In preparation for tendering, costs per mile of the government bus system have been reduced by 25 percent. The government owned operating facilities and vehicles will be made available to operators at market lease rates with the eventual intention to sell unnecessary facilities. Policy is separated from operations. The government owned operator has already reduced its costs per mile by more than 20 percent. The government was recently returned to power, and intends to competitively tender the rest of the bus service, and to begin competitive tendering of rail services.
Policy is separated from operations.
Since 1989, New South Wales has been competitively tendering bus services that replaced rural rail service and late night rail service in Sydney. At the same time, the urban transport operators in Newcastle and Sydney have been required to substantially reduce their costs per mile under threat of competitive tendering. The urban rail system will also be competitively tendered. In preparation for competitive tendering, the government owned bus operator has reduced its costs per mile by 25 percent. The government owned system has also begun selling over-built or redundant capital facilities such as its central maintenance facility.