THE PERFORMANCE OF URBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORT : AN OVERVIEW

In August 1987 a symposium was held at Monash University, to consider the performance of urban public transport systems. Public transport, in Australian cities, has had broad political appeal and escalating financial support for more than a decade, but there are now signs that political enthusiasm is waning. The Monash symposium was aimed at considering the current state-of-play and formulating objective plans for the future of urban transit. In the main this future lies in closer identification with the segments of the urban travel market that transit serves. The future is also one where much more emphasis will have to be placed on cost efficiency in operation. Transit managers will be given more specific objectives and will have to become more directly answerable to the communities that they serve. Regional, state and national governments will withdraw from direct support of transit, as best they can. In consequence, the transit system of the early twenty-first century will be quite different in mode of operation from those we know now. The problems to be faced are difficult in the short term, yet there is an inevitability about the outcome. The challenge is to find the most effective and equitable means to the end