Re: Bus Privatization

[David McLoughlin <davemclNOSPAM@iprolink.co.nz>]

Re this thread, another interesting example of "privatisation" of buses
is Melbourne in Australia where most bus routes have always been
privately owned. 

Melbourne's buses are mostly cross-suburban routes and feeders to train
stations and tram lines. The vast majority of street transport routes
entering the CBD are trams (streetcars) and there is also a major
electric train system which brings almost as many people to the CBD as
the trams.

There used to be what were called the "tramway buses" which were bus
routes operated by the tram operator, some of them over a few cable car
routes not converted to electric trams (ie the Garden City to Bulleen
route which had as its base the Port Melbourne and Johnston Street cable
car lines which were among the few not converted to electric lines  --
FYI Melbourne had the world's second largest cable car system after
Chicago and the last route, Northcote, lasted till 1941 and is now the
base of the 86 Bundoora tram line after the bus which replaced the cable
car was in turn replaced with electric trams in 1956 and has since been
massively extended way past the former terminii). There were also a
number of private bus routes taken over in the 1960s (based around Box
Hill) and the 1980s (a couple of routes from Elsternwick that actually
ran into the CBD).

But all the "tramway buses" were sold back into private ownership in the
later 1990s and there are now no buses in Melbourne in public ownership.

Interestingly (which is why I write all this) is that almost all the bus
routes remain in the same private owners as was always the case, ie
Ventura Bus Lines, Grenda and the like... they have monopolised their
routes for decades, and run them to this day and now attract large
public subsidies to do so, yet seem to run ancient buses and offer poor
services.

There does not seem to be a competitive tendering system to get the best
value for public money for running Melbourne's bus routes. The same old
companies just keep on running them, often with the same old buses they
used in the 1970s when I was a kid growing up in Melbourne.

Only 10 per cent of Melbourne's buses are modern low-floor buses.

By comparison the train and tram systems remain in public ownership but
leased for 12 years to private companies which have been given rigid
orders to replace the tram and train fleets with new low-floor vehicles
and to improve services.

No such improvements seem to have been mandated for Melbourne's bus
operators.

I'm cross-posting this to aus.rail in the hope someone there can give
fuller details about Melbourne's bus routes and why they do not seem to
be subject to competitive tendering.

David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand