After a systemwide Myki failure on 2nd February 2023, the government said they would not automatically reimburse passengers who had overpaid their fares. Following our criticism of this decision, they organised automatic refunds.
In 2015 PTUA’s Geelong Branch lobbied Federal MP Sarah Henderson on federal funding for the duplication of the line from South Geelong to Waurn Ponds. Henderson successfully delivered majority funding for the project in 2019, and it was completed in 2024.
Early designs for the Level Crossing Removal Project along the Dandenong line excluded escalators in the stations. We advocated for them in our discussions with the LXRP and in a submission, and the designs were amended and escalators delivered in the new stations.
When we highlighted poor bus/train connections to a parliamentary inquiry, the government flat-out denied it. Subsequently we did a study providing detailed evidence of the problem. Advocacy by ourselves and others resulted in the government changing tack – it’s not perfect, but they now include connection planning when designing train/bus timetables.
PTUA worked with Victoria Police and other bodies to help improve the STOPIT harassment reporting text service.
PTUA’s advocacy on station designs got us included in the government’s Station User Panel (2011-12), which mapped out better standards for station designs.
After the rollout of Myki, PTUA and passenger complaints about CBD station queues led to additional fare gates and readers
Advocacy on the myriad of confusing tram route numbers for short/depot runs resulted in Yarra Trams scrapping them in favour of easier to understand “a” and “d” prefixes.
Reduced summer timetables in January had been a feature of suburban trains for decades, but by 2014 this had led to regular overcrowding. PTUA video highlighted the issue, and since then a full timetable has been run each January.
An Age article publicising a PTUA diagram of transport organisations progressed public support for a single responsible transport agency. We’d also lobbied politicians. It became Coalition policy for the 2010 election, and they subsequently implemented it as PTV.
In 2006 there had been strong patronage growth on Melbourne’s weekend trains, leading to overcrowding as 3-car trains struggled to cope. PTUA video shown on television news added to pressure to run 6-car trains every weekend. After initially denying that there was a problem, in 2007 authorities began phasing out the use of 3-car trains.
Prior to 2005, Melbourne’s New Year’s Eve public transport used to stop just after the fireworks, resulting in repeated issues as revellers tried to get home. PTUA campaigners recorded the chaos on 1st January 2004, and ensured it was prominent on the television news and in the newspapers. The government listened to the criticism and introduced all-night public transport the following year.