural enhancement program (“Better Metro”) currently being rolled across
the organisation to make Metro a Tasmanian bus company of which we can all be proud,”
she said.