Article: City buses re-routed to ease congestion

[somebody]

City buses re-routed to ease congestion

Date
    September 10, 2012

Jacob Saulwick
Transport Reporter

MORE than 60 peak hour buses that enter the city across the Harbour Bridge and York Street will be redirected across the Cahill Expressway in the latest attempt to ease the morning gridlock.

The new routes will begin next year, when 7 per cent of buses that currently run through York Street will be swung onto the new route.

The buses, coming from the north-west suburbs, will make their way down the eastern side of the city rather than joining the queue of buses on York Street through the middle of the city.
Buses line up York St, Sydney CBD to drop of morning commuters on Friday 17th June 2011. Photograph by James Brickwood. SHD NEWS 110617

Unclogging the arteries ... new routes will redirect 60 peak hour buses into the city next year. Photo: James Brickwood

They will enter the CBD by the Cahill Expressway, travel west down Bridge Street, turn left into Pitt Street, left in Hunter Street, down Castlereagh Street and will terminate at Market Street.

The changes will mean a different walk to work for some, but they could also ease congestion on a route that is a regular cause of morning frustration.

"I catch the bus regularly from Willoughby to the city in the morning and I share the frustrations of bus customers when buses line up along the bridge," the Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, said. "Changes to bus services from early next year will occur to address some of the worst areas of congestion, including around the north of the city.''

Details of the plan will be presented to a new committee comprising officials from the government and City of Sydney.

The City of Sydney Traffic Committee, to be chaired by the director-general of Transport for NSW, Les Wielinga, is expected to meet for the first time this month.

The state government's draft transport masterplan, released last week, offered conceptual solutions for reducing the peak-hour crush of buses in the city. These included terminating more buses at the edge of the city, running more buses on different routes through the city and new major bus-rail interchanges. But the major initiatives, if enacted, remain years away.

The area around Wynyard and York Street is already at capacity in the morning and afternoon peak hours, due largely to the steep increase over recent years in buses coming from the north-west and northern beaches.

A report for the state government has put the cost of congestion in the morning peak hour on York Street at $13 million a day in wasted time and lost revenue.

http://www.smh.com.au/drive/roads-and-traffic/city-buses-rerouted-to-ease-congestion-20120909-25me8.html

Some sense is actually applying here.  I think the route is a little odd.

[somebody]

This starts today.  T4NSW says:

Buses diverted to Cahill Expressway to reduce CBD queues

Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian said from today 60 morning peak buses from the north west will enter the city via the Cahill Expressway, as part of an initiative to help relieve congestion and improve the reliability of buses coming into the Sydney CBD.
The buses will enter the city by the Cahill Expressway and travel down Bridge, Pitt, Hunter and Castlereagh streets before terminating at Market Street.

"Customers who travel to the city by bus each day and enter the city from the north have told us they want more reliable bus services and we are keen to try various initiatives to see if they work," Ms Berejiklian said.

"I have experienced first-hand the frustration when you get stuck on the Harbour Bridge on a bus and in York St."

The services included in the initiative are the 620/620X, 642/642X, 650/650X and the 652X, which all run to the city from various locations around Dural, Cherrybrook and West Pennant Hills between 6am and 10am each weekday.

There are no changes to services leaving the city during the morning peak or to any PM peak services.

Dural bus customers affected by these changes will be able to continue their journey to the southern CBD by transferring to Newtown bus services (422, 423, 426 and 428) at no extra charge.

Thousands of flyers have been distributed to customers at bus stops and in the north west and a dedicated phone line was established to answer any questions.

Transport for NSW customer services teams will be at all relevant CBD bus stops during the AM peak for the first week of the initiative to answer customers' questions and listen to feedback.

Rerouting these bus services is a part of the NSW Government's commitment to relieving congestion in the CBD. Other initiatives include:

    trialling double decker buses to gauge their impact on reducing congestion and freeing up kerb space at bus stops;
    building light rail to reduce the number of buses in the CBD by 220 in an hour each morning;
    traffic signalling and parking changes to make the CBD road network more efficient for buses;
    the formation of a dedicated police motorcycle team for the Sydney CBD to target motorist behaviour which increases congestion, such as queuing across intersections.

Click to download PDF release. (pdf 110KB)
18 February 2013
Related items:
Buses, Media Release

http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/buses-diverted-cahill-expressway-reduce-cbd-queues