Transport Canberra bus in city. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Transport Minister Chris Steel has come under attack from all sides over what was supposed to be one of the key advantages of the new public transport ticket system – its ability to provide reliable real-time and historical data for journey and network planning.
This week, the Public Transport Association of Canberra wrote to Mr Steel about virtual timetables not being updated on Monday (2 February) for the start of the new network, while in the Legislative Assembly, the Greens, Liberals and Independents combined to force the government to provide patronage data.
Greens transport spokesperson MLA Andrew Braddock said that 15 months after MyWay+, important data that should be used to guide service changes was still not being made available.
Mr Braddock accused Labor of substandard management that was leaving Canberrans with major gaps in their public transport system, citing the cuts to two West Belconnen Rapid services.
“Service cuts are being made with outdated data, limited – if any – consultation, and a lack of regard for the current and future impact on Canberrans,” he said.
Canberra Liberals Leader Mark Parton said the minister should stop blaming NEC.
“This is the sort of transparency and data reporting that should be considered a non-negotiable by government,” he said.
“If the government is hiding basic information about ‘NoWay+’, it begs the question, what other issues with NoWay+ is the government hiding?”
The government has said the data has not been made public because there are problems validating it, and the data is not up to scratch for decision-making.
The Greens motion adopted by the Assembly orders the government to produce documents on patronage data, whether it is clean data or not.
Labor supported Mr Braddock’s motion, but Mr Steel told the Assembly the resumption of public reporting of patronage data depended on several factors.
The ticketing system, MyWay + provider NEC and the data warehouse needed to be integrated, the data needed to be stable, reliable and comparable with historical reporting, and journeys needed to be reconstructed.
“Each step in this process relies on the one before it, and once completed, the intention is for the Directorate to undertake up to one month of testing and validation with the goal of being able to publicly report data early this year, including past results since My Way + went live in November 2024.”
Mr Steel said historical patronage and transactional data generated under the old MyWay system had been reinstated and made accessible through the government’s open data portal.
Transport Minister Chris Steel was warned about recurring issues with timetable data. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
PTCBR chair Amy Jelacic told Mr Steel that the inability of passengers to use Transport Canberra’s Journey Planner, the MyWay+ app, and third-party apps due to a lack of new data was a significant failure.
A frustrated Dr Jelacic raised the recurring issue of virtual timetables and network changes since the introduction of MyWay+ on 16 January, more than two weeks before the launch of the new network to cope with the Commonwealth Bridge work disruptions.
“Use of online journey planners and mobile phone apps to plan travel is an integral part of how passengers navigate public transport – so this situation presents a significant failure in usability,” she told the minister.
Dr Jelacic said that over the past 12 months, real-time bus information had not been available in the MyWay+ app or third-party apps; timetable information had not appeared in third-party apps; and certain bus stops had disappeared from the MyWay+ app and third-party apps.
“I and others have raised concerns with Transport Canberra about these issues on many occasions in the past 12-plus months since MyWay+ launched,” she said.
At the 16 January meeting, Dr Jelacic alerted Mr Steel to the need for the launch of this new network to happen without these issues occurring.
“It is of the utmost importance that MyWay+ can seamlessly handle network changes,” she said.
“I urge your office and Transport Canberra to make it your top priority to restore virtual timetable and real-time data feeds to Transport Canberra’s Journey Planner, the MyWay+ app, and all third-party apps.”
Dr Jelacic wanted to know what was being done to prevent these issues from occurring with future network changes.
Transport Canberra said on Monday afternoon that a data transmission issue had been rectified and the updated bus network was available in the MyWay+ app and Journey Planner on the Transport Canberra website, as well as third-party planners.
