Pallara - bus

[ozbob]

Queensland Parliament E-Petition

https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Work-of-the-Assembly/Petitions/Petition-Details?id=3740

LACK OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT BUS SERVICES FOR PALLARA AND DELAY BY TRANSLINK TO APPROVE BCC BUSINESS CASE

TO: The Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House the urgent need for public transport bus services in Pallara which requires interim temporary bus stops thus enabling services to be provided for residents whilst development occurs in an orderly way until permanent infrastructure can be constructed in due course.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to ensure Translink immediately approves the Brisbane City Council business case utilising interim temporary bus stops in Pallara until such time as developers complete their Ritchie Road frontages to subsequently allow construction of permanent stops.

[achiruel]

I wonder what such a bus route might look like?

One idea I had was to have route from Inala to Browns Plains, travelling via Pallara and Larapinta.

Pros:

• Bus service in Pallara, which doesn't currently have one
• Lots of connections & employment at both ends of route
• Services Larapinta industrial estate, which current has zero public transport options

Cons:

• Big dogleg in Pallara in order to put more residents within walking distance of the route
• The Logan Mwy section doesn't really serve anything, but is required to get in to Larapinta (I think?)
• Partial duplication with other routes along Inala Ave & Johnson Rd, but I don't think any of them are really high frequency enough to be a concern.

[STB]

Industrial estates historically don't generate a lot of patronage, mostly because the people working there are required to drive as part of their jobs and start in the early hours of the morning.  It's fine to pass through an industrial estate to link up two key major locations, but don't expect people wanting to jump at using a bus to access it.

Also, I think until there is more development in that area, a dogleg like that isn't really worth it - PPT might be an option though until the population develops enough to support a full time bus service IMO.

[achiruel]

Industrial estates historically don't generate a lot of patronage, mostly because the people working there are required to drive as part of their jobs and start in the early hours of the morning.  It's fine to pass through an industrial estate to link up two key major locations, but don't expect people wanting to jump at using a bus to access it.

Also, I think until there is more development in that area, a dogleg like that isn't really worth it - PPT might be an option though until the population develops enough to support a full time bus service IMO.

I don't think it's necessarily true that people working in industrial estates need to drive. Many just turn up at a factory/warehouse each morning, and leave in the afternoon. Any demand would be very peaky, though. There's certainly examples in Brisbane of routes that only exist to serve industrial areas (302/303), but they only have morning & afternoon weekday services.

I wouldn't have too much issue with removing the dogleg, but I still like the route in terms of connecting Inala and Browns Plains, which along with an extension of the 130 to Browns Plains, would improve connectivity between suburbs that are quite close geographically, but difficult to travel between. As an example, travelling between Parkinson and Heathwood by bus can, depending on time of day and day of week, take up to 1 hr 46 minutes and require a trip via South Bank, which is frankly, ridiculous.

I don't really know the population of the area at all; it doesn't look much from the Google photos, but it also seems a lot of development is happening there right now, so shouldn't governments (local & state) be taking the intiative and giving people an alternative before the area becomes car-dependent?

[techblitz]

looks like they want to extend relatively obscure route 126 ex Sunnybank down to pallara.

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101093546

[achiruel]

I'm sure that's exactly what Pallara residents want, a bus that runs 5 times per weekday between 7am and 4pm, no night service, no weekend service, and utterly horrible frequency.

This route essentially exists for one reason, to take students to Acacia Ridge TAFE/SkillsTech, but now TfB/Translink want to foist it on a residential area to pretend they've given them a bus "service" 

[ozbob]

ABC --> Brisbane City Council announces details of Pallara's new bus route, stop locations

Calamvale Ward councillor Angela Owen has confirmed the locations of six new, permanent bus stops to be built in Pallara by December.

The announcement came after Brisbane City Council and Queensland's Transport Department came to an agreement over the installation of a new bus route.

Current route 126 (Sunnybank to Acacia Ridge) will be realigned and extended to run along Mains Road and also south to Ritchie Road, providing Pallara residents a bus route to Sunnybank Plaza and CBD connections, or further south to Heathwood.

The timeline for its installation had been uncertain because the council wanted to install temporary bus shelters to hurry the project along, while TMR required at least six disability-compliant, permanent bus stops be installed before the route began.

Ms Owen said six bus stops would be installed by summer.

Three pairs of permanent bus stops will be built — one at Brookbent Rd, one at Ritchie Rd close to the old Pallara State School and one near the new Pallara State School.

Ms Owen said the 126 route would be in addition to the 803 Pallara school bus service she had lobbied for over the past few years. That route started in 2021.

Ms Owen also said route mapping was "currently being worked on". ...

[Cazza]

It would be a missed opportunity to not have it run to/from Forest Lake shops. That would be one of the highest local destinations for those in Pallara. So people will still need to drive that 5 min journey to Forest Lake, as a transfer with the 460/534 wouldn't be an attractive (or convenient) option.

I really hope that they also have the service run more than the current 5 or so trips per day per direction. Every 30 mins would be the very minimum peak frequency, with hourly 7-day services providing at least a baseline service for now. Further improvements would hopefully come about with any improved network.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1541794941781045249

[ozbob]

Response to the Lack of public transport bus services for Pallara and delay by Translink to approve BCC business case E-Petition presented to the Queensland Parliament

https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/apps/E-Petitions/Home/DownloadResponse/9a46bc7c-5f40-4ee4-b19a-9843d98500fd

Our ref: PET 45705
Your ref: A884884
21 July 2022

Mr Neil Laurie
The Clerk of the Parliament
Parliament House
George Street
BRISBANE QLD 4000

Dear Mr Laurie

I refer to petition 3470-22, lodged with the Legislative Assembly on 21 June 2022 about
public transport bus services for Pallara. The Queensland Government is committed to
providing a reliable, affordable and accessible public transport network for Queensland.
Bus route 126 (Sunnybank to Acacia Ridge) will be realigned and extended to run along
Mains Road and also south to Ritchie Road, providing Pallara residents with the option to
use the bus to get to Sunnybank Plaza and CBD connections, or further south to
Heathwood. This service extension will result in a large number of residents being within
walking distance of public transport from their homes for the first time.

Once Brisbane City Council has installed bus stops that are compliant with Australian
accessibility laws, Translink is ready to implement a realigned route 126. I am advised that in
the coming months, Brisbane City Council (BCC) will be building the required bus stop
infrastructure so that the new route can become operational. This will include three pairs of
bus stops located at Brookbent Road, Ritchie Road (in proximity to the old Pallara State
School) and one near the new Pallara State School.

Benefits of route 126 extension:
* extended from Sunnybank Plaza to Pallara (Stockland Estate and Ritchie Road) and
Heathwood
* high level of connections with high frequency bus services to city and wider network at
Heathwood and Sunnybank
* rail connections at Altandi Station, including express connections (Beenleigh and Gold
Coast lines)
* buses will continue to service Acacia Ridge shops and Acacia Ridge TAFE.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) will continue to work closely with BCC
to deliver this important service and infrastructure for the community of Pallara. Further
updates will be provided on the Translink website at www.translink.com.au.

The Palaszczuk Government is delivering its seventh record transport and roads
infrastructure program in a row, as detailed in the Queensland Transport and Roads
Investment Program 2022–23 to 2025–26, which outlines $29.7 billion in investment over the
next four years and is estimated to support an average of 25,200 direct jobs over the life of
the program. Of this, $3.371 billion is committed across TMR's Metropolitan Region,
estimated to support an average of 2930 direct jobs over the life of the program.

I trust this information is of assistance.

Yours sincerely
MARK BAILEY MP
Minister for Transport and Main Roads

[achiruel]

I notice the Minister doesn't address the woeful frequency and span of hours of Route 126 at all. Are they planning it on leaving it the same as now, giving the residents of Pallara a bus service that is effective useless?

[James]

The 126 bus route is not a service, it is a form of torture a very specific route set up to connect the Mains Rd buses & Coopers Plains station with the Acacia Ridge TAFE / Acacia Ridge generally.

With the last Pallara-bound service leaving Sunnybank at 3:54pm, it will be useless for anybody who works a 9-5 office job, and with non-clockface services running every 2-3 hours, won't be very useful for anybody going shopping either.

A quick squiz at the patronage data for the route in the month of May (https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/go-card-transaction-data/resource/3eaeda82-6530-4ddc-9ec0-fba6c6f8a19d) shows 778 people used the service, or about 3.7 boardings per service, with the bulk of the patronage coming from the two connection points mentioned above.

Based on the density I'm seeing, this looks like a job for council's DRT maxi taxis.

[ozbob]

New 126 bus service for Heathwood and Pallara has officially commenced this morning

Posted by Cr Angela Owen - Councillor for Calamvale Ward on Sunday, 11 December 2022

[achiruel]

I had a look at the timetable, and it's not great. Definitely an improvement on the previous 126 TT though, with a span of hours from 5:15am-6:30pm towards Sunnybank, and 6:00am-7:15pm in the other direction. Mostly hourly, but there's an extra peak hour bus in both directions, and one 45-minute gap in what I guess could be described as afternoon "shoulder peak" in both directions (4pm ex Heathwood, 4:45pm ex Sunnybank). So, it should theoretically be possible for a CBD office worker to use this service (along with anyone who works fairly regular hours along the Mains Rd corridor or the Beenleigh railway line. It also gives much better coverage to Acacia Ridge TAFE.

It would have been good if the connections to the 460 toward Forest Lake were a little better though. Connections from Pallara to the i/b 460 off-peak range from 17-21 minutes (there's some weird timing variations on the 126 that I don't quite understand, but probably traffic-related, where it arrives at Parkwood Dr near Coolibah St at :38, or :36 depending on the time of day. The 460 departs the opposite stop at :55 until 10:55 and then :57 in (also a :25/:27 depature, but not relevant for this connection).

The opposite direction is a 9 minute transfer, which leaves a good buffer for buses running a couple of minutes late/early, and time to cross the street.

There's also connections to Springfield and Browns Plains via the 534. I've only done the off-peak transfer times (534 is hourly all day, but 126 varies).

From Pallara to Springfield: 126 arr. :38/:36 534 dep. :53 (15-17 minute transfer)
From Pallara to Browns Plains: 126 arr. :38/:36 534 dep. :08 (30-32 minute transfer)
From Springfield to Pallara: 534 arr. :08 126 dep. :16 (8 minute transfer)
From Browns Plains to Pallara: 534 arr :53 126 dep. :16 (23 minute transfer)

Interestingly, even with the long transfer times to/from Browns Plains, it's still generally quicker than taking the 126 to Mains Rd and the 140 to Browns Plains.

There's also potential connections to the 118 rocket which runs every 15 minutes AM and every 20 minutes PM, but I've run out of time to do that.

No night/weekend service at all.

While clearly an improvement, it's still basically a welfare/coverage route (to be expected I guess, considering the density in that area), but no weekend service is a big negative for me.

Overall, I'd give this route 3/10.