Mebourne: Trams Far Cheaper To Operate Than Buses

Interesting numbers from Melbourne Australia, where the subsidy for a tram, per customer, is $7.18 less than for a bus, per customer!

Something to think about, isn’t it.

Costs per passenger in Melbourne Tram vs Bus
30-Oct-2017Ai?? Ai?? Mal Rowe

I came across the PTV annual report for last year (2015/16) with some remarkable figures.

On page 16 there is a chart and some numbers for payments to transport service providers and on pages 20-21 there are details of loading.

* Trams got $200M to carry 203.9M passengers – a subsidy of about 98c
per passenger
* Metropolitan Buses got $900M to carry 122.5M passengers – subsidy of
about $7.35 per passenger

The equivalent statement in 2016/17 says:

“PTVai??i??s total operating expenses in 2016-17 were $4.7 billion. The majority of PTVai??i??s expenditure was for payments to the transport service providers including $1.2 billion for metropolitan and regional train services, $0.2 billion for metropolitan tram services, $1.9 billion for the governmentai??i??s capital assets charge for rail infrastructure and $1.0 billion for bus services.”

Trams had a small increase in passenger numbers (0.2% to 204M) and buses had reduced numbers (down 4% to 118M).

So the comparable statement for the latest year would be:

* Trams got $200M to carry 204M passengers – a subsidy of about 98c per
passenger
* Metropolitan Buses got $1000M to carry 122.5M passengers – subsidy
of about $8.16 per passenger

A proportion of the capital assets charge for rail infrastructure would be additional to the tram subsidy, but, on the other hand, the buses get an equivalent additional taxpayer subsidy (not accounted) through free access to the road network.

I do realize that buses in Melbourne often are on low patronage routes, but the comparison is staggering.

Figures for trains are not so easily worked out as the metropolitan and regional services are not separated.

Mal Rowe – happy to be advised if he has missed something