Another milestone has been reached as the Marshall Government continues to modernise South Australia’s public transport network and provide better services.
The State Government has announced that three consortia have been shortlisted to tender in the operation, maintenance and service delivery of the Adelaide Metro Train Services.
The three consortia shortlisted include:
- Adelaide Next (a consortium between Deutsche Bahn and John Holland);
- Keolis Downer (a consortium between Keolis and Downer EDI); and,
- TrainCo (a consortium between Transdev and CAF).
The short-listed consortia will now be invited to submit a response to the State Government’s invitation to tender which will be released in the first quarter of 2020.
The State Government will then undertake a thorough assessment of their response before deciding on a successful tenderer in the second half of 2020.
“The Marshall Government is continuing to build a better public transport system in South Australia to provide better services and drive patronage growth,” said Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government Stephan Knoll.
“We agree with South Australians and know that our public transport system has room for improvement.
“Under Labor we saw public transport patronage decline and South Australia actually had more people catching a train, tram or bus 10 years ago than when Labor left Office.
“That’s why the Marshall Government is undertaking these reforms to deliver better and more convenient train, tram and bus services to encourage more people to catch public transport.
“What we are seeking to do is bring trains and tram in line with the same model that our buses have operated under for the last 20 years – that accounts for around 70 per cent of our public transport network.
“Encouragingly we’ve seen some green shoots and in the last financial year we saw public transport patronage increase by over one million trips compared to the previous year.
“The short-listed consortia all have experience in the management and service delivery of rail services, some of which in other jurisdictions in Australia.
“These companies have proven records in improving service delivery and customer experience and supporting employees through the transition from a public to a private operation.”
