“For the very first time, handheld technology has allowed us to say to people, ‘Your value of time has suddenly shifted.’”

Transit Unplugged has left North America and traveled to Australia. Our first guest on this seven-part series in the land Down Under, Jeroen Weimar, CEO of Public Transport Victoria (PTV), was one of the people that helped set up Transport for London and jumped around the industry a bit before landing at PTV.

With Melbourne being one of the fastest growing developed cities in the industrialized world, the state of Victoria is investing heavily in transportation. The regional government is spending $38B on new rail, new road tunnels, upgrades, and general transport infrastructure spending, which gives PTV an excellent opportunity to advance public transport in the region.

Public Transport Victoria has many different modes – bus, metro, commuter rail, etc. – but the most notable mode is the largest tram system in the world. Between all these modes, PTV has ~2 million passengers every day. About 20 or so years ago, they started outsourcing operations of their entire service, but the passengers only see a single entity – PTV. Weimar notes the difference between outsourcing and privatizing since PTV owns the “infrastructure, track, power, everything.”

On this episode, Weimar discusses how contracting out their service is the way that PTV provides safe, efficient, and reliable service. He also goes into the challenge of running some legacy systems while PTV invests in new technology. Finally, he shares the plan for PTV’s new mobile payment platform and the importance of transport to communities.

If you want to know more about PTV, you can check out their website.

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