Partnerships and submissions

Partnerships

The Public Transport Ombudsman (PTO) works in partnership with other organisations to promote access and improvements to public transport in Victoria.

One example is the Travel Assistance Program (TAP) which was established with WEstjustice Legal Service to assist vulnerable students in the western suburbs of Melbourne get to school. The program provides students who are couch surfing and at risk of homelessness with prepaid travel vouchers so they can get to and from school and access the support they need. Feedback from schools in the initial 2018 pilot was overwhelmingly positive, and following a grant from the State Government the program has been expanded to more schools in 2019.

We are committed to helping these young people get to school, and commend all our partners: WEstjustice, City of Wyndham, Department of Transport, Department of Education and Victorian Council of Social Service. Our work on the Travel Assistance Program was recognised with the Australian Dispute Resolution (ADR) Innovation of the Year Award at the 2018 Australian ADR Awards.

We also work with community support and advocacy organisations throughout Victoria to identify improvement opportunities and systemic issues in metropolitan and regional public transport.

You can find out more about our approach to public transport systemic issues here.

Youth and Industry Roundtable

In 2015 we hosted the inaugural Youth and Industry Roundtable in response to concerns that young people are often challenged or disadvantaged by public transport policy and processes.

The Roundtable brought together a wide range of organisations and industry members to discuss the public transport challenges facing young people and how these challenges can be addressed going forward. You can read the Roundtable Report here.

Submissions

One of the ways we work to improve public transport in Victoria is to make submissions to Government inquiries and reviews, such as the Federal Government’s regular reviews of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport.  We also make recommendations when public transport laws and regulations are under review.

We also contribute to justice reviews and inquiries, such as the Access to Justice reviews by the Productivity Commission and the State Government, and the Law Council of Australia’s access to justice review ‘The Justice Project’. As a free, fast and independent service, the Public Transport Ombudsman provides access to justice for people who want an alternative to the courts to have their public transport complaint resolved.