RE: Any comments about the "M>" service improvement program?

[Vaughan Williams <ender2000@MailAndNews.com>]

>The government fines are based on information supplied by the
>government by the operator.. If you look closer, you will find that
>the performance results they submit are always just above the level
>where they have to start compensating their pas.. err customers..

After sitting through a presentation by the bureaucrats in charge of the 
OPR, 
I now have a better idea of how it works.

The fines are worked out on a different and more sophisticated system called 
Passenger Weighted Minutes. Basically, you get 1 PWM for every minute you 
delay a passenger. So delaying a train with 500 people by 2 minutes scores 
1000 PWM's. THere is a benchmark of how many PWM's theyre allowed each month 
and if they slip below that they get fined. If they exceed it they get 
bonuses.

>IMO they fudge the figures and their actual performance is
>significantly lower than what they tell the government and they are
>submitting false data.  The results they are submitting IMO is low
>enough to get them small fines (to remain plausable) but not so low
>that they have to really dish it out..

I wasn't able to interrogate the bureaucrat on this as much as I'd have 
liked. 
It did emerge that the train figures are more readily fudged than the tram 
ones, and the department has caught the operators before in audits not 
reporting delays/cancellations. It is not known whether this is deliberate 
fraud or just poor record-keeping, and I didn't get a clear answer on what 
action is taken when non-reporting of delays/cancellations is detected.

It seems to me very likely that there is some figure-massaging going on, but 
the percentages they quote are impressive looking even if they are accurate 
because:
* A train or tram up to 6 minutes late is considered on time
* Trains are only considered early or late if they are early or late when 
they 
get to the end of the line. That is, if a train leaves flinders st on time, 
is 
delayed somewhere and is 10 minutes late through camberwell, but is only 5 
minutes late getting to Ringwood, its considered on time.

Vaughan

Vaughan Williams
Secretary
Public Transport Users Association
247 Flinders Lane
Melbourne 3000
http://www.ptua.org.au