Improved Access to St Lucia From Western Suburbs

[dancingmongoose]

I met a friend of mine the other day at Oxley who studies at UQ St Lucia. He mentioned to me that "they should build a rail line to UQ because the bus from Indro can take up to 45 minutes depending on traffic". To be honest I don't know exactly how accurate this is but lets take this as gospel. I've had a look at the situation from Google maps.
[IMGT]http://i.imgur.com/riQnIxC.jpg[/IMGT]
I've considered a few solutions:
Current solutions:

• Catch the bus from Toowong instead.
• I don't know whether this is a better or worse as I don't know the routes. Someone else may be in a better position than me to comment on this
• Catch the train to Roma Street, train to Park Road, busway to UQ
• Translink says this will take about 35 minutes, but it won't always be faster if traffic is ok. However there is more of a guarantee on times due to rail, busway and shorter distance on the bus. If it was AM peak this would be my option but otherwise no.

Future solutions:

• Extend busway to Indro or Toowong
• Good in theory, but the land is too congested and you would have to build through the university. I just don't think there would be the room. Light rail same issue
• Heavy rail spur from Indro
• Above ground, no. Not without a ton of resumptions anyway. If you were to build a tunnel, however, this avoids that problem. The only issue would be a portal. The only place for a portal imo would be the large rock face close to Taringa station, as this should avoid any need for resumptions, however I'm no expert in geology so whether it would be suitable or not I don't know. And if we're going heavy rail I prefer the next option.
• BaT spur to Indro
• The more I think about this the more I like it. It would be rail only, wouldn't need to include Park Road underground (assuming we even get one), if you're using Park Road/Boggo Road station just catch the bus that currently exists. Underground station at UQ Lakes and another at Indro similar to Roma Street will be. There would be no need for any Ipswich/Springfield line timetable changes as express services already stop at Indro. This also opens up the possibility of an extension to Kenmore. Diagram:
  [IMGT]http://i.imgur.com/rRlHsTo.jpg[/IMGT]

Thoughts? What should he do at present, and how viable could new infrastructure be?

[Mozz]

During peak the Ipswich trains don't stop at Toowong. But living at Oxley in terms of public transport I would catch the train to Indooroopilly or Toowong and catch a bus from there 35-45 mins sounds fine in terms of travel time to get to the campus - based on the current public transport setup, at least there is the ability to transfer at two intermediate stations... often the only solution is to travel all the way into the city and then back out again...

Or perhaps consider active transport and 25- 30 mins on a bicycle .. and cheaper and better for your fitness.

As a commuter cyclist from Oxley into the CBD every day - I also see many students parking in the streets of St Lucia and Taringa near bus stops and then catching a bus to the campus.

[Gazza]

For my first year of uni I was a n00b and took the train from Oxley to Indro, then buses from there.
I then figured out it was faster to go further to Toowong, and then use a 412/402. The BUZification of the 412 cemented this approach.

In terms of it taking 45 mins, it basically only happens on the odd friday evening when  you can get a horror run along Sir Fred Schonell due to traffic banked up on Coro. I'd normally avoid that by using a CityCat to Toowong to finish up the week.

[James]

Your friend should continue catching the 427/428/432 from Indooroopilly to UQ. Traffic around all of Indro is cactus, and waits for buses at Toowong can be very long. Unless he jumps the "queues" which form here, he can face quite a wait. I do not believe for a second it takes 45 minutes by bus. 45 minutes is how long it takes by foot, assuming you go at a decent pace.

The current issue is that the buses which currently operate take awful route alignments and stop every 250m. From most stops you can generally see either the following stop or previous stop, or in some cases, both.

The other issue is the 427 "express". This "express" bus is in fact, really hardly "express" at all, taking a slow alignment with funny diversions and saving all of two minutes. I've touched on this in my review and I will say it again, the issue with Indro - UQ buses can be fixed in the following ways:
1. Run 432s instead of 427s. The 432 is faster than the 427, and the patronage from its catchment area is a lot lower. The only time the 432 is slower is around school drop-off time, and even that is questionable.
2. Run a more clock-face timetable - the current 428 timetable really lacks a lot of order in peak.
3. Traffic lights at the junction of Clarence Rd and Swann Rd, so buses can turn right from Clarence into Swann. This is also a safety thing, it is only a matter of time before a car gets t-boned here and somebody dies.
And a bunch of other things too.

In the mean time, I would continue using the Indro buses, but try and aim for 432s. You could try Toowong, but I don't think there is much of a time saving, and going to UQ that walk at Toowong is a real pain.

As a commuter cyclist from Oxley into the CBD every day - I also see many students parking in the streets of St Lucia and Taringa near bus stops and then catching a bus to the campus.

This is because public transport services in the west are crap, you are often better off just catching a 444 and then walking to your final destination if you just miss the previous service. Gailey Fiveways (and surrounds) is turning into a faux-Park n Ride because of the 15 minute frequency (combined 428 + 432) at the Bonvale Lane stop.