Well I got my feedback today in the form of a phone call from the Wollongong office of TfNSW.
The person was very friendly and obviously, because of their location, was intimately personally familiar with the Shuttle on a day to day basis. Yes, it is the busiest bus route in the state, averaging about 18,000 a day, they're very proud of the achievement, but yes it's absolutely overwhelmed and chaotic.
First they were defensive that PI suggested that the reason passengers were taken in through the front door only was that TfNSW made them count the entries. According to TfNSW, they asked PI to count the entries because they entered through the front door and wouldn't be asking them if they could enter through the other door too. It was starting to get a bit Kafkaesque at that point so we moved on.
Then I had to read between the lines because it was indirectly inferred that people couldn't enter through the middle door because of "safety " issues. People would rush through the door as it was closing, they tried with marshalls in Sydney and they don't consider it a success dadadada. There would be hidden code there too meaning that the union doesn't like it therefore they can't do it. I talked about cameras on the doors and the driver's CCTV display but even then the crowds are just too much apparently, regardless of what happens elsewhere etc.
Then I brought up the information I'd previously forwarded about Perth and that it was standard practice overseas (I sent them links to videos of all-door loading from Perth and Prague) and pointed out that there was no problem with multi-door entry on trams and yes they saw all that and they're willing to learn and listen to the customer dadadada and all those things will be forwarded to Sydney for them to look at [and place in the round file?]. It was explained that TfNSW was only at the beginning of the learning curve and had a long way to go. I should have pointed out that the state government has 85 years experience with bus operation and should have learnt a thing or three by now, but by this stage I was having trouble getting a word in through the friendly but non-committal chatter.
Finally as the last straw held up by the drowning man I said they'd probably need artics quite soon if the other methods can't be used and they said yes all those things will be considered dadadada (I imagine the door issue would sink that one because it would be even less "safe" for them).
Nothing unexpected really. I'm mulling over whether to go to MP level but I know that will simply be circulated through TfNSW to produce even more dadadada. The other strategy is whether to take up with my transport academic contact in UOW whether something innovative could be tried with the UOW operation. They use marshalls at the university stop for that apparently - but for the purpose of keeping the students in an orderly queue through the front door FMD!!
I can imagine that even with the UOW operation it would probably hit a snag because it's run by Dions and again the industry/union-entrenched attitude about back doors might arise from the management or drivers or both.
This is obviously something quite stubbornly institutionally entrenched that we have to deal with in NSW. I can see now why they're taking the tram option for other corridors (at 18,000 a day they'd be going for tram in Europe too, but not before getting the best out of buses). But for the Gong shuttle trams aren't an option because the route is too difficult to retrospectively engineer a tramway through, due to hills, acute-angled turns, motorway sections etc. One of the traditional European operations (or the old NSW tramways) would possibly be professionally-equipped to find a solution, but the current Australian method of using consultants and the sedate straight-line French tramway method would not work. I did plot some tram routes through greater Wollongong/Shellharbour some years ago but it works best on the north-south axis. On the east-west corridors, Wollongong is very challenging.
So there we have it - an apt symbol of typical bumbling bus operation in NSW. Even when something is stunningly successful they manage to make a dog's breakfast of it.
The good news is that the term "world class" was not used by TfNSW in the conversation, so the reputation of any other system was not harmed in the making of this complaint.
