Complaints to the PTO have increased by 21 percent since last year, according to the 2018/2019 Public Transport Ombudsman (PTO) Annual Report.

The report, which incorporates statistics from 12 public transport companies that run bus, tram and train services, found that staff issues overtook service delivery as the most criticised aspect of public transport.

Service delivery, ticketing, land and infrastructure, trams, trains and buses, infringement notices and accessibility of public transport rounded out the top seven most complained about issues.

For the year 2,201 complaints were received in total, up by 503 from last year. However, that increase hasn’t resulted in more investigations, with 579 pursued, 16 less than last year.

Initiated in 2004, the role of the Public Transport Ombudsman is to investigate and mediate individual complaints made by public users. Current ombudsman Treasure Jennings has been in the role since 2014.

Since the 2017/2018 report, Ms Jennings says she has made a conscious decision to improve her analysis since past reports which will ultimately help the public transport network.

“We now publish more focused information more regularly, in the form of annual bulletins of special interest,” Jennings said in the report.

“We hope that focusing on these key areas will make it easier for some of the more system-wide issues to be resolved and services to be improved.”

The scheme found that increasing the public awareness of the PTO was something that they would continue to work on, to be sure that customers received the help they needed when using public transport.

“Increasing public awareness of the PTO and improving the ease with which a person can complain to us when they are dissatisfied continues to be an area of opportunity and the report recommended the PTO continue to simplify how consumers find out about and access the PTO.”

Photo: Trams in Melbourne by Hugh Llewelyn available HERE and used under a Creative Commons Attribution. The image has not been modified.