Article: Catching a Brisbane bus is a matter of luck

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Catching a Brisbane bus is a matter of luck

Catching a Brisbane bus is a matter of luck

    * Ursula Heger
    * From: The Courier-Mail
    * April 29, 2010 12:00AM


RECORD numbers of buses left commuters stranded by the road in Brisbane last month, after a surge in passenger numbers swamped the bus network.

Brisbane City Council said more than 5200 buses were too full to pick up commuters last month, blaming increased patronage and high numbers of out-of-towners for the problem.

It is the highest number of full buses since records began 2 1/2 years ago.

Public and Active Transport chair Jane Prentice said about 346,000 extra trips were taken in the 12 months to March this year.

She said the full services could be partly attributed to increasing numbers of out-of-towners driving to the city's outskirts and catching Brisbane's buses, leaving residents closer to the CBD waiting.

The problems surfaced weeks after Lord Mayor Campbell Newman offered to let the State Government take Brisbane's buses off his hands in exchange for a $60 million a year payment from council.

He said funding from ratepayers outside Brisbane should go towards more services from those areas, saying Brisbane residents were footing the bill for the additional bus users.

[#Metro]

* Adelaide Street Bridge
* Overhaul Cultural Centre
* More 112-pax superbuses
* More Arctic buses
* Far more trains

[somebody]

That's a surprise.  Now that they've done something about the Northern Busway, I was expecting a decline in this problem.

Out my way (Indooroopilly) it isn't bad at all, although you do relatively frequently see buses from UQ full.  Other buses are never full, although I do intentionally avoid buses in peak times as the trains avoid the traffic.

[Jon Bryant]

I love the statement that "Council blames an increase in patrongage and more out of towners". How dare more people catch Public Transport.  Especially when the Council has done so much to encourage them to drive.  The should be blaming their lack of proper transport planning not the customer!!!!!!

[#Metro]

Oh, shock horror, to think that they are catching full buses and demanding more buses and not using the Clem 7!
Unbelieveable!

Its only going to get worse. A Sunnybank-Browns Plains railway line would take off huge numbers of buses from the busway.
More trains, more often!

[STB]

How very political a statement Campbell is making by blaming out of towners. 

For the most part in the Southern Region from Springwood there is a Logan City bus every 5mins or less and out of Loganholme is about the same, these buses are just as full as the BT Buses, out to the east, there are Veolia services every 5-10mins out of Capalaba and every 15 mins out of Victoria Point to the city, again just as full as the BT Buses.  And to the north, there are the Hornibrook 680s running every 15mins into the City.  And one should not blame those living in Heritage Park and Browns Plains, they are technically not out of towners due to the BT 140s and 150s always providing a service.  Even the 540 has been full on occassions (I've seen it once where it was absoultely packed heading outbound out of Browns Plains to Jimboomba!).

At the end of the day, a bus is a bus.  If a service is scheduled to stop there, no matter where it has come from, then the passenger has every right to board the service, no matter where said passenger lives.  One question I should ask is, how in the world does Campbell and BCC actually know for a fact that the buses are been swamped by out of towners?

I have actually heard that BT threw a spat when the 250s and 270s where scheduled to stop at the Cityxpress stops along Old Cleveland Rd, even though it added capacity to the 200 series along that road and eased the loads slightly on route 200.  Same with route 555.

[ButFli]

One question I should ask is, how in the world does Campbell and BCC actually know for a fact that the buses are been swamped by out of towners?

Sit at Eight Mile Plains Busway at the end of the day and watch people get off buses from the city, into their cars and straight onto the motorway heading south. I suppose it's possible they're heading down to the Hyperdome to do some shopping before coming back home to BCC territory but I think we all know that's not what is happening.

Eight Miles Plains is just one example but it is more obvious there because of the proximity to the motorway. Other places at the end of frequent line-haul routes like Chermside, Browns Plains, Carindale etc have the same problem but it's a bit harder to see because the cars join local traffic and disappear.

[#Metro]

This should be a complete non-issue. If it wasn't for money fights and parochialism this would not happen.
The BCC is not interested in the buses being crowded. After all, it would be an even bigger waste of council funds if peak hour buses where to run empty, half-full or anything less than full.

What the BCC has a problem with is that the bus isn't full of Brisbane (presumably rate paying) residents.
Of course, the other councils should pitch in and there should be a universal funding rule for TransLink services unless the BCC acknowledges that services outside TL sanctioned ones will have to come at the BCCs own costs.

[ozbob]

The set up is now anachronistic, born when the BCC council boundaries were market gardens, and bush. 

The rate payer model is unlikely to be adopted by other councils.  Brisbane has a huge ratepayer base and has very reasonable rates compared to surrounding councils (even if rate payers in BCC are subsidising PT above what neighbouring rate payers are).

Cr Newmans offer to the state government to take over the bus operation should be taken up.  Then the council boundaries are no longer issue, bus operates as for rail.

BCC and Brisbane Transport do a great job, but under the present system it is not working and will only get more disjointed.  Total integration, unhindered by council boundaries and political interests may be needed.

[ozbob]

Even considering the sometimes biases of the fine CM bloggers, the general thrust of blog comments here is at odds with the data published in the TransLink Tracker with respect to bus performance ... but we always knew that ...  

[somebody]

Cr Newmans offer to the state government to take over the bus operation should be taken up. 

This point I strongly agree with.

I'm very disappointed with the state government for the "No Way!" attitude on this one.  It's time to end the blame shifting, not to mention the double veto which effectively applies to doing anything.

Why should BCC pay if other councils in serviced areas dont?  Perhaps it's time to re-extend the council boundaries.  Again, the responsibility of the state government.

[Otto]

The set up is now anachronistic, born when the BCC council boundaries were market gardens, and bush.  

Exactly....

[#Metro]

The set up is now anachronistic, born when the BCC council boundaries were market gardens, and bush.

The rate payer model is unlikely to be adopted by other councils.  Brisbane has a huge ratepayer base and has very reasonable rates compared to surrounding councils (even if rate payers in BCC are subsidising PT above what neighboring rate payers are).

Cr Newmans offer to the state government to take over the bus operation should be taken up.  Then the council boundaries are no longer issue, bus operates as for rail.

BCC and Brisbane Transport do a great job, but under the present system it is not working and will only get more disjointed.  Total integration, unhindered by council boundaries and political interests may be needed.

I'm beginning to be swayed. It is concerning that the BCC is grumbling about having to increase PT services.
On the other hand I am deeply confused as to why this is an issue- surely a bus operator, the colours and who owns it should be irrelevant and the funding rules/model used should reflect this.

So why (correct me if I am wrong) is funding in the BCC area apparently different to that in other areas? Or is it?
I don't fully trust the Queensland Government to run the buses, I think Sydney buses are awful (and they even use our old secondhand ticketing system direct from Brisbane as their state gov could not organise itself to roll-out a smart card properly).


On the other hand Transperth seems to be fine running trains, regulating them should be fine IMHO.
Maybe BT should be split from BCC? Not sure if I want to see Brisbane Transport sold off, but willing to hear comments for/against. Really undecided on that one.

[mufreight]

Forget about extending the area of the greater Brisbane under the control of the BCC and simply set up a DGT tasked with providing public transport in the greater Brisbane area rather than a multi headed Hydra version of Translink.

[somebody]

I think Sydney buses are awful

I think that's pretty harsh.  Yes, in private operator territory they are quite bad except for the M2 services, but the Sydney buses areas are fine except for the crappy ticketting system, which they want to keep because it's the only thing which will support their outdated pricing ideas.