20 Breakthrough Ideas in Public Transport

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COMMENT, Melbourne – Yet another Yarra Tram crash today. 4 people injured.

At the same time, on 3 occasions today I have seen ticket inspectors, and been asked for my ticket.

What may I ask are we paying for?

Unsafe, unclean and unreliable transport.

The woman behind me had the same idea. She told the ticket police, why did we have to have tickets, given the trams weren’t running this morning again?

Melbourne’s citizens are getting increasingly hostile to the transport inspectors, and the failling of another tram.

We the citizens of Melbourne, need a change. We need innovation in public policy.

Public Transport Innovation

Here’s some innovative ideas for public transport. These are for Melbourne, but can apply in most cities.

And unlike most consulting or advice I do, these ideas are for free.

Some of these are crazy. But from crazy as a starting point, come good ideas. They may not be as crazy as they look. We need a paradigm shift from bad service to winning service.

1. Make the trams a government enterprise again
2. Hold the government to account
3. Make all public transport FREE (it’s subsidised by taxes anyway)
4. Create a paid business class transport on major routes to subsidise improvements
   This works elsewhere, as in the new Paddington-Heathrow express.
5. Employ someone to clean the trams & trains (for real)
6. Make all ministers catch public transport in sitting weeks. No limos. FULL STOP.
7. Laptop points on public transport for charging
8. When buying new trams make sure they have seats not standing room only
9. Convert trains to double-decker, to fit more people (as Neville Wran did in NSW)
10. Create revenue opportunities by selling value added goods on or around public transport, through partnering with private companies
11. Standing only bulky baggage and bicycle carriages on trams & trains
12. Give artists materials to paint the trams and trains, and create beautiful art
13. Sack the head offices of all trains, and put them back on the stations
14. Replace ticket inspectors/police with conductors
15. Encourage performers on transport like in the Paris metro
16. Speed-dating or other special events, concerts on trams and trains?
17. Why not have vending machines for food and magazines?
18. Why not simply buy more trams and trains?
19. Go back to simplified tickets and dump all electronic ticketing. Where’s the need?
20. Sack Yarra and Connex Trams immediately.

This government needs to look at mass transport to and from work.

All governments need a paradigm shift from transport as burden, to transport as opportunity. That’s the point.

They need to be creative. They need to have ideas. They need to solve the problems.

Not Good Enough for Melbourne

Excuses are not good enough.

Inflicting increasingly third-world tranport on citizens is not good enough.

Paying for failing infrastructure twice, through taxes and tickets is not good enough.

The Brumby Victorian government’s ideas on mass transport are not good enough.

Transport can work, and the citizens of Melbourne have had enough.

Other cities have, can and do, globally.

Christopher Hire:

Author of the Global Innovation Review, and Chief Editor of this journal. Focussed on innovation, innovation cities and positive social change globally.

Architecture, Design, Urban, Asia, China & Australia, Australia, COMMENT, Eastern Europe, Europe: North & West, Global, Ideas, Inspiration, Creativity, Melbourne & Victoria, Politics & Diplomacy, Sydney & NSW, USA & Canada, [English], innovation
Australia, big ideas, Government, ideas, innovation, melbourne, politics, Public Policy, public transport, Victoria