Information Helping More People Than Ever Travel Around Melbourne

Information Helping More People Than Ever Travel Around Melbourne

24 November 2009

Up to the minute and accessible information is helping more people than ever travel around Melbourne on public transport. Some 495 million trips were made by passengers on public transport in the past year, up 7.1 per cent on the previous 12 months.

Compared to just three years ago, the metropolitan network is carrying an extra two million trips each month. Although patronage growth peaked at 13.2 per cent in March this year, growth is continuing at a slower rate and there are more people travelling on public transport than ever before.

Metlink CEO, Mr Bernie Carolan said as more people chose public transport it is Metlink's job, in cooperation with the operators, to provide consistent and accessible customer information for the whole network.

"Metlink is always looking for ways to improve how we communicate with our customers. Our website is one of the strongholds in delivering customer and public transport information quickly and efficiently. We are very proud of what the website delivers with more than 300,000 people visiting it every week.

"More than 230,000 journeys are planned in an average week, getting people to work, special events and leisure activities. metlinkmelbourne.com.au is the most popular public transport website in the country."

Mr Carolan added that it is no longer enough to provide people with printed and online travel information.

"We know that people want information while they are on the move. Our recently launched and hugely popular iPhone app has been downloaded by almost 71,000 people and around 13,000 journeys were planned with it in the past week.

"Metlink's mobile departure board, which can be accessed by any internet enabled mobile phone, delivers timetable information to even more people, when and where they need it most. And this month our call centre celebrated its 5 millionth call, a major milestone achieved in just over three years helping more people than ever get around Melbourne on public transport. Along with operator services, there has never been better and timelier information available to Melburnians wanting to use public transport.

"Patronage growth in recent years has been remarkable. We will continue to help people move around Melbourne by thinking creatively about how we deliver public transport information."

Metropolitan train, tram and bus patronage results
Train
Tram
Bus
Metropolitan
network

Annual Annual Annual Annual
12 months Boardings Boardings Boardings Boardings
growth growth growth growth
ending (million) (million) (million) (million)
(%) (%) (%) (%)

Sept
2008 202.7 8.2 164.1 4.7 94.9 11.4 461.7 7.5

March 2009 213.6 10.9 178.4 15.2 100.1 14.6 492.2 13.2

Sept
2009 215.0 6.1 179.8 9.6 99.7 5.1 494.5 7.1


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Note to editor: Metlink is a partnership of Melbourne's train, tram and bus operators which provides customers with a one-stop-shop for information about services, fares and ticketing. Owned by the tram and train operators, Metlink Victoria Pty Ltd is a private company that provides services for train, tram and bus operators and the Victorian Government. The organisation will extend its marketing and customer information activities to regional areas through Viclink.

SOURCE: Metlink