¶ THE State Government has yet to make a decision on the future of the Collie-to-Bunbury bus service more than a year after a trial of the service ended.
Responding to Bulletin queries, the Public Transport Authority advised that the service is still “under review” following completion of the trial in January last year, however did not commit to a timeline for making a decision.
Queries as to whether the trial data will be made publicly available and if it is normal practice to take more than a year to come to a decision were not answered.
Collie-Preston MLA Jodie Hanns told the Bulletin she will always “advocate strongly for the Collie community”.
“The government intends to provide an update very soon, and I have reconfirmed with the Minister for Transport there will be absolutely no change to the current bus services while the review is being considered,” Mrs Hanns said.
TransWA reduced the size of coaches running between Collie and Bunbury and extended the trial through to January 2024 after the service initially averaged just two passengers a trip.
Additional stops were added and a targeted marketing campaign launched in a bid to improve patronage.
South West MLC Dr Steve Thomas questioned why so much time is needed to come to a decision.
“I’m going to call for them to release all the information and data they’ve got from the trial,” Dr Thomas said. 
“Obviously, after a year, they either can’t assess it properly or the data is so bad that they’re struggling to justify it.
“If that’s the case, let’s just have a bit of honesty. Ultimately, if it’s losing money, that’s what public transport does, but that shouldn’t stop the government telling us what the results of the trial are.”
Dr Thomas said he would support continuation of an “important” service even if it is losing money.