Brisbane City Council Election Public Transport Score Card FINAL

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

16th March 2016

Brisbane City Council Election Public Transport Score Card FINAL 2016



In rank order - best to worst.

Ben Pennings (The Greens)

Policy Appraisal

Ben Pennings (The Greens) provides a well balanced and realistic policy offering this election centered around green bridges and a
greatly improved bus network. Policies are generally low cost, rapid to implement and are expected to be highly effective at increasing
public transport patronage, walking and cycling. The Greens CentenaryGlider policy is excellent and will provide buses every 10 minutes,
all day, seven days a week into the Centenary Suburbs. Currently this area is a public transport 'black hole'.

South­East busway congestion is dealt with in a fiscally conservative and practical way by allocating car lanes on the Victoria Bridge to
buses and bicycles. Ambitiously, two additional green bridges are proposed for construction at Toowong­West End and Newstead ­
Bulimba, following on from the success of the Eleanor Schonell green bridge. As part of a 'River Connect' proposal, a series of CityGliders
within the inner suburbs are proposed, including on Kingsford Smith Drive. The low cost of bus services means that abundant access will
become available to large numbers of people within the inner city.

The only concern within The Greens policy offering is resetting the fares to 2011 levels. While this measure is likely to be popular with
voters, it does not deal with the underlying source of the problem ­ the need to comprehensively reform Brisbane's entire bus network
along the same lines as Auckland (NZ) and Houston (US). Fares are best left to the State Government Fares Review Panel.

Rod Harding (ALP)

Policy Appraisal

Rod Harding policies centre around a $1.2 billion dollar Light Rail project from West End to Newstead, with possible future extensions.
This proposal is critically lacking and we therefore will absolutely not be supporting it. Despite being welcomed by University of
Queensland Vice Chancellor Peter Høj, our assessment indicates that Light Rail will result in no benefit to The University of Queensland's
staff or students.

Rod Harding's Light Rail will be slower than the existing route 66 UQ Lakes bus, and be more unreliable than the existing bus (as the tram
will run on roads). West End residents can already access UQ with a 5 minute trip on the CityCat from West End Ferry Terminal. The Light
Rail proposal adds no new destinations not already serviced by frequent public transport, and wastefully duplicates existing busway,
railway and ferry infrastructure and services. The capacity of Light Rail is also not justified on this corridor ­ CityGlider patronage during
peak hour would have to increase approximately five times to justify Light Rail capacity.

This Light Rail project is essentially replacing the Blue CityGlider rubber tyres for steel wheels at a cost of $1.2 billion. The State
Government would be up for approximately $500 million, consuming the entire value of the recently announced State Infrastructure Fund
in one hit. Legitimate and valid questions about how this tram will run on roads has been systematically avoided which leads us to suspect
that it will not be running in its own exclusive lane. It is also not desirable to have 1960s style street running in mixed traffic lanes as
modern disability and discrimination requirements preclude it.

Although Rod Harding's Light Rail policy is superficially attractive, we evaluate policies on 'cold merit'. Referencing other cities, or the
people's emotional reactions of confidence, nostalgia or sexiness about the proposal are not a sound basis for public transport planning. If
upgrades are required, superbus upgrades to the CityGlider should be looked at.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk (LNP)

Policy Appraisal

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has achieved many things for Brisbane during his time in Council. He helped modernise a dilapidated and
decrepit bus system into an air­conditioned, carbon neutral and disability compliant fleet. He had a role in introducing the busways to
Brisbane, the incredibly successful Bus Upgrade Zones (BUZ), CityGliders and the Eleanor Schonell Green Bridge.
It is thus extremely difficult to understand why the Lord Mayor has deviated from a successful policy direction, into a new, destructive
direction where problems or concerns are simply ignored. Brisbane City Council derailed the TransLink 2013 bus review by instructing its
own staff to refuse meetings with TransLink officials on six separate occasions. Waste, duplication and inefficiency validly identified within
BCC's bus network has deliberately not been dealt with. BCC's bus network is failing to meet basic State Government mandated 'bus on
time' standards by a large margin, even though it has access to exclusive busway infrastructure.

Faced with explosive costs, the State Government responded by increasing fares. No responsibility for BCC's role in bringing about fare
increases has been acknowledged, and the Lord Mayor himself said that "the bus network is not broken and does not need a radical
overhaul". All attempts to reform the BCC bus network have been rejected or ignored. Proposals for a CentenaryGlider, a New Bus
Network or a Bulimba Glider were also rejected.

There is a complete and glaring lack of bus reform in the Lord Mayor's policy offering. Instead, voters are expected to believe in a $1 BN
metro that might be coming three BCC elections later. We have had no response to our request for more information about this metro. The
metro is manual, unacceptable in an age where cities such as Copenhagen and Vancouver operate driverless automatic metros. It is too
short and other alignments, such as a combined Cross River Rail / Metro tunnel have not been looked at. Crucially, the proposal involves
construction on State Government controlled land and busway infrastructure for which Brisbane City Council has no authority over.
The LNP Victoria Bridge Green Bridge proposal has merits on the same grounds as those stated in the Greens policy.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

16th March 2016

Re: Brisbane City Council Election Public Transport Score Card FINAL 2016

FYI.  A response to Questions on the Team Quirk Metro Proposal was received at 9.22am this morning.

See > http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=11952.msg170890#msg170890

Regards
Robert

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

[Derwan]

Posted on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/RAILBackOnTrack/photos/a.653209831359874.1073741825.160527347294794/1229169420430576/?type=3

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

18th March 2016

Brisbane votes - final comment

Good Morning,

With respect to Public and Active Transport policy for the BCC Elections we grade the main  contenders as follows:

Ben Pennings Greens - DISTINCTION

Rod Harding ALP - PASS

Graham Quirk LNP - FAIL

The Team Quirk ' Metro ' is aberrant nonsense as proposed. Would wreck the busway system and cause massive congestion issues with transport in and around Brisbane.  As we pointed out yesterday why would many billions of dollars be spent for no overall gain in capacity?  We  believe the real cost of the project is grossly underestimated at 1.5 Billion. Team Quirk is also in denial with respect to the need for bus reform. Kingsford Smith Drive project is another gigantic waste of public funds.

Rocket Rod's Light Rail proposal is not warranted either.  Brisbane may well see light rail down the track but it will not be on the route proposed.  Proposals for bus transit-ways, more bus services including the Centenary Glider are excellent policies. Grade separations (level crossing removals) are also excellent bang for the buck, with benefits at many levels. Rod Harding does not have ' bus blinkers ' on, sadly Graham Quirk has.

Ben Pennings has presented overall a first rate set of policies for public and active transport.  Acknowledging the need for bus reform, for example the Glider proposals and Green Bridges to further improve network connectivity is cost effective and sustainable.  The Greens policies are all achievable. In contrast the ' Metro ' and Light Rail pipe dreams will need many billions of dollars.  No guarantee of funding at all. Greens explicitly support Cross River Rail - the essential project for Brisbane with profound benefits for all of SEQ.

Fixing public transport for Brisbane is simple in strategy.  Sort the bus network, advance Cross River Rail, finalise the fare review.  The State properly sets fare levels.

' Pie in the sky ' proposals at a Council level are not needed.

Best wishes
Robert

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

[ozbob]

Letter to the Editor Queensland Times 18th March 2016 page 13

Easy solution to nightmare