New buses: rumors confirmed

[#Metro]

HUNDREDS of new bus services will be put on as early as next week to ease crippling overcrowding on the city's transport network.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan will on Tuesday announce a $3.1 million cash injection to add another 360 bus services a week to the city's northern and southern suburbs.

The new services, which will include a new route from Sunnybank to Acacia Ridge and slash trip frequencies to 10 minutes from the city to the QEII Hospital, will begin from May 10.

It comes only days after it was revealed that 5215 buses were too full to pick up passengers in March, the highest level since records began 2 1/2 years ago.

Ms Nolan said that Sunnybank and Acacia Ridge, in Brisbane's south, had the potential to become a new transport hub in the southeast.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/m-boost-to-fix-brisbane-bus-turmoil/story-e6freoof-1225861742002

Ms Nolan also talks in the article about Sunnybank being a public transport hub. IMHO this area would be better off with rail services on a rail spur line going all the way to Browns Plains. With a bus every 90 seconds at Altandi station in peak hour- there is more than enough demand for rail.

[Otto]

HUNDREDS of new bus services will be put on as early as next week to ease crippling overcrowding on the city's transport network.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan will on Tuesday announce a $3.1 million cash injection to add another 360 bus services a week to the city's northern and southern suburbs.

The new services, which will include a new route from Sunnybank to Acacia Ridge and slash trip frequencies to 10 minutes from the city to the QEII Hospital, will begin from May 10.

It comes only days after it was revealed that 5215 buses were too full to pick up passengers in March, the highest level since records began 2 1/2 years ago.

Ms Nolan said that Sunnybank and Acacia Ridge, in Brisbane's south, had the potential to become a new transport hub in the southeast.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/m-boost-to-fix-brisbane-bus-turmoil/story-e6freoof-1225861742002

Ms Nolan also talks in the article about Sunnybank being a public transport hub. IMHO this area would be better off with rail services on a rail spur line going all the way to Browns Plains. With a bus every 90 seconds at Altandi station in peak hour- there is more than enough demand for rail.

Interesting to see that the Cav rd 184 185 services have had timetable tweaks whilst the 180 has been ignored..

[ozbob]

As reported in the CM

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/m-boost-to-fix-brisbane-bus-turmoil/story-e6freoof-1225861742002

NEW SERVICES

Route 126 (Sunnybank to Acacia Ridge): A new bus route with 11 trips a day, servicing the Acacia Ridge Trade and Technicians Skills Institute, Coopers Plains train station and Sunnybank Plaza.

Route P119 (QEII Hospital-Brisbane City): Seven extra trips a day, buses every 10 minutes in peak hours.

Route 120 (Garden City-Brisbane City): 20 extra trips a day, buses every 10 minutes in morning peak and every 15 minutes in afternoon peak.

Route 330 (Bracken Ridge-Brisbane City): 23 extra weekday trips, bus route extended to Oasis Retirement Resort in Quinlan St, Bracken Ridge and Sunland Estate.

Route P331 (Bracken Ridge-Brisbane City): Extended route and extra services for buses every 10 minutes in morning peak and every 15 minutes in afternoon peak.

Route 322 (Chermside-Toombul-Brisbane City): Seven extra trips a day and four new weekend trips between Chermside and Wavell Heights.

Route 306 (Nudgee-Toombul-Brisbane City): One extra Saturday morning service from Toombul at 7.22am.

Route 340 (Carseldine-City): One new inbound trip from Carseldine at 8.42am.

[Golliwog]

http://www.translink.com.au/servicechange.php?id=572

TL website has a service change annoucing these changes. These changes seem to be in effect from Monday the 10th of May. It also lists the following bus stop changes:

• 105 (Indooroopilly to City):
  Will service two new stops (inbound and outbound) in Kadumba Street, between Fairfield Road and Wilston Terrace, Yeronga


• 109 (City to Uni of Qld), 412 (St Lucia & Uni of Qld to City):
  Will continue to service the newly combined stop 15/16 on Adelaide Street, City


• 134 (City to Griffith Uni):
  Will service the Mount Gravatt Cemetery Stop on University Road, Mount Gravatt


• 153 (Drewvale to City):
  Will service one new inbound stop and one new outbound stop on Persse Road, Calamvale


• 196 and 197 (New Farm to City to Fairfield Gardens):
  Will no longer service stop 9 on Gladstone Road, Highgate Hill. The stop will be permanently removed due to construction of the Go-Between Bridge


• 198 (Highgate Hill hail n' ride):
  Will no longer service stop 5 on Stanley Street, South Brisbane. The stop will be permanently removed due to construction of the Queensland Children's Hospital


• 220 and P221 (both Wynnum to City):
  Will service two new stops installed on Wondall Road, between Manly Road and Bognor Street, Manly West


• 230 and P231 (Balmoral via Riding Road to City):
  Will move from Kenbury Street to Bulimba Street, Bulimba. All bus stops in Kenbury Street will be moved to Bulimba Street.


• 306 (Nudgee-Toombul to City):
  Will no longer service stop 39A, Queens Road, Nudgee due to infrastructure works


• 321 (Kalinga to City), 372 and 373 (Ashgrove/Oakleigh to City), 377 and 378 (Ashgrove/Kennedy Tce to City), Spring Hill Loop:
  Will service new supplementary stop 149A on Creek Street, City. All other services will continue to service the current stop 149.


• 327 (Strathpine/Bracken Ridge to Toombul):
  Will service new outbound stop 'Salvation' on Hanford Road, approaching Enborisoff Street, Taigum.


• 346 (Aspley to City) and 353 (McDowall to City):
  Will no longer service stop 11 on Northey Street, Herston. The stop will be permanently removed due to lack of safe access.


• 361 (Mitchelton to City):
  Will service relocated stop 11 on Gizerah Street, Mitchelton. The new stop will be moved 40m west on Gizerah St.


• 378 (Ashgrove/Arthyur Tce to City):
  Will service relocated stop 8 in Cochrane Street, Red Hill. The new stop will be moved 10m down Cochrane St.


• 411 (Uni of Qld/St Lucia to City), 415 (Indooroopilly to City), 416 (Duke St to City), 417 (Long Pocket to City), 433 (Kenmore South to City), 445 (Fig Tree Pocket to City), 471 (Mt Coot-tha to City):
  Will move to stop 111/112 on North Quay, Brisbane, located 20m from stop 15/16


• 462 (Darra to Forest Lake):
  Will service two new stops (inbound and outbound) outside the Richlands Court House, Archerfield Road, Richlands.


• 700, 704, 718, 722, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736, 782 (school services):
  Will now leave from Platform B, Indooroopilly Interchange


• 709 (school services):
  Will now leave from Platform B, Indooroopilly Interchange

Minor timetable changes
Minor changes to running times will improve reliability on the following routes:

•route 184 (Garden City via Cavendish Rd to City)
•route 185 (Garden City via Cavendish Rd to City)
•route 300 (Toombul to City)
•route 301 (Toombul to City (via Hendra))
•route 322 (Chermside-Toombul to City)
•route P341 (Carseldine to City)
School service 704 will now start ten minutes later from St Peters Lutheran College at 3.20pm.

School service 718 will no longer start at Ironside State School. This route will now start at St Peters Lutheran College at 3.15pm.

Full timetables will be available shortly.

[ozbob]

Minister for Transport
The Honourable Rachel Nolan
04/05/2010

$3.1m bus boost for Brisbane

Public transport customers across Brisbane's southern and northern suburbs will receive enhanced services with an extra 18,270 bus seats a week running from May 10.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan said the $3.1 million bus package, funded by the State Government and delivered by Brisbane Transport, would add an extra 360 bus services a week.

"We've listened to customers in the southern suburbs of Brisbane an added a new feeder bus route (Route 126 Sunnybank to Acacia Ridge) linking the busy Acacia Ridge Trade and Technicians Skills Institute to Sunnybank Plaza and Coopers Plains train station," Ms Nolan said.

"This area has the potential to become an important hub for customers and I'm pleased that we are able to continue to expand the network to provide a viable public transport option in this region.

"This package will also be welcome news for customers travelling from the Griffith University, Garden City and the QEII hospital precinct with 27 additional services on routes P119 (QEII Hospital-Brisbane City) and 120 (Garden City-Brisbane City) providing a 10-minute frequency in the morning peak period."

Ms Nolan said the package included many more services for the Handford Road corridor in Zillmere and Taigum.

"This will benefit people travelling between Carseldine train station, Sunland Estate, Oasis Retirement Resort and around the Zillmere, Boondall and Taigum catchment area into the city," Ms Nolan said.

"Twenty-eight additional drivers have been employed to drive these extra services and the package also includes another 13 new low-floor, air-conditioned, environmentally-friendly buses to the fleet.

"Buses carry about two-thirds of all passengers on the TransLink network and adding new buses and enhancing existing services are part of our commitment to meet the growing demand."

The bus package includes many new services:

·126 (Sunnybank to Acacia Ridge): A new bus route with 11 trips a day, servicing the Acacia Ridge Trade and Technicians Skills Institute, Coopers Plains train station and Sunnybank Plaza

·P119 (QEII Hospital-Brisbane City): Seven extra trips a day, buses every 10 minutes in peak

·120 (Garden City-Brisbane City): 20 extra trips a day, buses every 10 minutes in morning peak and every 15 minutes in afternoon peak

·330 (Bracken Ridge-Brisbane City): 23 extra weekday trips, bus route extended to Oasis Retirement Resort in Quinlan Street, Bracken Ridge and Sunland Estate

·P331 (Bracken Ridge-Brisbane City):Extended route and extra services for buses every 10 minutes in morning peak services and every 15 minutes in afternoon peak

·322 (Chermside-Toombul-Brisbane City): Seven extra trips a day and four new weekend trips between Chermside and Wavell Heights

·306 (Nudgee-Toombul-Brisbane City): One extra Saturday morning service from Toombul at 7.22am

·340 (Carseldine-City): One new inbound trip from Carseldine at 8.42am

Ms Nolan said this latest bus package was the fourth major bus package for Brisbane in 2010, following the introduction of Route 77 via the Clem7, CityGlider buses from West End to Teneriffe and a Back-to-Uni service package on February 22.

"This bus package has the potential to take up to 1 million cars off Brisbane roads a year and continues to utilise key pieces of infrastructure such as the Northern and South East Busways," Ms Nolan said.

"We're committed to adding 301,000 new seats to the TransLink network this year and we're well on our way to achieving this.

"The Queensland Government is providing $212 million for bus services in the Brisbane area in 2009/10, up from $177 million in 2008/09 and $146 million in 2007/08."

There will be minor timetable adjustments to improve on-time running of these routes:

·route 184 (Garden City via Cavendish Rd to Brisbane city)

·route 185 (Garden City via Cavendish Rd to Brisbane city)

·route 300 (Toombul to Brisbane city)

·route 301 (Toombul to City via Hendra)

·route 322 (Chermside-Toombul to Brisbane city)

·route P341 (Carseldine to Brisbane city)

·School route 786 to the Gap High School

Routes 230 and P231 (Balmoral via Riding Road to City) will be moved from Kenbury Street to Bulimba Street, Bulimba, from Monday, May 10, 2010.

The routes will service existing stops on Brisbane Street between Birkalla and Bulimba Streets and new stops on Bulimba Street near Merry Street. Stops in Kenbury Street will be removed to improve safety in the area.

P119 (QEII Hospital to Brisbane City) will no longer run from the Queen Street Bus Station. This service will depart Brisbane City (Riverside) from stop 61 in Queen Street opposite Eagle Lane and pick up from Stop 48 in Adelaide Street, outside Brisbane Square.

There will also be changes to some bus stops across Brisbane with school route 786 leaving five minutes earlier from Carwoola Street, Bardon to reach the Gap High School for 8.45am class.

For more details about the bus improvements, visit www.translink.com.au or call 13 12 30.

[somebody]

• 411 (Uni of Qld/St Lucia to City), 415 (Indooroopilly to City), 416 (Duke St to City), 417 (Long Pocket to City), 433 (Kenmore South to City), 445 (Fig Tree Pocket to City), 471 (Mt Coot-tha to City):
  Will move to stop 111/112 on North Quay, Brisbane, located 20m from stop 15/16

Why is it that they feel the need to mess around with this stop every 6-9 months?  Presumably in 6-9 months time it will go back to the previous location on Adelaide St.

As for the P119, I would strongly suggest that moving it from QSBS A4 on the outbound is a bad idea.  Coming from the Valley can be done easily with a transfer.  If anyone can give me a reason, I'm all ears, but the current stop location is the same as the 120 which is a good thing.  I'm really not sure why Translink, BT, and Brisbanites think that having these annoyances foisted on them is acceptable.  I'm tempted to log a complaint with Translink, even though I don't use the service.

[STB]

I can see why they would want the P119 to start/end at QE II Hospital instead of Garden City.  Too many Griffith Uni students taking up space for commuters.

[somebody]

I can see why they would want the P119 to start/end at QE II Hospital instead of Garden City.  Too many Griffith Uni students taking up space for commuters.

I think it's a (reasonable) cost cutting measure.  What uni students would be travelling inbound in the AM peak?  I suppose maybe a few part timers outbound in the PM peak though.  With the 120 running every 10 minutes, they've probably got an adequate service from that anyway, although I'd think there are other buses which are faster to the Nathan campus.

[STB]

I go to Griffith University.  Trust me, it's standing room only during peak hour on buses coming inbound to the university and the city, which then eases as students offload at the Nathan Campus (my home campus).  I've seen plenty of standing room only 120s heading inbound and outbound after picking up/dropping off students.

In the counter peak, it's standing room only/full seated loads right through the day even up till 8pm at night!

[somebody]

I go to Griffith University.  Trust me, it's standing room only during peak hour on buses coming inbound to the university and the city, which then eases as students offload at the Nathan Campus (my home campus).  I've seen plenty of standing room only 120s heading inbound and outbound after picking up/dropping off students.

In the counter peak, it's standing room only/full seated loads right through the day even up till 8pm at night!

Ok, but those Uni students aren't preventing city bound pax from using the service except for the city pax who are getting on south of the Nathan campus.  I would have thought that using the 120/119 would be an odd choice for city pax from Klumpp Rd; doesn't the 186 rocket run along there?  Which is what I was thinking about. 

[STB]

You would think so, but I know that there are quite a few citybound passengers who are using the 119/120 along Klumpp Rd, instead of using the 186.  Where they are heading, I'm not sure, QE II Hospital or the industrial area near Rocklea perhaps, just before the 119/120 heads over the hill?

There are also students who live on campus who head into the city during peak hour to get to the Southbank Campus/work etc.

[somebody]

One thing that's quite wierd about this is the notion of the outbound 120 services not stopping at QEII hospital.  Is there a reason why it would be done that way?

[STB]

I highly doubt that the outbound 120s would not be stopping at QE II hospital, it's a major student generator at that stop (empty to full bus of uni students quite common).  I think that might be an error.  Have a look at the new outbound 120 timetable on the TL HTML timetables section, still shows it stopping at QE II.

[somebody]

Here's what TL have to say about the 120:
120 (Garden City to City)

•operating exclusively between Garden City and Queen Street
•outbound services will no longer service QEII
•improving inbound frequency to 10 minutes between 6.24am and 8.54am and 15 minutes between 2.54pm and 5.39pm
•improving outbound frequency to 15 minutes between 6.40am and 8.10am and 10 minutes between 2.30pm and 6.20pm.

Here's the link: http://www.translink.com.au/servicechange.php?id=572

[STB]

And here's the link to the timetable...

http://jp.translink.com.au/TransLinkPublicTimetable.asp?RouteCode=120&TimetableKey=2190&TimetableDate=10/5/2010&Direction=outbound&TimetableVehicle=BTBus

Location 120 120 120 120 120 120
Qeii Hospital
Qeii Hospital, Troughton Rd App Kessels Rd 7:07am 7:17am 7:27am 7:37am 7:53am 8:03am
Garden City Interchange 'D'
Garden City D 7:25am 7:35am 7:45am 7:55am 8:13am 8:23am

[somebody]

Either way, seems a pretty basic mistake.

[david]

Once again, the western suburbs miss out...sigh

[Golliwog]

Hopefully once they build the new Sherwood bus depot, they start adding to the western bus routes.

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

What do you stand for?

What do you stand for?
MARISSA CALLIGEROS
May 5, 2010 - 5:41AM

The state government has failed to add any extra buses to Brisbane's most congested routes, despite outlaying $3 million to ease overcrowding.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan yesterday announced 360 new bus services would start as early as next week to meet demand on bus routes in the northern and southern suburbs.

But only one of those services will be added to Brisbane's top 10 most congested routes, revealed by brisbanetimes.com.au in March.

Figures provided to brisbanetimes.com.au showed the 10 most crowded bus routes in February included those from Chermside (333), Browns Plains (150), Drewdale (130), Eight Mile Plains (111), Browns Plains (140), Bracken Ridge (330), Aspley Hypermarket (345), the Gap (385), Carindale (200) and West End to New Farm (199).

During March, the buses on the Carindale (200) and Eight Mile Plains (111) routes were most frequently overcrowded.

Buses travelling from Eight Mile Plains to the CBD on route 111 left passengers stranded on 47 occasions, according to Brisbane City Council, while route 200 passengers were left behind on 76 occasions.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said the state government had ignored the council's requests for more bus services on the most congested routes.

"There are many buses that they don't fund that we ask for," Cr Newman said.

Ms Nolan was not available for comment yesterday.

However a TransLink spokesman said the $3.1 million boost to the bus network did address overcrowding on some of Brisbane busiest routes.

"This latest package addresses six of the top 10 busiest Brisbane bus routes and is part of the strategic approach in implementing services," the spokesman said.

But the busiest routes, with the most passengers, are not necessarily the most overcrowded routes, on which passengers are left behind.

Under the package, 23 extra weekday trips will be added to route 330 from Bracken Ridge to the CBD, which is one of the city's top 10 congested runs.

"This latest package also provides more frequency and coverage for those customers in these busy corridors and reduces pressure on many of Brisbane's busiest routes, such as those from Chermside and Mt Gravatt," the spokesman said.

In March, tempers flared between the Lord Mayor and TransLink's management after the state government rejected an offer from him to sell them the city's buses.

The state government believes it costs about $60 million to run the bus fleet, while Brisbane City Council argues it costs $160 million.

The Lord Mayor told brisbanetimes.com.au council research showed people from neighbouring council areas were driving into Brisbane to catch buses, leaving them overcrowded by the time they get to inner suburbs.

He said the state government needed to come up with a better funding model to help finance escalating demand for bus services in South-East Queensland.

"I would like to see other local governments ... like Moreton Regional Council put their hand in their pocket and also contribute to public transport," Cr Newman said.

Brisbane ratepayers each contribute $384 per year to public transport services.

"Moreton Bay Regional Council, Ipswich, Redlands and Logan areas pay nothing for public transport, yet those people all enjoy the bus and CityCat services that the ratepayers of Brisbane fund," Cr Newman said.

"What we need to see ... is local governments paying for public transport as well."

[STB]

Looks like the advice that route 120 would no longer stop at QE II Hospital has been rectified and removed from the TL site.

http://www.translink.com.au/servicechange.php?id=572

120 (Garden City to City)

•operating exclusively between Garden City and Queen Street
•improving inbound frequency to 10 minutes between 6.24am and 8.54am and 15 minutes between 2.54pm and 5.39pm
•improving outbound frequency to 15 minutes between 6.40am and 8.10am and 10 minutes between 2.30pm and 6.20pm.