Article: Best and the worst of SEQ bus services

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Best and the worst of SEQ bus services

Best and the worst of SEQ bus services
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Ursula Heger

April 21, 2009 12:00am

BUS passengers in Ipswich, Redcliffe and Bribie Island have endured more delays than most southeast commuters, with one in seven services not on time.
Figures released by TransLink show the Bribie Island, Hornibrook and Westside bus services are the worst of the 13 operators in the southeast, with about 15 per cent of services not making the bus timetable.

Brisbane Transport services, which include Brisbane City Council buses, fared little better: one in every 10 services was more than two minutes early or six minutes late.

Thompson Bus Services, in Brisbane's northern suburbs, and Hornibrook and Mt Gravatt bus lines services missed an increasing number of schedules in the past year.

All other operators improved their on-time rate in the same period.

Kangaroo Bus Lines, in Caboolture, was the best at sticking to its schedules, with 98.45 per cent of services arriving on time.

A spokesman for the TransLink transit authority said traffic congestion and bad weather had the greatest impact on bus schedules.

Travellers can still find themselves in trouble even if their bus runs on time.

The number of Brisbane City Council buses too full to pick up passengers increased by more than 300 per cent since January.

In March, 3295 services were so full they were unable to pick up passengers, compared with 1925 in February and 803 in January.

More than 70 per cent of passengers left at the side of the road by full buses last month had to wait up to 20 minutes for the next bus.

[ozbob]

This confirms again why as a community we must continue to gain bulk mass transit capacity on rail. 

[Jon Bryant]

Here here Bob!!!  Heavy and light rail!!!  I do feel sorry for some of the operators who buses are late simply because they are stuck in traffic and Council's are not willing to dedicate bus lanes.  I know that is not always the reason but I wonder if the Operators will kick up a stink and campaign to be given dedicated bus lanes so they can deliver the serices on time.