St Lucia, Taringa and West Toowong CFN Feeder

[James]

I've been wanting to post up my full review, but I haven't got around to it beyond the basic routings, so I've decided I'd make a separate one for a St Lucia/Taringa/Toowong feeder.

The Problem

Taringa and West Toowong, despite being close to the very-well serviced Moggill Road corridor, is grossly underserviced. All of these areas suffer from half-hour peak frequency, hourly weekday off-peak frequencies, and non-existant services on Saturdays and Sundays. The 414 is famous for its circuitous routing, unreliability and poor patronage outside of peak flows. The 416 is an all-stops rocket, and who can forget the 470 with its sporadic frequency and poor loadings. And finally, the 411, while being one of the better routes, suffers from poor frequency at night and on Sundays and can often be seen trailing a 412 all the way down Coronation Drive.

For locations which are within 6km of the CBD and have a large amount of the population living in medium-density dwellings, often Uni students, there is a significant population which could be captured by putting a decent frequency route through this area. Unfortunately, to BUZ the 411, 414, 415, 417 and 470 (Duke St section) would cost far too much.

The Solution

What I propose is that a feeder be introduced. This feeder links Indooroopilly with west Taringa/Toowong with Toowong station/buses with the University of Queensland (via Hawken Drive). Click here to see the new feeder in Google Maps. This bus incorporates elements of most of the previous bus routes in order to both maximise connectivity and minimise inconvenience to residents.

But how do we give this route near-BUZ frequency efficiently? By amalgamating the 411, 414, 415, 416, 417 and taking the Duke Street diversion from the 470, I have created an effective feeder route which has:
- 10 minute frequency in both directions between 6:30am - 9am and 4pm - 6:30pm
- 15 minute frequency in both directions between 6am - 9pm M-F and 7am - 9pm on weekends.
- 30 minute frequency between 6am and 11pm seven days a week
There are a few spare trips available for maybe a welfare service after this time, or possible extension of 15 minute frequency.

The new feeder (9.5 km in-service running) will have around 9,400km of in-service running, versus the current system which has 9,600km of in-service running (excluding Duke St running of the 470). The remaining 200km will be used to fund services along unserved parts in the new network - mostly on replacing the 417.

Passengers from the new service can then change to frequent services at either Toowong (primary interchange), Indooroopilly or UQ.

There are a few sections left without service, and their solutions are here:
1. 417 removal in East Indooroopilly/Taringa - passengers will be fed to rail using a new feeder route from Long Pocket, going along Harts Rd to Indooroopilly Shopping Centre. This route will run hourly. 435 should be re-routed from the CBD to fulfil this function. Frequency should be 20 minutes in peak, hourly at all other times.
2. 414/415 removal from small parts of Taringa - pax will need to walk to nearby bus stops or Taringa rail. For most passengers this is not a large distance.
3. 470 - The 470 will have its Duke St portion removed and it will become a more reliable Toowong - City via Milton Road connection.

A CFN route for the inner western suburbs. Fast, frequent, legible and cost neutral.

[#Metro]

A CFN route for the inner western suburbs. Fast, frequent, legible and cost neutral.

Excellent proposal. Is it possible for buses to do the turns at Toowong. Seems a bit tight.

[ozbob]

^ Yo, thanks James, nice work ...   

[aldonius]

At least one discrepancy between the blue line in the image, and in the GoogleMap - is it meant to go via Burns (image) or via Gailey (GM)?

[James]

Excellent proposal. Is it possible for buses to do the turns at Toowong. Seems a bit tight.

I'm going to be honest, designing this route for decent interchange at Toowong was a b***h to do. As far as I'm aware, all the turns there are legal. That's probably the only area where I'm still not sure of the routing.

At least one discrepancy between the blue line in the image, and in the GoogleMap - is it meant to go via Burns (image) or via Gailey (GM)?

Via Burns, will correct that now. This move is half for patronage, half for coverage. Gailey Road starts covering the 412's catchment area and the walk for pax under this proposal would just be a short one across a field.

[SurfRail]

Extend to the Long Pocket terminus?

[#Metro]

Maybe select only one service an hour to extend.

[James]

Extend to the Long Pocket terminus?

Demand in this area is low for a PT service - it only needs a coverage route, a FUZ would only compete with the 432, not to mention Long Pocket is very much a 'nothing' destination. 417 has very poor patronage outside peak, and in the Long Pocket area, I believe patronage is poor all-round. By comparison, 411 gets strong patronage, and West Taringa/West Toowong I see a very good PT opportunity there.

This is why I suggest a route (435 being re-routed would do this nicely) which runs down Harts Rd to Long Pocket hourly off-peak. The residents out there really don't care much about their bus route, partly because nobody uses it. Peak it'd be every 20 minutes, co-ordinating with rail. I'd like to re-route the 432, but that would trash it's current fast routing (I really think the 427 should use the 432's routing).