Article: Brisbane loves buses - 5.7 million passengers up by 7.4 per cent

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Brisbane loves buses - 5.7 million passengers up by 7.4 per cent

Brisbane loves buses - 5.7 million passengers up by 7.4 per cent
Tony Moore
July 21, 2009 - 5:00PM

More than 5.7 million Brisbaneites caught a bus last month, showing a 7.4 per cent growth in bus customer numbers and putting bus popularity at the top of Brisbane's public transport list.

It's a new June record for bus travel in Brisbane, with 5,715,290 passengers - an extra 394,764 from June 2008 - and an extra 236,754 passengers since the previous June record was set in 2006.

The biggest single factor behind the rise was the number of extra buses added to Brisbane roads.

There are now more than 1030 "Council" buses in Brisbane, up from the 781 on the streets in June 2006.

The buses are funded in a partnership between Brisbane City Council (about 40 per cent) and the State Government (about 60 per cent).

Despite the significant growth in passengers in June, the total figure was still below the highest number of bus passengers to have used Brisbane's buses in a single month.

That record of 7,300,900 passengers was set in April 2009, when university students first went back to their Brisbane campuses.

"March or April - when the uni students go back to their classes - that's when we get the biggest number of passengers," a council spokesman said.

Meanwhile Queensland Transport earlier this month questioned what it described as Brisbane City Council's declining share of funding being tipped into the "bus funding" partnership.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan said Brisbane City Council's contribution had fallen from 45 per cent to 39 per cent over the past five years.

"When the State Government started Translink in 2004, the BCC funded 45 per cent of the ongoing subsidy for BCC buses, but five years later that's down to 39 per cent and is continuing to fall," she said.

That was immediately disputed by Brisbane City Council, which said Brisbane was the only local authority which made any contribution to public transport.

"We're also subsidising places like Logan and Redlands who don't put any money into public transport," a spokesman said.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman has long argued that other council areas fringing Brisbane "piggy-back" on Brisbane's bus links without having to contribute money to public transport.

Meanwhile, if your bus was not crowded last month, praise the extra buses.

There was a 16 per cent decrease from the 1499 full buses that were reported in June 2008.

[mufreight]

A credible effort but considering that the average bus commute is something less than 5klm comparision with rail figures should be on a passenger kilometres basis as with rail the average commute is quite considerably longer.
Just another case of Translink fudging the figures for the sake of political expedience.

[Paul.Zenon]

Just another case of Translink fudging the figures for the sake of political expedience.

What's the actual population of Brisbane?  And in other independant surveys, what's the supposed % who use PT?

Surely that % of users couldn't make that many journeys in a month?

How are these figures calculated anyway?

Actual tickets sold, or what?