The deals on the bus

More and more private bus companies are signing on to the State Government's controversial reform contracts.

Slowly but surely Sydney's private bus companies are signing on to the State Government's controversial reform contract which sees private bus companies handing all their revenue over to the government in exchange for a price per kilometre pay system.

North Shore bus company Shorelink inked their deal with the government at the beginning of August while the troubled Westbus services seem to have secured their future with new owners and worker's entitlements agreed upon. All signs point towards Sydney's private bus service being back on track, as Head of Forest coachline David Royle explains. "Fare harmonisation, perceived decline in CityRail standards, fuel prices and population growth" have meant that more and more commuters are opting to use buses.

However, there seems to be a major problem with the new contracts the government are offering the private bus companies, which suggests that all is not as it appears.

Shorelink General Manager Tony Ralph believes the new contract that Shorelink has signed will be a "more viable public transport system that works with government to create better public passenger services." As further proof of success, under the new contract Shorelink announced the approval for the purchase of 12 new buses.

While Shorelink has only recently signed onto the new contract, Forest Coach Lines signed their deal on 1 April and have spent most of the time since trying to prove to the government that they need more buses to service their routes.

Royle explained at a community meeting in May that, "With the implementation of fare harmonisation in January 2005, the city services have experienced an 18 per cent increase on top of what were near capacity peak services." Under the new contract Forest Coach Lines were required to prepare a business case to present to the government before they could put on extra services. After waiting over two months from the time they lodged their application on 5 June, Forest Coach Line finally got an answer on 19 August.

Instead of the two high capacity arterial vehicles Forest Coach Lines applied for to ease the congestion on their city route, the government gave them one standard bus. According to a representative of the Ministry of Transport, an independent review found that "with minor timetable changes (adjustments of five minutes or less), Forest would be able to provide two extra morning peak services using its current fleet."

Once Forest Coach Lines take the government's offer of an extra bus there still will not be any noticeable difference to commuters for some time on account of the fact that "the industry standard for the time required to deliver a new bus is three months from the date of order". If the bus shortage issue was identified as early as January, why is it taking so long to fix the problem?

Royle believes that since signing to the new contract Forest Coach Lines have not been as profitable, yet concedes that at this point there is no alternative but to continue with the current system. The Ministry of Transport contend this point by saying "since commencing its new seven year bus services contract in April 2005, government payments to Forest Coach Lines have increased."

This conundrum could be explained by the fact that before signing the contract Forest was paid by the government a subsidy for carrying school children, which accounted for around 40 per cent of Forest Coach Lines' revenue. Now that all of Forest Coach Lines' revenue is coming from the government, there will obviously be an increase in payments.

Shorelink do not share Forest Coach Lines' concerns and say they are "comfortable with the outcomes of the negotiations [of the new contract]."

Whether Forest Coach Lines' issues are teething problems with the new contract or a genuine problem remains to be seen, however, it is clear that at present the private bus system is still riding on rocky ground.