The ACT government is facing renewed calls to improve bus services in Woden, Belconnen and Tuggeranong, as new figures show public transport patronage has declined in those districts.
The average number of daily public transport trips rose to 46,100 in the three months to September, a six per cent increase on the same period last year.
But the overall picture was somewhat skewed by big increases in the number of people catching public transport in the city and Gungahlin, where the light rail has been running since late April.
Daily passenger numbers were down in Woden, Belconnen and Tuggeranong, continuing a slump in patronage in those districts since the roll out of the revamped bus network.
Weston Creek is the outlier, with passenger numbers up 12 per cent.
Greens transport spokeswoman Caroline Le Couteur, who obtained the Transport Canberra figures, said drilling down into the trip data could help the government get to the bottom of why fewer people were catching buses in the three districts.
Ms Le Couteur said scrapping the bus network entirely was not the answer, given it was clear that the new "hub and spoke" public transport system was benefiting commuters in parts of Canberra.
"After six months of seeing how the network works for passengers, the government needs to fix the identified problems while keeping the gains," she said.
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Opposition transport spokeswoman Candice Burch last week moved a motion in the ACT Legislative Assembly calling on the government to fix the problems "plaguing" the new bus network.
Ms Burch demanded that axed weekend bus services be reinstated, express services in Tuggeranong and Belconnen be reintroduced and hundreds of bus stops reopened.
"It is evident that our public transport network has not reaped the benefits that so often come with change," she said. "The new network was ill-conceived, poorly planned and woefully implemented."
The government rejected the motion, with Ms Le Couteur's support.
While the crossbencher backed some of Ms Burch's ideas, she said that to deliver on the whole suite of changes the new network would have to be dumped entirely - which she was opposed to.
At Ms Le Couteur's request, the government will report back to the Assembly early next year on weekday passenger figures in Woden Valley, Tuggeranong and Belconnen.
Transport Minister Chris Steel said the government would continue to make tweaks to the bus network, noting that it had already made more than 130 changes since the April roll out.
Passenger numbers in November were up 5.4 per cent compared to the same month last year, Mr Steel said.
"More Canberrans than ever before are using our new public transport network to get to work and school," he said.
