from YAPRap June 2006
by Melissa Armstrong, Coordinator Batbus
Three youth transport services on the Far North Coast of NSW have received additional funding for 2 years. This is to provide transport for sporting groups consisting predominantly of young people between the ages of 12 -25. The transport services are Batbus, Yaxi and Yowi. The services identified that there was a need for groups of young people to get to sporting matches, particularly those further afield, such as regional tournaments. Lack of public transport had been frequently identified as one of the key concerns for young people in the area.
The benefits of sport are well documented but for some young people access to events was limited. Factors such as low socio-economic households, rural isolation, no vehicle or one car families, or siblings needing transport at conflicting times all contributed to transport disadvantage.
As the Coordinator of the Batbus I have received a very positive response and sporting groups are extremely grateful to be able to use this new service.
We have followed our existing brokerage model, where vehicles are hired and subsidies provided, to ensure all passengers can afford to travel. In some cases, we have hired self drive vehicles, where the group has provided a driver and we have subsidised the hire cost. This is particularly useful for weekend tournaments in other regions, where the cost of either keeping a driver for the weekend or paying for return transport, can be excessive.
The Ministry of Transport has funded the 3 projects and will be evaluating the success over the next 2 years. Batbus has been funded for $10,000 per year. For this relatively small amount of funding we expect to provide hundreds of passengers per year with affordable and accessible transport.
More information
Melissa Armstrong
Coordinator Batbus, Byron Bay
batbus@norex.com.au
02 66 858 771
www.batbus.net
