A collation of articles and websites on passenger transport performance across Australia.
Australian Public Transport Barometer
The Australian Public Transport Barometer has been developed in partnership between the Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) and L.E.K. to provide up-to-date insights about the performance of major metropolitan public transport networks in Australia.
As each of the major cities becomes increasingly congested, buses are competing more with cars for scarce road space. Bus patronage performance has been declining in Perth, Melbourne, and Brisbane, while Sydney and Adelaide appear to have grown in recent years.
Improving Public Transport

In the 2017 report by Infrastructure Australia, it was recommended that Governments should adopt a default option of exposing public transport services to contestable supply through franchising as a proven model both in Australia and overseas in raising service quality and value for money for customers.
Outer Urban Public Transport

The 2018 report by Infrastructure Australia recommended that Australian governments should embrace new transport modes, such as on-demand services, which are well suited to low-density areas.
Articles on public transport

Articles on the daily published newsletter

The Mandarin
Competitive tendering hasn’t delivered for public transport, so why reward poor performance?
Public Transport User Perceptions
Monash University Public Transport Research Group has developed a method for comparing perceptions of public transport service attributes across different customer group.
Melbourne generally has the lowest scores all of cities, indicating the largest gaps between performance and expectations in public transport service attributes.


Australian Transport Assessment and Planning
ATAP provide mode-specific guidance on the measurement and monitoring of public transport system and service performance.
Charting Transport
This website provides an evidence basis for decision-making and data visualisation to show how transport and cities work and change over time.


Transport for NSW
Passenger travel data, including patronage visualisations and surveys and performance reports, are published on their website.
Public Transport Victoria
Every public transport operator that has a contract with Public Transport Victoria is monitored. There are daily, monthly and quarterly reports published, including:
- Punctuality – the percentage of on-time events at specific points.
- Reliability – the proportion of timetabled services the operator delivers.

Victorian Auditor-General

The Victorian Auditor-General reviewed public transport performance in 2012 and identified:
- outstanding weaknesses in how performance is measured and reported
- objectives in the Transport Integration Act that are not measured or managed
- partial application of the department’s improved planning approach a need to better incorporate performance outcomes into planning.
Translink Queensland
Publish quarterly public transport performance data, which includes customer experience, patronage, complaints volumes and go card fixed fare volumes.

Public Transport Authority of Western Australia
Annual reports provide a comprehensive range of performance measures. PTA WA publishes a number of non-financial performance indicators
- To measure the efficiency of public transport and the levels of customer satisfaction. Indicators published include Total boardings for bus train and ferry services
- Bus driver traffic infringements!
Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure SA
The performance of the contracted bus operators is monitored to ensure that the standard of service meets community needs. On-time running of services

Photo source: The Conversation
What a great article. I particularly like the links. My problem is that all these people can write good stuff faster than I can absorb it. So I stick to my own narrow area and try to do that well. But I am absolutely certain that the most significant options are the ones that are not even considered. Nothing new with that, but it is a field of vast opportunities.
Well done Phil.
Thanks John. We really need better intersection management too! Helps all road based passenger and freight transport.