Top investor Warren Buffet famously said that "Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked".
Right now the Department of Transport and Planning through the PTV website is completely starkers.
Good passenger information is a 'nice to have' when everything is running normally.
But it becomes an essential when services are disrupted and passengers have to leave earlier, travel at another time or seek alternative transport.
Unless a last-minute deal is reached, drivers for CDC and Dysons, two of the state's largest bus operators, will strike tomorrow (May 28, 2025). The outcome for passengers will be routes that do not run or, at best, operate with reduced timetables. Including, on at least one route, no after midday services at all.
The TWU Vic/Tas side is presented on their Facebook page. This ABC report has the operators' story.
Today I'll just cover the passenger information aspect, notably PTV's role.
The TWU Vic/Tas side is presented on their Facebook page. This ABC report has the operators' story.
Today I'll just cover the passenger information aspect, notably PTV's role.
PTV probably thought it has done its job by posting a website news item on its website on May 23 with the original URL (now broken) here. That was a brief note just listing the operators affected. Not very helpful for those who can't recite their bus route's operator.
So yesterday (26 May) PTV moved that item to a new link with drop down lists of bus routes affected. That should have been more helpful.
The problem is that a lot of it contains errors. Or is likely incomplete. PTV has shown, in a moment that its information was most needed, to be unreliable with regards to providing accurate data to passengers.
You could write a whole thread on where PTV slipped up. Indeed I did last night. Here's some excerpts (click images for clearer view):
1. Route 900 is run by two operators (CDC and Ventura). Ventura drivers are not striking. Presumably some Route 900 trips will run (although there are likely to be uneven gaps). This has big implications for transport to Monash Clayton given that neither the frequent Route 601 shuttle nor the 630 on North Rd will be operating.
2. Tarneit FlexiRide missing even though this is run by CDC. But 400, run by another operator, is listed.
5. Some route descriptions are wrong too.
7. Risk that 546 isn't correct as it now has weekend service.
8. Not an error as the 558 genuinely lacks Saturday afternoon service. This 40 year old timetable means that tomorrow morning will have buses in Reservoir north-west but none will run in the afternoon. But missing Route 559 (which also doesn't run Saturday afternoons) from the list could be an error.
1. Route 900 is run by two operators (CDC and Ventura). Ventura drivers are not striking. Presumably some Route 900 trips will run (although there are likely to be uneven gaps). This has big implications for transport to Monash Clayton given that neither the frequent Route 601 shuttle nor the 630 on North Rd will be operating.
2. Tarneit FlexiRide missing even though this is run by CDC. But 400, run by another operator, is listed.
3. Routes not listed in order.
4. Some very old route lists used. Some haven't been running for 8 or so years. A bit of a worry if PTV can't find a list of currently running bus routes!
5. Some route descriptions are wrong too.
6. Another route missing from the list and a wrong description for another.
7. Risk that 546 isn't correct as it now has weekend service.
8. Not an error as the 558 genuinely lacks Saturday afternoon service. This 40 year old timetable means that tomorrow morning will have buses in Reservoir north-west but none will run in the afternoon. But missing Route 559 (which also doesn't run Saturday afternoons) from the list could be an error.
This cacophony of cock-ups reveals serious management and process issues within DTP/PTV.
PTV is supposed to be in the business of passenger information. It is an inheritor to Metlink, which was formed when even the private operators realised that information was too fragmented for passengers to understand.
The problem is that PTV isn't very good at passenger information during disruptions. It has proved itself untrustworthy when most needed.
Anticipating crises (eg strikes) and knowing exactly what to do is not just important preparation for investors and companies (hence the Warren Buffet quote above) but also for outfits like PTV who need internal capability to respond to network crises like strikes. It's not as if there wasn't warning; on May 13 TWU publicly advised that their Dyson members voted to strike - giving sufficient notice for PTV to at least collate an accurate list of routes that could be affected.
How then was so much of what was published wrong? Either PTV didn't confirm what operators sent is correct or they were unable to generate current accurate route lists themselves that can be pulled out at short notice if needed. How else can you explain route lists with wrong descriptions or long-retired route numbers?
Furthermore, PTV lack proper processes to verify that what they publish is correct. They have especially failed to have suitably trained staff in the right places to identify and stop errors being published.
This is not just a one-off event. Shortcomings in passenger information, weak marketing and data inaccuracy is a recurring pattern of behaviour that highly-paid DTP executives have as yet been unable to fix.
The result is needlessly misled, stranded and angry passengers. As this reflects on the state government's service delivery, improving PTV's game, given the long record of subpar performance, should be a matter of immediate political and ministerial interest.
UPDATE 27/5/2025 11:20am: Shortly after this blog appeared PTV corrected many errors on its route list. While the corrections are welcome the 'publish unchecked nonsense first, rely on Twitter gunzels for corrections later' method is not a respectful way to treat passengers nor run a credible transit agency. Props to the headless chooks there correcting stuff so quickly but you most need good executives able to put in the processes to get it right from the start. Improving capability while simultaneously pruning executive staffing costs is particularly topical with the Silver review into Victoria's public service due to report next month.
PTV is supposed to be in the business of passenger information. It is an inheritor to Metlink, which was formed when even the private operators realised that information was too fragmented for passengers to understand.
The problem is that PTV isn't very good at passenger information during disruptions. It has proved itself untrustworthy when most needed.
Anticipating crises (eg strikes) and knowing exactly what to do is not just important preparation for investors and companies (hence the Warren Buffet quote above) but also for outfits like PTV who need internal capability to respond to network crises like strikes. It's not as if there wasn't warning; on May 13 TWU publicly advised that their Dyson members voted to strike - giving sufficient notice for PTV to at least collate an accurate list of routes that could be affected.
How then was so much of what was published wrong? Either PTV didn't confirm what operators sent is correct or they were unable to generate current accurate route lists themselves that can be pulled out at short notice if needed. How else can you explain route lists with wrong descriptions or long-retired route numbers?
Furthermore, PTV lack proper processes to verify that what they publish is correct. They have especially failed to have suitably trained staff in the right places to identify and stop errors being published.
This is not just a one-off event. Shortcomings in passenger information, weak marketing and data inaccuracy is a recurring pattern of behaviour that highly-paid DTP executives have as yet been unable to fix.
The result is needlessly misled, stranded and angry passengers. As this reflects on the state government's service delivery, improving PTV's game, given the long record of subpar performance, should be a matter of immediate political and ministerial interest.
UPDATE 27/5/2025 11:20am: Shortly after this blog appeared PTV corrected many errors on its route list. While the corrections are welcome the 'publish unchecked nonsense first, rely on Twitter gunzels for corrections later' method is not a respectful way to treat passengers nor run a credible transit agency. Props to the headless chooks there correcting stuff so quickly but you most need good executives able to put in the processes to get it right from the start. Improving capability while simultaneously pruning executive staffing costs is particularly topical with the Silver review into Victoria's public service due to report next month.
7 comments:
Should the date for the strike be "tomorrow 28th May"
Good thing i live on a kinetic route.
Yep! You must have read it just after posting. Corrected it a bit later.
400 is a shared route jointly operated by CDC and Transit Systems. So it has the same issue that the 900 has.
There are also issues with bus stops in the App/on the website, that have wrong names, are temporarily (meaning months-years) not served (route 688) but still show up, were built recently but are not in the dataset, are at wrong positions etc. This means routing won't work, walking time miscalculations.... Even worse for route 838 which stops on request, but no bus stops can be selected in route planners.
As at 2pm they still hadn't added 509, 514 or 559 to the list nor removed Broadmeadows/Kastoria 544 (also shows old route description pre-2011).
On the plus side. a few CDC omissions were added since yesterday (414 & 612) plus a list for regional areas (particularly useful for Geelong passengers as McHarry's is running as normal).
506 now mentions a reduced Saturday timetable and 609 a few morning/afternoon trips (to serve a few workers in Kew inculding to a disability enterprise workplace)
Info clearly put together by someone who doesn’t catch buses or has any idea of the network. Probably the same person who does the public holiday info...!
One worries if this is their effort now, how they will go if there's further disruptions in July after the various contract changes when many routes will change hands.
The website's cooked, they can't even spell Flinders Street - type in "fli" into the search bar and see for yourself.
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