Hopes for transport woes

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Hopes for transport woes

Hopes for transport woes
Article from: The Courier-Mail

By Emma Chalmers

December 06, 2007 11:00pm

MORE trains, more frequent buses and a better cycle network are what Brisbane needs to keep the city moving, public transport campaigners say.

While the State Government has committed to large scale projects such as new pedestrian and cycle bridges and a light-rail system, public transport advocates believe the system could be improved by simply increasing and varying services.

A survey conducted by The Courier-Mail and QUT found nearly half of the city's buses and one in five trains run late by four minutes or more during peak hour.

Many readers have this week flooded our website to share their transport woes and call for improved services.

Robert Dow, a spokesman for the commuter group Rail Back on Track, said the train system was running quite well but more rolling stock was needed.

Mr Dow said the State Government needed to double the number of trains on order to service growing areas such as the Gold Coast, Darra and Corinda.

"They've got 44 trains coming ? this is not enough," he said. "'The 44 coming are only going to increase capacity by about 30 per cent . . . they will probably need another 44 in the next five or six years."

Mr Dow also called on Queensland Rail to become more innovative with its train timetable by extending peak hour and make the services more efficient by running some express services from heavily populated outer areas such as Darra.

Tristan Peach, from Community Action for Sustainable Transport, believes bus or train services should be servicing major transport corridors every 15 minutes.

"I think the cheapest and the easiest short-term solution would be transit lanes for your busy arterial roads where buses are getting stuck in traffic," Mr Peach said.

Mr Peach said more bus services should also operate on ring-road networks, not just from the suburbs into the CBD.

"The inner city is already really well serviced. The areas that are really struggling are Browns Plains, Forest Lake, Inala, Willawong ? that huge expanse in outer-south Brisbane," he said.

In addition to more rail and bus services, Bicycle Queensland says there needs to be improvements to the cycle network to encourage more people to ride or walk to work.

Manager Ben Wilson said Brisbane's network of cycle paths ranged from very good to very bad.

"There's really glaring omissions when we have bikeways along the river at Coronation Drive, which are hugely popular with pedestrians and cyclists and people recreating, you really have to say when can we get one along Kingsford Smith Drive," he said.

Bicycle Queensland also wants a better connection from the South East Freeway to the popular Eleanor Schonell Bridge at the University of Queensland.

Meanwhile, the Greens also want to see so-called clean transport prioritised and want improved pathways and cycle ways to key locations.

The party's lord mayoral candidate, Jo Bragg, has also proposed a major $3.7 billion light rail network connecting the inner city with outer-northern and southern suburbs.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman supports a bus rapid-transit system.

In September, Cr Newman released a report that stated a bus rapid-transit system would be cheaper, easier and faster to implement than a light-rail network.