Budget 2023-24

[Barry Drive]

Budget day was yesterday.

I've gone through the documents and emerged thoroughly confused.

There's very little new, as was expected. What wasn't expected is that there's been no new funding (that I could find) for additional buses – despite "90 new electric buses" being mentioned in the speech and papers.

As mentioned the last two years, the only funding for buses was $37.5m – but this has been adjusted to transfer nearly $29m from Capital to recurrent expenditure for bus lease payments (not sure over how many years). This leaves $8.5m in the Capital funding (in 2026-27), but this amount won't purchase 90 buses. The funding ends in December 2026. This suggests the new Yutongs won't be purchased before July 2026, and will require additional funding for when they are.

The previously announced projects are still listed, but with revised completion dates:

- supporting the transition to a zero-emissions bus fleet: Jun 24 (no change)

- new integrated ticketing system: Dec 24 (previously Apr 24)

- improving safety on public transport [CCTV replacement]: Jun 25 (previously Jun 24) – although most expenditure is in 2023/24

- Woden Bus Depot Augmentation: Dec 24 (previously Jun 25). Unsure exactly what this refers to, but it's the only reference to Woden Depot.

There is also new funding ($17.3m over 4 years) to "increase services and improve reliability through the employment of more bus operators".

Public Transport fares will not be increased.

[Barry Drive]

The budget estimates hearing was last week and the transcript was published yesterday.

In addition to Light Rail / Tram questions, there was some interesting discussions regarding the bus fleet.

The contract for the 90 Yutongs is still unpublished due to confidential text, so we don't have full details yet. Minister Steel said the contract is over 3 years, although we don't know which three.

Work on the new high voltage cable to Tuggeranong Depot should be completed by next year, and Woden Depot is similarly expected to be complete by Dec 2024. So on that basis, the earliest we can expect any buses from that contract is mid to late 2024 when they are able to be charged.

Mr Steel also confirmed that the Yutongs will be used as one for one replacements - with the Scania L94 CNGs being replaced straight away due to their "hard end of life" (20 year life limit of their gas cylinders). With 373 delivered in 2006, all 54 will need to go by 2026.

But the interesting bit is this:

Then we will be considering how long we want to keep some of the ageing Steer Tag diesel buses in the fleet.

Later, when asked specifically about CNG buses, Ben McHugh (TC Deputy Director-General) said:

The CNG fleet has a different endpoint for each. The bulk of the 90 (Yutong E12s) will replace those, but there are some CNG buses that have a useful life beyond the expected procurement of the 90 buses, and they would be replaced by a future process.

So all of this is suggesting that the Yutongs will be delivered 2024-27, and they will replace L94s, Irisbuses and then potentially Steer Tags. (If this is the case, there won't be any fleet number increase - although the timing of deliveries and withdrawals can boost the numbers slightly.)

The 16 CNG MANs can continue until 2028, so these are expected to be replaced with the next tranche of bus acquisitions.