2018-02-06 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                             6 FEBRUARY 2018


TransLink also provided in-kind marketing support including:
   Inclusion of the additional shuttle services on TransLink’s journey planner;
   Inclusion of messaging on webpages of all relevant TransLink routes;
   Web tile on TransLink home page leading up to and during free period; and
   Inclusion of messaging on Noosa Junction Transit Centre real-time display.

4.   Passenger Assistant at Noosa Heads Bus Station

One Sunbus passenger assistant was based at Noosa Heads Bus Station from 9.30am to
4.10pm on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 December. These days were selected based on
passenger data from 2016/17 and once again proved to be the busiest days. The passenger
assistant addressed passenger enquiries and coordination of bus movements.

5.   Feedback Survey

A feedback survey was available on Council’s website, Facebook, a link on the FHB posters and
hard copies were distributed by the passenger assistant at the Noosa Heads bus station. The
survey consisted of 16 questions seeking feedback on areas such as age, purpose of travel,
satisfaction with trip, residential status, reasons for using the Free Holiday Buses and awareness
of public transport. Of the 16 questions, 5 of the questions were targeted specifically at Noosa
residents. A total of 129 surveys were completed (50 online & 79 hard copy).

Points of interest include:
    66% of respondents who caught a Free Holiday Bus had access to a car in Noosa;
    Consistent with previous years, the main reason people caught a free holiday bus was to
      avoid traffic and congestion, followed by convenience and limited car parking;
    94% of users were either very satisfied (67%) or satisfied (27%) with their trip;
    77% of users caught a bus for recreational purposes e.g. to get to the beach,
      entertainment, dining etc., 21% used it to perform errands such as shopping, 21% caught
      the bus to get to work (up on last year’s survey respondents of 9%) and 15% caught a bus
      to visit friends/family (the total is greater than 100% as people could select more than one
      answer);
    If the buses had not been free, 49% of the respondents would have driven their car;
    Word of mouth continued to be the primary means by which people found out about the
      Free Holiday Buses (33%), followed by street banners on power poles (26%), the
      newspaper (26%) and roadside traffic signs (21%);
    72% of respondents had caught a Free Holiday Bus in previous years (up on last year’s
      survey respondents of 53%);
    The residential status of respondents included – Noosa Council residents (49%), Sunshine
      Coast Council residents (22%), Interstate visitors (12%), Queensland residents (8%), and
      International visitors (9%);
    34% of respondents were aged between 41-60 years, 24% were 26-40 years and 20%
      were 60 years and older;
    51% of respondents stated that they will use public transport more in the future because of
      the Free Holiday Buses, 26% said maybe, 13% were already regular bus users and 10%
      said no.
The vast majority of open-ended feedback were very positive, thanking Council for providing the
service. There continues to be confusion/negativity about Route 620 (Noosa Heads –
Maroochydore) which is not part of the free services due to constraints with TransLink as well as
requests for the services to run for longer.


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