Track Record 27, April to June 2006 - Public Transport Victoria

Track RecordVictoria’s Public Transport ServicesSECTION 5.PERFORMANCE OF AUTOMATICTICKETING SYSTEM EQUIPMENT5.1 BackgroundA private company under contract to the State Government runs the ticketing system for Melbourne’s public transport.The current contract was awarded in May 1994 to OneLink Transit Systems Pty Ltd, a consortium which operates andmaintains the Metcard system.Initiatives to improve the performance of the metropolitan ticketing system were introduced by the State and progressivelyimplemented during late 2001 and 2002. Audits of performance in late 2002 and mid 2003 indicated that performance ofthe system (particularly the ticketing equipment at railway stations) had improved significantly.5.2 Customer Defined Availability (CDA) reportingCDA information is summarised by quarter in Table 12 for the period from the June quarter 2005 to the June quarter 2006.Also shown in Table 12, are the targets defined in the amended OneLink contract that determine whether OneLink incurs apenalty or receives an incentive payment for performance against those targets. CDA targets represent minimum levels ofacceptable availability and performance and allow for specified levels of non-availability due to maintenance, servicing andbreakdowns.Table 12. ATS Customer Defined Availability for ticketing equipment at railway stations (%)Apr.–Jun. Jul.–Sept. Oct.–Dec. Jan.–Mar. Apr.–Jun.Device Target 2005 2005 2005 2006 2006Vending Machines 98.26 98.7 98.7 98.7 98.6 98.7Validators 99.47 99.4 99.3 99.6 99.6 99.6The CDA measures for railway station ticket-vending machines and validators exceeded the relevant targets for the Junequarter 2006.The status of ticketing equipment at railway stations is automatically monitored during the day via communication linesfrom stations through to OneLink. Due to this regular checking of status, OneLink has accurate and up-to-date informationon the availability of ticketing machines on railway stations and can schedule repairs or servicing rapidly.For repairs, OneLink gives priority to equipment at busier stations, where more tickets are purchased from vendingmachines.Mobile equipment on-board trams and buses does not have a permanent communication link. Obviously, therefore, atany time, the need for repairs and servicing and the actual equipment availability cannot be known exactly. Tram andbus operators must make available to OneLink those vehicles with equipment needing attention. Due to this fundamentaldifference between fixed and mobile equipment, measures and performance targets vary between modes.Table 13 shows, that while availability is high for ticket-issuing machines and validators on buses, the availability ofticketing machines on trams continues to be below the equivalent measures for ticketing equipment availability at railwaystations. The Government is continuing to work with Onelink and Yarra Trams to improve the availability of equipment onboardtrams.Table 13. ATS availability (%) for mobile equipmentApr.–Jun. Jul.–Sept. Oct.–Dec. Jan.–Mar. Apr.–Jun.Mode Device 2005 2005 2005 2006 2006Tram Vending machines 92.0 92.8 93.6 92.7 92.4Validators 95.6 95.1 97.9 98.4 98.0Bus Issuing machines 99.5 99.6 99.7 99.7 99.6Validators 99.8 99.7 99.8 99.8 99.825