Some more detail.
Toowoomba has adopted a scaled-down version of the BCC approach where LGA money funds bus operations within the LGA. This is expected to give an edge against the other 11 LGAs also asking for more PT funding in their LGA.
See: Annual budget 2024/25
Public Transport Levy
This is a new levy in 2024/25. It has been introduced taking into consideration community feedback over many years. It will give us greater leverage in advocating to the State Government on improvements that are much needed to our Region’s public transport network.
This levy is set at $39.80 for the full year.
(bolding added)
Some Statistics:
Estimated Resident Population from Profile.ID
- Toowoomba (2023) 181,821
- Ipswich (2023) 251,148
- City of Moreton Bay (2023) 510,104
- Logan City (2023) 377,773
- Sunshine Coast LGA (2023) 365,942
- City of Gold Coast (2023) 666,087
We can estimate rateable properties from population by dividing by 2.55, the average household size in SEQ. See Household size | South East Queensland | Community profile
We can then multiply by Toowoomba’s $39.80 levy per property to see what revenue this could raise assuming no business revenue funding.
‘Before Leverage’ LGA PT Levy Revenue Estimate (assuming Toowoomba levy levels).
Toowoomba - $2.8 million
Ipswich - $3.9 million
Moreton Bay - $7.9 million
Logan - $5.8 million
Sunshine Coast - $5.7 million
Gold Coast - $10.39 million
Now this might seem modest, but as a contribution the LGA funding would be used to attract and leverage more Queensland Government funding.
‘After Leverage’ Estimate
Let’s set the contributions to a similar level to what BCC has, where 25% is BCC funding and the remaining 75% is State Government funding. The figures below are the estimated totals for LGA + QLD Government funding assuming a similar ratio as for what BCC has currently:
Toowoomba - $11.35 million p.a. => 2 High Frequency bus routes
Ipswich - $15.6 million p.a. => 3 High Frequency bus routes
Moreton Bay - $31.8 million p.a. => 6 High Frequency bus routes
Logan - $23.5 million p.a. => 4 High Frequency bus routes
Sunshine Coast - $22.84 million p.a. => 4 High Frequency bus routes
Gold Coast - $41.58 million p.a. => 8 High Frequency bus routes
(assuming $5 million p.a. High Frequency bus operating costs, and assuming these are new routes and not top-ups of an existing bus route)
Conclusion
Assumptions and limitations - this is only an exploratory model for the purposes of discussion, and which relies on assumptions about future Queensland Government policy.
However, if the larger LGAs within SEQ (a) raise a modest PT levy, (b) succeed in attracting Queensland Government funds on a similar subsidy ratio as to what BCC has, and (c) focus on only contributing to specific high-frequency, high patronage bus routes rather than diffuse low patronage coverage services / flexi link services, the impact of introducing these new services enabled by the levy and the Queensland Government funds attracted could be significant.
Notes