Brisbane bus network - incremental changes

[ozbob]

We need to identify and advocate for incremental change to the Brisbane bus network:

Please post your comments/suggestions in this thread.

We need to identify a series of incremental changes to the bus network that will progressively reduce the number of buses near empty into and out of the CBD/Victoria Bridge, improve services and start advocating for these.  TransLink has to start delivering, regardless of BCC.

The overall reform strategy should be this.

When it suits BCC they say TransLink is responsible for the network etc.  Ok then.

TransLink has a new boss, it is time they earned their keep.

TransLink needs to start making changes to the Brisbane bus network to reduce the waste, duplication and inefficiency.  For a start, redeploy wasted service, eg. empty buses on the busways late at night into bus black holes during the day so people can actually use the services!

It matters not a great deal if BCC do not want to cooperate.  TransLink must start acting for the benefit of the community.

This can be an incremental process over the next two years.

^ this is the focus from here.

[#Metro]

The New Bus Network is already there, that has been known for a year already.

It's a case of getting bigger buses, simplifying, all door boarding. bus interchange at Coopers Plains etc.

BCC has been very clear that it will block everything. It rejected the CentenaryGlider days from an election, for example.

At this point, the minister needs to come in and cancel the bus contracts. He has grounds to do this already with the non-

performance of bus on time figures.

[#Metro]

I guess the thing to do is ask if people from here want to meet the PT minister and put their case to him en group.
It's a prospect of another 4 years of inaction if this continues.

[ozbob]

Please start thinking about incremental changes.  BCC cannot block anymore.  They are very very exposed now for what they are.

The bus network is broken, Quirk has admitted that with his Metro proposal at least. 

[#Metro]

All here http://tiny.cc/newnetwork

[ozbob]

We need an incremental plan for change.  The proposed example network is an end point. Overnight reform is not going to happen...

[#Metro]

This has been covered previously also - just fill out the black hole areas:

Here are the bus network black hole areas:

196 Yeronga BUZ
230 BulimbaGlider
359 Eaton's Hill (parts of this run in the MBRC local government area)
400 CentenaryGlider
911 Mitchelton to UQ St Lucia via Ashgrove and Toowong

If these 5 bus routes were fixed/introduced, most areas of Brisbane would have access to a BUZ.

[James]

Agree with LDT here. Incremental changes are simply a matter of picking parts of bus network reform and going from there.

[ozbob]

This has been covered previously also - just fill out the black hole areas:

Here are the bus network black hole areas:

196 Yeronga BUZ
230 BulimbaGlider
359 Eaton's Hill (parts of this run in the MBRC local government area)
400 CentenaryGlider
911 Mitchelton to UQ St Lucia via Ashgrove and Toowong

If these 5 bus routes were fixed/introduced, most areas of Brisbane would have access to a BUZ.

Ok thanks, what needs to be modified to provide the service kms?  Cut late night empty services on Busway to rational levels?

[#Metro]

This is microbus reform:

196 Yeronga BUZ (Every 15 minutes)
This needs to be mostly de novo funding to extend into Yeronga. Remove 107, cut loop from 105.

230 BulimbaGlider (Every 15 minutes)
Just amalgamate the 230 and 235. Top up any weekend or evening gaps with new money.

359 Eaton's Hill (parts of this run in the MBRC local government area) (Every 15 minutes)
Truncate the route at Mitchelton. Top up any weekend or evening gaps with new money.

400 CentenaryGlider (Every 15 minutes)
Basically, simplify the spaghetti down there. Top up any weekend or evening gaps with new money. (won't need much)

911 Mitchelton to UQ St Lucia via Ashgrove and Toowong (Every 15 minutes, compromise position 20 min or 30 min frequency)
Break up GCL by terminating GCL at Brookside and Indooroopilly. Amalgamate 411 services into the new route. Top up any weekend or evening gaps with new money.

If there aren't funds for weekends, you can do what Melbourne does with some SmartBus routes and run it at 30 minutes on weekends/Sundays. This will be irritating, but an improvement on the status quo.

That's it. Don't do anything else. It's just 5 bus routes. It is the bus reform micro edition.

[red dragin]

It might take a bit of change by stealth to get these passed the knitting brigade though.

• We've given you a new bus to get you there quicker

A few weeks later:

• Demand has reduced on your old bus, so we will keep it but run it less often

After a few months:

• No one uses it, so we will get rid of it

[Gazza]

I think for new routes, stop spending so much running every 15 mins at all times.

The GC has it right with their frequent network from around 6am to 8pm, which is useful for the vast majority of passengers to make spontaneous journeys during business hours and the hours when most people are out and about.
But they still run the route outside these times till midnight, just at a lower frequency, so people can still get home.

This softens the financial impact of establishing the service.

A half hourly bus at 11am annoys a lot of potential passengers.

But a half hourly bus at 11pm only annoys a few people.

[nathandavid88]

I agree with Gazza on this. After, say 8–9pm, I would have no qualms about BUZ services (maybe excluding a few of them) having a frequency drop to half hourly. The 555 operates like this, and the lower frequency is more than adequate for a patronage it gets at that time of the evening.

[techblitz]

translink nailed it with thier buz span of hours in the review.Should continue to be pushed....BTT/BCC have no place in blocking these SOH proposals as most of thier drivers would no doubt know the air carrying that happens late night.If they must continue to run multiple all-stoppers and dual/triple buzes down major corridors till 10/11pm then span of hours is what must be looked at for savings...

[OzGamer]

I've thought a lot about this. I believe incremental changes can be made which over time lead to a rationalized network. It is simply too hard to overcome the fear of change to make major overhauls in one go. A few examples of incremental changes could be:

* Move 200 BUZ to Winstanley St/Samuel St/Chatsworth Rd (205 Hi in RBOT network). Cancel or at least reduce 202 and 203. Use the saved funds to increase 222 frequency if needed for capacity on Old Cleveland Rd.
* Move 330 to the busway and Gympie Rd and make 333 a peak only service for capacity reasons. Use the saved funds to BUZ the 300.
* Implement the Gap changes in the RBOT network even if the 380 can not be made into a proper high frequency route. Basically put as many services in as possible without increasing the overall cost compared to now.

You see what I mean. Doing what you can without removing service from anyone and without making a big budget hit.

[petey3801]

Can we also stop using the 'Glider' title for the Bulimba and Centenary routes please? In particular the Centenary, it simply doesn't need 'Glider' style frequencies, BUZ is plenty.

[bcasey]

As per the RBOT proposal, cut the 325 and 335 in half at Chermside Shopping Centre, consolidate the Chermside to City part into a single route that goes via Webster Road, through Wilston Village, then through the INB to the city, thus bringing it up to a half-hourly frequency during offpeak, and a higher frequency during peak. The other ends of 325 and 335 act as feeders to Chermside Shopping Centre, from which passengers have plenty of options to go where they like.

I don't regularly catch these buses anymore, but I know from my family that they still have issues with reliability and bus bunching (not necessarily bunching within a single route, but bunching between 325 and 335 on this section between Chermside and the City).

[Gazza]

Can we also stop using the 'Glider' title for the Bulimba and Centenary routes please? In particular the Centenary, it simply doesn't need 'Glider' style frequencies, BUZ is plenty.

Agreed. I can't specifically see why the Centenary suburbs warrant a higher hourly capacity rate off peak than any other HF routes through areas of similar density.

4 bph works on the 100 and the 180 for example.

[tazzer9]

Can we also stop using the 'Glider' title for the Bulimba and Centenary routes please? In particular the Centenary, it simply doesn't need 'Glider' style frequencies, BUZ is plenty.

BUZ is generally the same frequencies as gliders.   only the blue gilder has 5 minute frequencies in peak.  the only difference is that because gliders dont terminate in the city, the extra frequency in the non peak direction isnt needed.  plenty of non glider, non buz routes run at frequencies of 10 minutes or better during off peak and 5 minutes in peak.

[#Metro]

Can we also stop using the 'Glider' title for the Bulimba and Centenary routes please? In particular the Centenary, it simply doesn't need 'Glider' style frequencies, BUZ is plenty.

This went to an election and 2 parties adopted it as official policy. 24-hour service on Friday and Saturday nights.
Note, no BUZ made it to policy. Gliders are BCC responsibilities, standard BUZ are TransLink responsibilities.

[James]

The reason Glider was used in the Centenary and Bulimba BUZes/Gliders is because of politics - it is a lot more popular to sell a shiny new Glider route with colourful wraps and so forth vs. a 'BUZ' with very little branding.

Teething issues can be sorted out on a case-by-case basis.

[SurfRail]

Pigeonholes are unhelpful.  There is too much political baggage associated with the existing labels, and they are meaningless to visitors.

Just call it "frequent" and leave it at that.

[error]

I think the centenary suburbs are a good option for a 'micro bus-reform'.

[ozbob]

Media release 24th March 2016



Brisbane: Start Fixing Bus Network with Five Point Plan

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers has floated a five point plan to fix Brisbane City Council's broken bus network.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"Proposing a ' metro ' on the Brisbane busways is a clear admission by Lord Mayor Graham Quirk that his bus network is well and truly broken. Brisbane City Council has been in denial about this for years, despite it being clearly foreshadowed in its own 2007 Lord Mayor's Mass Transit Report."

"The ' Quirk Metro ' is a vote bait pipe-dream that would not increase busway capacity in our measured opinion. It is time for the Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe to move on with achievable bus reforms. This will be a key opportunity for the Palaszczuk Government to demonstrate that it is capable of fixing broken bus services within the State's capital, or whether it is truly 'frozen at the wheel'."

Our Five Point Plan is:

196 Yeronga BUZ (Every 15 minutes)
230 BulimbaGlider (Every 15 minutes)
359 Eatons Hill (Every 15 minutes)
400 CentenaryGlider (Every 10-15 minutes)
911 Mitchelton to UQ St Lucia via Ashgrove and Toowong

"These bus services would plug Brisbane City Council's 'bus black holes'."

"Services should have all door boarding, and improved frequency up to at least 9 pm on weeknights. These five services could be funded by minor changes to existing routes through amalgamations, simplifications and truncations. As the Quirk Metro will serve none of these areas, there is no reason to delay these service changes."

"Can we wait a decade sitting in bus jam hoping for bus reform?"

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

References:

1.. New Bus Network Proposal
http://tiny.cc/newnetwork

2. Quirk Metro Capacity Calculation

300 pax / train x 30 trains/hour = 9,000 pphd, less than what the busway carries now (12,000-15,000 pphd).
Even if 90 second headways could be achieved, unlikely unless a fully automated system, capacity would only be 300 x 40 = 12,000 pphd.

[ozbob]

The reason Glider was used in the Centenary and Bulimba BUZes/Gliders is because of politics - it is a lot more popular to sell a shiny new Glider route with colourful wraps and so forth vs. a 'BUZ' with very little branding.

Teething issues can be sorted out on a case-by-case basis.

Yo.  We have been calling them ' gliders ' for years.  Not changing now.  It matters little in the end. Just being consistent for now.

Appreciate the feedback, thanks.

[ozbob]

Twitter

Robert Dow ‏@Robert_Dow now Brisbane, Queensland

Starting Fixing Bus Network with Five Point Plan

> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=12136.msg171451#msg171451 ... via @railbotforum #qldpol

[BrizCommuter]

You've forgotten the 390 BUZ ?

[QLDBUS]

Remember if your going to do incremental changes you nose well just do a whole bus review for example you sexy eked the 196 to YERONGA your have to change the 105 or remove it and the 104 107 and 108 which is head ially the same mad the bus review anyways same with the 400 and the old Cleveland road routes

Secondly if we do somehow get a bus review there probably won't be any superbuses so the 40 centenary glider wont work with just a normal 12.5 bus I'm sorry to say even if it's running 5 minutes in peak it would just get to full I still believe even if you ran both 444 and a 400 they wouldn't cope either and also you'd have to do alot of upgrades just to fit the superbuses on ten road Kiel for example Roma street would only fit 1 superbus on the platform when your going to have possibly 4 at a time using it. Plus the 111 being used as a bendy bus it's just not going to work and interchanges like chermside would need upgrades just to fit a super bus to and how many super buses would you need probably over 60 and would there really be enough room at the depots to fit all though superbuses

And anyways peronally ghe only way will get a bus review probably is of either BBC bonuses get privatised or we get a new government at the state election this  Year or Maybe of the metro fails


Well that's my 2 cents worth

[ozbob]

Thanks, but we need to think about giving something a go.  Everything is just getting worse.

I really not interested in why we can't, just interested in what we can do.

For example empty buses running late on the SEB at night at high frequency can be rationalised and those service kms redeployed.

This is a think tank of sorts.  From out of the soup will come some good moves I reckon.

[QLDBUS]

alot of the BUZ services have an alright pax at night though  coming outbound but inbound  you can defentily cut services but even then the pax is alright I guess so cutting night time bus routes isn't going to fund  any new HI frequency services. In some cases you need more routes at night like on the  66 which finishes at 9:30pm which the last few services are always full coming from Uq

[#Metro]

Before TransLink, when BCC was responsible, the way to effect change was to introduce the new route, siphon all the passengers and then come back 6 mths or 12 months later and remove the old route. If you do monitoring, you can also make a nice graph from the week to week patronage with the falling patronage on the old route if anyone wants to complain.

This mechanism can work quite effectively. If you look at MaroonGlider and 385, neither are in the top 10 bus routes anymore due to this siphon effect.

Secondly if we do somehow get a bus review there probably won't be any superbuses so the 40 centenary glider wont work with just a normal 12.5 bus I'm sorry to say even if it's running 5 minutes in peak it would just get to full I still believe even if you ran both 444 and a 400 they wouldn't cope either and also you'd have to do alot of upgrades just to fit the superbuses on ten road Kiel for example Roma street would only fit 1 superbus on the platform when your going to have possibly 4 at a time using it. Plus the 111 being used as a bendy bus it's just not going to work and interchanges like chermside would need upgrades just to fit a super bus to and how many super buses would you need probably over 60 and would there really be enough room at the depots to fit all though superbuses

Superbuses can run on normal roads without special infrastructure, as they do overseas. Minor modifications may be needed for perhaps KGS, or just don't run it down there.

The arctic buses in this video carry 150 pax. Who died?

Second video
Blue buses - 150 pax

[#Metro]

Model of bus used in 2nd video is this: