What are Team Quirk's public transport plans?

[ozbob]

This morning on 612 ABC LM Quirk said he would be detailing his public transport plans in the next few weeks?

For a bit of interest what do you think his plans are?

[red dragin]

More hourly bus services, so as to allow sufficient knitting time between buses?

[ozbob]

A bus tunnel from Ashgrove to Kingsford Smith Drive?

[#Metro]

More CityGliders. The budget is in over surplus in that line for unexplained reasons.
Probably car upgrades everywhere.
Return of the BaT
Bus tunnel in the CBD
Probably more citycats or another citycat stop

Chance of a monorail or hamilton hovercraft making a cameo 

[ozbob]

Serious options:

1. Enable Legacy Way properly for buses - outbound and inbound.

2. Grade separations.

3. Agree to reform of the Brisbane bus network - improved connections, feeders, improved spans and not be afraid of transfers, with more high frequency BUZ services and better integration with other operators and the rest of SEQ. Proper network reform will obviate the need for a very expensive bus tunnel.

4. Make Victoria Bridge a green bridge - buses and active transport.

5. Get serious about electric buses. See > http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/electric-buses-bound-for-brisbane-streets-20111028-1mo4p.html

6. More support for the establishment of protected bicycle paths/lanes.  Not painted lines, real bicycle lanes protected from traffic.

[ozbob]

Team Quirk will probably go with a big ticket item.  Sensible reform is not ' sexy ' enough   ...  we got to have a TUNNEL ! CONCRETE !!  TUNNEL MACHINES  !!!!

Adelaide Street bus tunnel will be reborn no doubt.  Billions wasted.  In the interim they will just limp along with a worsening network.  There isn't the political will to take the hard steps.  It is cop out all the way ...

[#Metro]

My money is on a bus tunnel. LM Quirk was pretty keen to push City2Suburbs through and then BaT, he's almost certain to push another tunnel through again, possibly a duplicated Victoria Bridge.

Quirk isn't an engineer like Newman was, so there won't be outlandish plans like Newman's metro everywhere in the CBD. Funny how that idea fell off the radar. Anna Bligh also floated metro, now its gone...

Six years ago with TM Rachel Nolan: Brisbane Metro System

Pretty much still waiting for the 'revolution' lol.

[ozbob]

Recent ..

>> Breathing life into Brisbane's underground rail

... Mr Keniston said Brisbane has had cross-river link suggestions for 90 years well before Labor's Cross River Rail and the LNP's Bus and Train Tunnel in the past decade.

"We have actually had 90 years of proposals - and some of them very credible - which haven't been built," Mr Keniston said ...

Distant ...

>> 'Scrap cross-river rail': Lord Mayor

2011 this was Newman's changing views ..

"A different way of looking at this is to say to QR, settle down, we're going to have it run two semi-separate systems," he said.

"Instead of putting $8 billion into cross river rail we could for between $3 and $4 billion total, get 40 kilometres of inner-city subway in Brisbane, with probably at least 25 to 30 stations, using the technology that was put forward in Barcelona.

"We can have that to service the CBD and the high growth areas of the inner six or seven kilometres of Brisbane, the high growth urban renewal areas."

Like in Paris or Barcelona, people would be able to transfer from conventional train stations to underground stations closer to the CBD, Cr Newman said.

"I think that gives us a better outcome for the connectivity of the inner-city Brisbane, linking metro to the existing busways ... and scrapping cross-river rail." ...

What have we got?  Nothing ...   

Next iteration will be much same I reckon.  Naught!

[ozbob]

Nothing happens because BCC goes off on one path.

The state on another.

The Feds look at it as crazy banana-land stuff. They move on ...

We then just repeat it every election cycle.   Grand plans, visions, great launches with music and songs.  Group hugs and chants.

After the honeymoon " Aw sh%t, there is no dinero, we spent it all on the campaign launch !"

"How does 2041 sound? "   "Do. not. change. the. 314."

[verbatim9]

My hunch is with LD transit A North South Bus Tunnel from Valley to Cultural centre with Bus Stations en route.

[ozbob]

Duplicating Victoria Bridge is another long standing option agreed LD.  Probably a bit more reasonable as to cost.  Adelaide Street can be converted to an exclusive bus way, with limited service/delivery vehicle access outside peak times. 

But again takes a bit of political courage.  Might have to do though because tunnelling under Adelaide Street is going to very expensive and technically not without challenges existing and proposed (eg. CRR).

[#Metro]

BCC will probably do something with ferries. My guess is a new terminal at West End and probably new fleet for cross river ferries.

Harding was having a go at Quirk for voting against the intro to the CityCats in 1990s, honestly I don't think anyone remembers or cares, and it is true that the ferry, with three staff, is the most expensive vehicle to operate out of the PT network.

The strength of the ferry is that it fills a niche that other modes would simply not be able to do without a bridge.

In a way, one can be glad that most of these outlandish proposals don't get up - if they did, the CBD would be a public transport freakshow with HSR, PRT, Monorails and heavens knows what else.

[ozbob]

Yes, agreed re ferries. 

There has been some talk of extending CityCats a bit further upstream - Yeronga and even Tennyson.  Not sure if that will be good or bad, haven't really thought about it much.  I guess there might be some opposition from environmental types.  Others might well support.

[#Metro]

Features of a metro system
- Driverless tram-like carriages running in a circuit;
- Stations are 800 metres to a kilometre apart;
- no timetables, just high frequency service around the inner-city;
- More standing rather than sitting passenger areas.
Mr Keniston said "metro" was inevitable in inner-city Brisbane.
"Almost certainly Brisbane will get metro," he said.

(There's no money, and we can't wait that long)


Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/breathing-life-into-brisbanes-underground-rail-20150810-giw1jl.html

[ozbob]

LD, Brisbane is going to be under water long before it gets a metro.  Driverless submarines might be the go hey?

[ozbob]

Well, this has been an interesting thread.   We await the grand announcements Lord Mayor!

[verbatim9]

LD, Brisbane is going to be under water long before it gets a metro.  Driverless submarines might be the go hey?

Thats why we have the ferries and city cats for that reason, incase Brisbane goes under water from Sea level rises

[aldonius]

CityCat extension upstream doesn't achieve much IMHO. Having said that, the CityCat isn't that much slower than the 196.

CityCat: UQ to North Quay, about 7.13 km in 23 minutes.
196: Fairfield shops to City Hall, about 6 km in 21 minutes.

Extending the 196 through Yeronga to the end of Orlando Rd would add about 2.5 km and 9 minutes. Extending the CityCat to the same place would add about 2.9 km and 10 minutes. A St Lucia South stop adds another couple of minutes.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

28th January 2016

Lord Mayor Quirk call for public transport integration. LOL!!

Greetings,

The Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Graham Quirk, has called for a more integrated approach to transit planning.

"This is why a coordinated regional approach needs to be taken by the state government, not by a single local council."

What an irony.

Lord Mayor, if you wanted integration, why were your council staff instructed to refuse meetings with TransLink bus review staff on six occasions?

If the Lord Mayor wants better network integration, he can drive it. Hand over the entire Brisbane bus network to the State Government.

The Lord Mayor blames the State Government fare increases for the drop in patronage. Weren't those fare increases propping up Brisbane City Council's wasteful and inefficient bus network?

Patronage on Gold Coast buses have increased 20% in the same high fares environment that Brisbane City Council's buses operate in. TransLink introduced a connected bus network on the Gold Coast, whereas Brisbane City Council refused it, clinging to its discredited Hi-waste anti-reform philosophy.

Fare cuts instituted by the previous LNP administration are a failure. They will not compensate for the bus network 'black holes' in Bulimba, Yeronga, The Centenary Suburbs or the Northwest. The State Government has taken the correct approach in instituting a proper detailed fare review, not the lazy former Government's way.

We agree Lord Mayor. Brisbane City Council should not have its bus contracts renewed unless real network control is exercised by the transport authority - TransLink!

Let us have a real integrated public transport network, all modes working optimally to drive better service for all!

Best wishes
Robert

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

References

Election: Greens promise travel discounts for the unemployed
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/election-greens-promise-travel-discounts-for-the-unemployed-20160127-gmfaao.html

Five million people jump on board Gold Coast Light Rail since July 2014
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/five-million-people-jump-on-board-gold-coast-light-rail-since-july-2014-20150506-ggviij.html