Project 2018

Public Transport Bus Services Procurement

As outlined in the Project 2018 Re-Contracting Process Guidelines, the Treasurer has approved a procurement process under Treasurers Instruction 105 for implementing the Governments’ election commitment to provide a further 5 + 5 year contract for incumbent operators, providing key performance conditions are met and there is an ongoing need for a particular service in a particular area.

Under this process, after services (routes and timetables) are identified for recontracting, operators are then ‘best matched’ to the routes using the guidelines. These decisions are then published on the Register of Decisions webpage once a week (Tuesdays) and there is a 30 day appeal period from this date for any operator to appeal this ‘matching’ decision.

General access services

Student only services

Devonport and Burnie urban bus review

Operator Matching Process

View register of decisions

General access school changes for Hobart based schools

Overview

Existing contracts for public transport bus services (including student only bus services) begin expiring in early 2018.

Under section 49(2)(a) of the Passenger Transport Services Act 2011 contracts can run for a maximum of ten years, which places a legislative impediment to these contracts simply being renewed or extended. A detailed review of all current services and service optimisation is underway to ensure that the most efficient and cost effective network of services is procured and opportunities for efficiencies identified.

The review (referred to as 'Project 2018') will ensure the changes Tasmania has been experiencing over the last decade are captured and lays a strong foundation for growth in the decade to come. It will deliver the Government's policy objective to provide a further 5 year + 5 year contract for incumbent operators, providing key performance conditions are met and there is an ongoing need for a particular service in a particular area. It will also provide a consistent measure of performance across all bus contracts, greater incentives for operators to perform and importantly, better long-term service delivery for Tasmanian bus passengers.

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Background

The Secretary of the Department of State Growth is responsible for contracting the purchase of public transport bus services for Tasmania. This covers all publicly available student only bus services and general passenger services (e.g. Metro Tasmania, Redline, Tassie Link, Mersey Link, O'Driscolls etc.) but excludes dedicated tourist and private bus services as these are not contracted by the Government.

There are currently 158 individual bus operators (as of October 2016) who collectively hold 468 contracts for public transport bus services in the State.

To avoid disruption to school bus services during a school year, operators who had contracts ending during the 2018 school year have now been offered short term contracts. These contracts enable services to run uninterrupted to the end of the school year. It is expected the majority of new bus services, and any changes, will commence in early 2019.

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The current annual expenditure on contracted bus services is approximately $86.4 million per annum with 42 per cent of these costs being for the metropolitan bus services (Hobart, Launceston and Burnie and Devonport), 43 per cent being for dedicated student services and 15 per cent for general access services outside the main metropolitan networks (see detailed breakdown below)

Metro's contract is included in these amounts and accounts for most of the 42 per cent of metropolitan bus services.

Contract Type	Operators	Service Contracts	2016 Payment Data
Long Distance General Access	4	11*	$4,254,896
Long Distance Student Only	4	4*	$555,775
Rural Fare Paying	12	13*	$1,174,447
Rural School Bus	116	269*	$19,290,336
Special Needs	7	16*	$1,265,486
Town	15	19*	$832,848
Urban	8	19*	$1,624,825
Urban Fringe General Access	9	17*	$9,178,431
Urban Fringe Student Only	41	106*	$12,007,933
Metropolitan General Access	2	2*	$36,166,253
		476*	$86,351,229
* Please note that the data listed under Service Contracts has been provided at a point in time, and includes both additions and removals of contracts where required.