RBWH to Ipswich Rd Glider proposal

[aldonius]

https://www.facebook.com/jonno.sri/posts/2279955025605134

We're renewing our push for a new CityGlider route to run up Ipswich Rd and over the Story Bridge between Fortitude Valley and Annerley/Woolloongabba.

We're currently thinking through whether the service should terminate at Buranda shops/PA hospital, or whether to advocate for it to run further south down to Annerley Junction or even Chardons Corner, and if so, what's the best and most logical location for a bus turnaround/holding bay area.

Anyone got any suggestions?

EDIT: For those who are wondering - yes, for high-frequency buses to be reliable along Ipswich Rd you would probably need to introduce a dedicated bus lane or transit lane. And yes, there are already some buses running similar routes along Ipswich Rd, and some of these might be able to be replaced by a glider to avoid unnecessary duplication.

My personal opinion would be RBWH to Chardons Corner, but not to Glider standard - it would probably be a viable BUZ though.
Much discussion in the FB comments regarding how best to terminate it - the most interesting one I've seen so far is to use the Yeronga Pool carpark! Probably the longterm ideal would be to get it to Yeerongpilly rail somehow as an anchor point.

[techblitz]

Its garnering quite a bit of discussion 
Sri's main priority should be getting the 66 sorted....but ipswich rd would definitely be next in line..

There is some suggestions in the comments to extend it to Moorooka shops....makes sense but make sure it connects the shops and Moorooka station......this way it will entice more people to use the train then bus to Moorooka shops because there would now be better frequency up those pain in the ass hills.
I recently did a walk from the train station to the shops....one of the hardest walks ive had to do...some pretty mean gradients there......now I realise even more why beaudesert rd needs those all stops services.
The layover area could be around len stimson park..

[Cazza]

I've mentioned it before but how about something along the lines of Buranda Busway Station to RBWH via W'Gabba, K'Point (either running direct or via the Storey Bridge Hotel loop; preferably the former), and F'Valley? You can easily connect to Ipswich Rd services at Woolloongabba Station (along with all the other SE busway services at Buranda).

[#Metro]

Ipswich road already has BUZ 100 on it.

Although it is nice to add routes... Everything is connected. The entire network needs review.

Why not merge 124 and 125?

[Gazza]

I think it only needs to go as far south as Buranda, heading further into Moorooka etc is a waste of service km with all the other routes you can change into.

The main goal is about giving main street Kangaroo point a proper high frequency route.
The current 234 is a joke considering the density and traffic levels in the area

[aldonius]

If it terminates at Buranda Busway where does it turn around? I imagine that's one of the reasons why the proposal suggested a Buranda Village shops termination.

As for duplication of the 100 - yes, but also the 100 is a very long route and has its own issues anyway (TL review turned it into a rail feeder, remember?). And a couple route-km of duplication certainly isn't any worse than the western leg of the 61...

[Cazza]

Exits the busway onto O'Keefe St and uses the roundabout at Logan Rd...

Anyway, whether a bus can turn around or not shouldn't be the deciding factor in the route being implemented.

[techblitz]

https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6974.msg73486

Some discussion from back in the day....

[James]

A 'Glider' would be a pretty bad idea. What does Kangaroo Point have that any other inner Brisbane suburb doesn't have?

In terms of trip attraction, all it has is the Story Bridge Hotel, The Pineapple Hotel and a few other minor trip generators (function spaces, craft breweries etc.) overnight, and during the day it is almost as bad - you can only really add St Vincent's Hospital and a few fast food restaurants to that list, and forget accessing it with any ease in the southbound direction. Sure, there are plenty of apartments in this area, but they currently only sustain an hourly bus service (234) and cross-river ferries. I was on one of the cross-river ferries on Friday night around 7pm and was the only paying passenger!

Anywhere north of Ann St & south of Woolloongabba already has BUZ-standard service (or close to it), and the N154 already runs through Kangaroo Point anyway.

The main purpose of such a service would be to connect RBWH, the Valley and Woolloongabba without having to go through the City.

Hence, rather than running an entirely new service to serve just Kangaroo Point, what would be better is running the 375 (or similar) down through Kangaroo Point before terminating at Woolloongabba (or possibly the PAH, although there's plenty of options to the PAH from there). Not only do you get buses out of the CBD, but you can use the resources from the 234 to upgrade the 375 to BUZ standard, and avoid spending so much on a new route.

RBWH - Woolloongabba via Story Bridge is a convenient link, but it needs the network to support it.

[#Metro]

The route 29 and 234 could be interlined.

Two route 29 buses per hour would be removed from the timetable and replaced with 234s which would run from RBWH busway to UQ Lakes.

The city leg of the 234 would be removed, or alternatively begin from either KGS or Roma St busway stations.

On weekends, 234 would continue though to UQ Lakes.

Worth trialling IMHO.

James, 475 used to run over the Storey bridge and terminate at Buranda just in front on the PA Hospital.

[James]

I've said this on other threads on other occasions and I'll say it again: the 29 and 234 have incompatible demand profiles. One is a peak sweeper service introduced for providing extra capacity between UQ Lakes and Boggo Road / PAH. Woolloongabba is just a convenient place to turnaround/provides extra connectivity.

You'd have every third/fourth 29 going up to RBWH and it would confuse both 66 passengers (thinking it is similar to the 66 to RBWH) and 29 passengers.

And yes, the 475 used to run that way. It ignored the existence of the busway though, which may have been part of its failure.

[SurfRail]

I don't think any call for any new routes in the inner city area should be taken seriously unless in the context of meaningful reform of the entire system.  It's too broken to continue papering things onto it.