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What is Regional Passenger Transport?
Regional Passenger Transport is the transportation of people to,
from and within regional areas. Passenger transport includes air,
marine, rail and road transport.
Why is Regional Passenger Transport
important?
South Australia covers an area of 984,377 square kilometres. The
state's population is approximately 1.5 million where less than
a third of the population reside in regional South Australia. There
are six provincial cities with populations ranging from 12,000 -
23,000 with the remaining population living in smaller towns and
on farming properties.
As a predominantly ageing population living across a wide expanse
of land, the ability to access goods and services can be much more
difficult than in metropolitan areas. Transport is a critical issue
not only to accessing essential goods and services but social, cultural
and recreational opportunities.
Who looks after Regional Passenger
Transport?
In South Australia, Transport
SA administers the State law relating to air, marine, rail and
road transport. The Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure, Public Transport Division focuses on land based
passenger transport.
About the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure, Public Transport Division
The Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure, Public Transport Division was established as an amendment
the Passenger Transport Act (1994) to oversee all land based passenger
transport in South Australia. This includes all forms of land transport
that carry passengers for fare or reward including buses, trains,
trams, hire cars, taxis and horse drawn vehicles.
The OPT's vision is for integrated and accessible passenger transport
services that respond to the diverse and changing needs of our customers.
These services are viable for providers, reduce the environmental
impact of travel and provide many other benefits to the community.
What transport services are available
to me?
Currently there are a number of public passenger transport services
in South Australia. There are also a number of new services being
implemented and planned. Services include government subsidised
Integrated services,
special services,
town bus services
and a network of commercially operated route services linking regional
South Australia to metropolitan Adelaide.
What are Integrated Transport Plans?
In responding to the limited transport options within regional South
Australia, particularly between towns and to the nearest service
centre, the OPT has implemented Integrated Transport Plans. These
are based on Integrated Transport Studies, which identify the major
travel needs and propose transport services that coordinate the
available transport resources and needs within the community.
They are based on four principles:
- to encourage the coordination and integration of existing
transport services and infrastructure;
- to promote more efficient use of government resources;
- to support private operators to deliver identified transport
services; and
- to encourage strong community involvement in identifying the
transport needs of the region and develop strategies to address
these needs.
For further information see Integrated
Passenger Transport: A Model for Success from Regional South Australia
(477kb PDF)
 You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these files.
The reader can be downloaded for free from Adobe.
What is a Community Passenger Network?
Community Passenger Networks are a key part of the Integrated
Model. They serve an important function in co-ordinating transport,
providing information, brokering transport services and providing
last resort transport for the transport disadvantaged.
To find out more contact
your local CPN office.
How can I have my say or find out more?
The Integrated Transport Plans are based on community transport
needs. Therefore they have two phases of community consultation.
The first involves targeted consultation with key groups within
the community to establish specific transport needs such as those
of the youth, elderly, unemployed and indigenous communities.
These are determined by the local councils involved. The second
phase involves open consultations that enable the general community
to view the proposed services and provide feedback. Once the services
are finalised and implemented, they are governed by a local management
committee whose role (together with the service provider) is to
ensure the services are meeting community needs.
For general information about passenger transport you can contact:
Page last updated on
May 30, 2005
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