9 September
1998
The Hon Carl Scully
Minister for Transport
Level 34 Governor Macquarie Tower
1 Farrer Place
SYDNEY NSW 2000
Dear Minister
A number of our members
have reported that there appears to be fairly
regular timetabling of wheelchair-accessible
buses along certain routes. However, the
timetables have not been publicized and neither
the State Transit Authority phone line nor the
STA Web site offer information which would
provide some level of certainty to wheelchair
users about these bus timetables.
It appears that only the
888 and 476-478 routes are officially
timetabled even though several Northern
Beaches routes (100, 143, 169, 175), a
couple of Eastern routes (400 and 392),
and a few Western routes (441, 401,501)
also seem to be offering what some members have
suggested are consistent unpublicized
services.
We understand that there
are now more than 100 wheelchair accessible
buses in the fleet, but it appears that no more
than a couple of dozen of these are on
timetables. We remind the Minister with respect
that every day of delay involves several dozen
wheelchair users paying $35 on taxis instead of
$4 on buses.
The Physical Disability
Council of NSW is pleased to see the wheelchair
accessible buses come on line, but cannot
understand why the State Transit Authority is
not publicizing them so that wheelchair users
can start using them instead of continuing to
have to pay up to $250 per week on a
taxi.
We call on you as the
Minister for Transport to announce regular
timetables and to publicize them through the RTA
Hotline and Web site before printing off the
timetables. We also call on you to set up a
system whereby Email users who wish to subscribe
can be kept updated on timetabling changes as
more buses come on line.
We find it totally
unacceptable that in today's information
society, timetables and timetable changes cannot
be disseminated quickly and regularly. We
understand the difficulties in creating a
timetable where relative certainty is offered
for buses with particular characteristics, but
we cannot understand why the timetables cannot
be publicized quickly once they are in
place.
Yours sincerely
John Moxon
PRESIDENT
cc Mr. Michael Photios
MP
Shadow Minister for Transport
