Cancelled trains.... maybe its time to reform governance?

What a strange idea you might well say. Surely the response to what appears to be our annual hot day train cancellation festival might be to fix the trains, buy new ones, spend more on infrastructure or if your a bunch of bored (but lacking in ethics) Herald Sun hacks - sack the minister?

Maybe you may wish to consider any of the above (though I think you can tell I think little of sacking the minister - a ritual as old and bloody as parliamentary governance itself). However think the real issue that has been brought about is the lack of public understanding of who does what in our public transport system.

Here's something I prepared earlier. Its a little out of date as Jim Betts no longer heads the Public Transport Division.
This is how our public transport system is run as a public private partnership. Lines of authority, responsability are diffused and while DOT (Department of Transport) has more authority then its predecessor (DOI) did under the Kennett privatisation you can see why people question the current system.

Much of the heat and fury is about franchising and the failures of Connex, but I think that is dealing with the symptoms of the problem rather then the root cause.

We should go deeper and ask, are our institutions strong enough. Is there enough power and authority invested in the key authority here, the Public Transport Division? Is there enough stakeholder buy in? Is there enough freedom to argue the case for public/sustainable transport investment which has been so lacking in recent decades?

I would argue no, and that is why we should consider looking at creating a multi stakeholder transport authority for Melbourne. Not because they would do a better job (I am not one of the '30 people could run public transport in Melbourne' people) but because our current institutions have failed us and we should be exploring new approaches.