The Opposition has slammed the ACT government for over-promising and under-delivering on ACT public transport, as ACTION buses are on track to miss key performance targets for a fifth straight year.
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Information released under the Freedom of Information Act reveals more than a quarter of services failed to arrive on time between August and November 12, below its 75 per cent performance target for 2014.
Over those four months, 73.4 per cent of services were delivered on time, a 2.4 per cent improvement on the previous year's results, but shy of government-set targets.
If the trend continues, it will be the fifth year in a row ACTION have missed their performance target, after only 71 per cent of their services turned up on time in the past year.
But the government has blamed the continuing delays on construction work on Constitution Avenue, saying the service has continued to improve over the past year.
It comes after ACTION bus fares were raised again on Saturday, the third increase in two years, increasing the cost of a single MyWay bus trip by 16 per cent since 2013.
In January 2013, a single weekday trip for an adult cost $2.52 – from January 3, 2015 it will cost $2.91.
The last time ACTION's buses met their on-time targets was in the 2009/10 financial year, when the target for on-time running was still 85 per cent.
Public Transport ACT acting director Ian McGlinn said the major construction work on along Constitution Avenue was having a serious effect on running times across the new bus network.
"We make 3401 scheduled trips each weekday, 11 per cent of which use Constitution Avenue and with these roadworks the roads have been narrowed to one lane each way," he said.
"That's having an effect on our on-time running."
Mr McGlinn said about 48 per cent of all drivers also drove down the road at some point in the day, resulting in an overall slow down in network running times.
But he said the new technology being used by ACTION buses would help refine the network and ensure they meet their running time target in 2014/15.
"We've got NextBus, the MyWay ticketing system and out the back of that we've got a tool called NetBI, which then analyses both the data that comes out of NextBus and MyWay," Mr McGlinn said.
"We're looking to do some further improvements early in 2015 to lift that up in excess of 75 per cent."
Opposition transport spokesman Alistair Coe said the new on-time running figures showed Network 14 had not been the cure to ACTION's problems.
"For years the government promised that real-time information would enable accurate timetabling. Then, the government said that Network 14 was going to solve all their problems. now the figures show that one in four buses are still not running on schedule," he said.
"Whilst the government may blame roadworks for the delays, what was the excuse when the on-time result was 70 per cent in 2012-13 and 70 per cent in 2013-14?"
But Territory and Municipal Services Minister Shane Rattenbury said ACTION buses had continued to improve in recent years, with new bus stops and lanes constructed and on-time running at its highest point since 2011.
"There's been a range of improvements to ACTION and on-time running is improving so all the indications and service provisions point to improvements for the customers," he said.
He said the concurrent fare increases had been partly due to increasing network costs and fares not rising between 2010 and 2012.
"Canberra continues to have cheap fares compared to other jurisdictions – compared to cities like Sydney and Brisbane and such we're pretty well placed," Mr Rattenbury said.
