ALP: Centenary Glider bus

[ozbob]

Twitter

Rod Harding ‏@Rod4Bris now

I'll deliver reliable bus services for BNE's south western suburbs. It starts with a much-needed Centenary Glider.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

14th March 2016

Bus Reform To Engulf Lord Mayor at Election - CentenaryGlider

Greetings,

RAIL Back on Track welcomes ALP Lord Mayor Challenger Rod Harding's shock announcement that he will too introduce a CentenaryGlider to the Centenary Suburbs bus network 'black hole'.

We now believe that bus non-reform will bring down the Lord Mayor Quirk's entire campaign and see him lose the Lord Mayoralty. The Centenary Suburbs have thousands and thousands of homes that do not have basic decent and frequent public transport. That's thousands and thousands of votes up for grabs, right there. Powerful community support exists for a CentenaryGlider because we have had so much feedback from Centenary residents about how poor Brisbane City Council's bus services are in that area over many, many years.

There are 15 different bus routes to the Centenary suburbs. Incredibly, not a single one of those bus routes is decent and frequent. The whole network in that area represents spaghetti thrown randomly at a wall.

We have consistently warned Lord Mayor Graham Quirk for years that bus reform needed to be done and that he had to do it. In 2013, Lord Mayor Quirk was handed carte blanche to review the Brisbane City Council bus network and implement whatever changes he liked. He completely wasted the opportunity, leaving waste, duplication and inefficiency intact. This later led contract cost increases, and ultimately to fare hikes.

Unlike the metro or light rail  proposals that would require billions of dollars that we do not have, and three Brisbane City Council elections to deliver, the CentenaryGlider can be up and running within months.

We welcome ALP Challenger Rod Harding's adoption of this element of our New Bus Network Proposal http://tiny.cc/newnetwork

The Lord Mayor and his team need to take a long hard look in the mirror. The bus cost explosion and the bus reform elephant in the room they have been ignoring for so long is now a direct and immediate threat to their seats and mayoralty in Brisbane City Council.

Best wishes,
Robert

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

References:

Brisbane Buses - Call for CityGlider in the Suburbs
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-buses-call-for-cityglider-in-centenary-suburbs-20141105-11gxl3.html

Report: Frequency is Freedom
http://backontrack.org/docs/bus/reform/BusReformBlueprint.pdf 

[James]

The test now is whether Graham Quirk follows. Politically stupid not to, there was even that extra money for more CityGliders in the budget...

[ozbob]

Yo!  Great news, now the ALP and Greens both support the Centenary Glider.  Team Quirk is out on a limb now.

Bus reform will deliver!

[ozbob]

Twitter

Robert Dow ‏@Robert_Dow 2m

Rocket @Rod4Bris sees the bus light!

> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=12108.0 ... #qldpol #bnevotes @Team_Quirk @BenPennings

[Derwan]

Greens are saying that the ALP copied their plan.

Hmmm.... who's plan was it?   

[ozbob]

Media release

Rod Harding Announces Centenary Glider Bus Service Trial

Labor Lord Mayoral Candidate Rod Harding today announced a much-needed Centenary Glider bus service for Brisbane's South Western suburbs would be trialed during his first term.

Mr Harding said the new, high frequency, service would run from the Gallery of Modern Art at South Brisbane, via the CBD, on to the Centenary suburbs and Darra train station.

"Western suburbs residents and public transport advocates have been calling for a frequent, reliable bus service in this area for years," he said.

"I've heard their pleas loud and clear and I'm putting money on the table to make it happen."

The new Centenary Glider will be trailed for a period of twelve months, with the results thoroughly analysed upon conclusion.

The trial service will be funded to $4m, as part of Rod Harding's Connecting Brisbane's Future integrated transport plan.

Centenary Glider buses will run every ten minutes, seven days per week, with a 24-hour service on Friday and Saturday nights.

"Residents out in the Centenary suburbs have put up with an inferior council bus service for far too long," said Mr Harding.

"Commuters need to have greater confidence in our bus network if we're to drive the public transport culture Brisbane needs.

"Not only will the new Centenary Glider be a fast, regular and reliable service, it will also directly connect to the Ipswich and Springfield rail lines at Darra station."

The Centenary Glider trial is the first route to be announced from Mr Harding's $20 million commitment to fund additional bus services in the suburbs.

[#Metro]

Hmmm.... who's plan was it?

Ummm.... team RBOT!! 

[ozbob]

Delighted that a potential decent bus route is getting  ' mentioned in dispatches '.

The 2013  TL review had it in a truncated form of course (HF 25), but this just adds a new dimension.

Onwards! If you stand still, you might be done over by a ... bus hey?  lol

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

15th March 2016

Lord Mayor Rejects CentenaryGlider Bus

Greetings,

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has confirmed that he will not be offering a CityGlider bus service to the Centenary suburbs. In our opinion, he has just lost the election by refusing to do this.

The logic for his rejection is truly incredible:


Source: The Courier Mail (photographs redacted)

Lord Mayor, people want frequent services all day connecting to key destinations such as office parks along Coronation Drive, shopping centres such as Indooroopilly and Toowong shopping centres and connections to The University of Queensland. Peak-hour only express buses disappear after peak hour, do not run at all on weekends, and do not connect to any of these aforementioned useful destinations.

The way the Lord Mayor values speed over frequency and connections to trip generators tells us that he is a motorist who does not use the bus system. Motorists overvalue speed, do not have a concept of service frequency and don't recognise the importance of connecting trip generators.

Lord Mayor, the Legacy Way tunnel only permits express buses in one direction because your council could not find $55 million dollars for a ramp after it boasted that it had saved $300 million through 'innovative design'. Ridiculously, afternoon bus passengers have to go via Coronation Drive and cannot use the tunnel in the afternoon. Brisbane City Council also failed to deliver the 2000 daily express buses down Legacy Way it promised in a letter on Lord Mayoral Office letterhead to residents as a justification of its construction.

Legacy Way tunnel has no trip generators inside it. For bus users, this means it is only useful during peak hour, and useless at all other times of the day and on weekends. In contrast, the CentenaryGlider will serve office parks along Coronation Drive, Toowong Shopping Centre, provide connections to UQ St Lucia and connect through to Indooroopilly Shopping Centre. Peak-hour only express buses down legacy way cannot do this. The same lack of connecting trip destinations also explains why the similar route 77 Clem7 bus has extremely poor patronage, particularly outside of peak hour.

It is truly extraordinary that our Lord Mayor is so hopelessly lost in denial about the need for bus reforms this late into the game.

We welcome the commitment of Ben Pennings (The Greens) and Rod Harding (ALP) to deliver the much-needed CentenaryGlider to the bus network 'black hole' that is the Centenary Suburbs.

Best wishes
Robert

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

Reference

Cage Fight, The Courier Mail
Queensland council elections: Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk joins Cage Fight
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-council-elections-brisbane-lord-mayor-graham-quirk-joins-cage-fight/news-story/4bf7cb5338b03accb229326e8a7bf728