Say bye bye Bli Bli: Bus route ignores key stop

[ozbob]

Sunshine Coast Daily --> Say bye bye Bli Bli: Bus route ignores key stop

SLIM Dusty sang about the pub with no beer, but have you heard of the stop without a bus?

The Rivermarkets shopping centre is the business and social hub of Bli Bli, but you cannot catch a bus there.

The stop literally stopped when the 622 bus, which ran through Bli Bli on its way from Maroochydore to Peregian Springs, was re-routed to a more direct route along the Sunshine Motorway.

The new route saves time for passengers travelling between Maroochydore and the beach suburbs north of the Maroochy River, but has done the opposite for Bli Bli residents trying to do the same.

The re-route means Bli Bli residents reliant upon public transport have been severed from communities of interest further along David Low Way at Pacific Paradise and Mudjimba.

What is an eight-minute, 7km trip from Bli Bli to Mudjimba by car has become an almost hour-long journey of 18.5km via Maroochydore and involving two buses.

Elderly residents at the Gateway Edgewater retirement village are struggling to access the local grocery store, newsagent, doctor's surgery and post office 1.7km away without the 622 service and its stop outside the shops.

The 612 service passes by on its way to Nambour, but the nearest it stops to the Bli Bli shops is at the Sunshine Castle or bus stop sign on Nambour-Bli Bli Rd, a 300m walk across a four-lane road with no crossing.

"I don't like my chances going across a four-lane highway with a walker," said an Edgewater resident in her 80s.

"On the way back, you've got to walk up a steep hill with a rough surface - no real path - on the other side of the road."
Route changes at Bli Bli
Route changes at Bli Bli

The only signal crossing at Bli Bli is - ironically - at the stop abandoned by the 622 service and now used only by school buses and the council mobile library.

Bli Bli resident Yvonne Robinson described the stops used by the 612 service as "downright dangerously positioned" with the potential to result in a traffic accident.

Mrs Robinson said the reduced bus service to Bli Bli made little sense given the recently upgrade shopping centre and growth in the Halcyon Retirement Village, and the Cutters Ridge and Parklakes Estates.

She suggested the 622 service be directed back through Bli Bli or the 612 service be extended along David Low Way a short distance to the shopping centre and the stops with no buses, before turning around at Muller Park.

The LNP candidate for Nicklin, Matthew Trace, has met with Transport Minister Scott Emerson about bus issues at Bli Bli and other areas.

Mr Trace said the Minister had assured him he would look into it.

A Translink statement said the South-East Queensland passenger review of March 2013 found only eight passengers a day had used the 622 to travel east or north from Bli Bli.

"Bli Bli residents have better access to public transport on route 612 using the same or nearby stops, which runs hourly seven days a week," the statement said.

[SurfRail]

There has been some discussion about this on the TT Ripoff FB page.

[Arnz]

It has also split opinion over at the TTR page regarding this topic. 

There are cheaper options that are mentioned, as opposed to p**sing off more commuters by diverting mentioned route and adding more travel time.