Mathew Sharp

Image: Metro Tasmania bus #325 fitted with a bike rack during public testing days. Credit: Neil Robins Over the last twenty years, there have been attempts to integrate active mobility and public transport in Tasmania. Across Australia, it is not common to see bicycles carried on regular public buses, while bikes on buses in Tasmania is even less common. In other states and territories, trains and road coaches have the space for carrying bikes, aiding their integration into the transport network.

Yesterday the Tasmanian Premier, Jeremy Rockliff, announced his intention to privatise public assets to curb increasing state debts, including public transport operator Metro Tasmania Pty Ltd. It appears that this announcement has a sense of history repeating itself. In this essay, I explore the history of when the Metro authority became corporatised, and how the government last tried to privatise Metro.