What we do
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Fair and independent dispute resolution
The Public Transport Ombudsman (PTO) provides a fair and efficient dispute resolution service to the Victorian community and our industry scheme members.
We offer the Victorian community a free, fair and independent way to solve public transport problems, if they’ve been unable to solve a problem directly with a scheme member. Our dispute resolution processes help us understand the problem and ensure complaints are resolved fairly.
The PTO can consider most complaints about public transport services, and the impact of public transport-related activities including major infrastructure projects. We can also consider complaints about the fairness of public transport fines, if we determine that special or exceptional circumstances may apply .
We provide our industry scheme members with an independent escalation point for complex and hard-to-resolve complaints from their customers and the community. Our industry scheme members are Victorian public transport operators and agencies. We also provide advice to help members resolve Ombudsman complaints effectively and efficiently.
Our work generates unique insights into the community’s experience of public transport. We use these insights to help members reduce complaints and improve the community’s service experience. Our data reports give members information about the volume and type of Ombudsman complaints received about their organisation, and the issues underlying them.
Improving public transport
We use data and insights to help our members, and government, improve public transport for the Victorian community.
Our systemic issues work helps makes public transport better.
Systemic public transport issues are drivers of negative community experiences and complaints. We define a ‘systemic issue’ as a problem that’s affecting (or may affect) multiple people or groups of people with the community.
The PTO identifies systemic issues through the complaints we receive, and the feedback we capture through community outreach. We use this data to look for trends, or underlying factors, that may be driving complaints. Then we work with our member(s) to develop recommendations for mitigating or resolving these issues.
A single complaint to the PTO can make a difference.
Sometimes, a single person’s complaint can lead to outcomes that benefit others. Our dispute resolution service can help people achieve outcomes such as changes to operator policy, better public information, or improved customer processes.
Outreach in the community
Outreach is the work we do, in the community, to raise awareness of our complaint handling service. Outreach is fundamental to our commitment to making sure everyone can access our service, especially people who may face barriers to using public transport or be more likely to rely on it.
Our outreach activity is focused on information-sharing, events, and face-to-face conversations in the community. If your organisation or community group would like to connect with our outreach team, get in touch. Some of the ways we connect with the community through outreach includes:
- presentations that cover how to complain about public transport problems, and how the Public Transport Ombudsman can help
- attending community events to share information and gather feedback about public transport issues
- sharing digital and/or printed information about our service
PTO Annual Reports
Each year, the PTO Annual Report provides an overview of the types of public transport complaints the Victorian community has raised with us. The Report includes data about the number and types of complaints we’ve handled, the outcomes reached, and public transport issues raised within these complaints. It also includes case studies about our individual case work and systemic investigation work.