Inner City Orbital Bus

[achiruel]

I'd like to suggest an inner city orbital bus that services inner suburbs (Woolloongabba, Kangaroo Point, Fortitude Valley, Herston, Kelvin Grove, Milton, West End, South Brisbane) without needing to travel through the CBD.

Here is my proposed route (well the anti-clockwise version anyway).

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=211031692475805443068.00049ded210365c81bb67&t=h&z=13

Everyone let me know what they think

One thing I'd like to do but not sure if its possible, go from Annerley Rd along the Boggo Rd busway, then turn into the SEB at Buranda and leave it at Woolloongabba turning left onto Main St.  Might help avoid a bit of the worst Ipswich Rd traffic as well as serve the PAH better.

[Golliwog]

The southern end of Annerley Rd has an on/off ramp to the Boggo Rd busway. Whats with taking Hale St? Wouldn't it be quicker to get on the busway at Normanby and instead of turning right to head to Roma St, go left ot exit onto Milton Rd?

[somebody]

Seems too much of a milk run for my liking.  Although serving the bit of Herston Rd which isn't properly served at the moment is a plus.

There's currently no bus stops on Gipps St in the Valley, so that may be unpopular with someone.

[achiruel]

The southern end of Annerley Rd has an on/off ramp to the Boggo Rd busway. Whats with taking Hale St? Wouldn't it be quicker to get on the busway at Normanby and instead of turning right to head to Roma St, go left ot exit onto Milton Rd?

Good idea, I didn't think of that, but I really wanted to have a stop in Milton somewhere, even if it was only on the very fringe.

Seems too much of a milk run for my liking.  Although serving the bit of Herston Rd which isn't properly served at the moment is a plus.

What parts would you like to see cut out/straightened?

There's currently no bus stops on Gipps St in the Valley, so that may be unpopular with someone.

Do you think it would be better going R. Wickham St and then up Brunswick St (might be better for interchanging with other buses too)?

[somebody]

In the Valley, heading from the Storey Bridge, probably turn right into Wickham St and serve Brunswick St near FV station.  Heading in the other direction, it may be necessary to go via Warner St.

Is it necessary to serve Milton?

I don't see why you'd go down to Park Rd.  There's nothing in particular south of Stanley St unless you go down to the PA Hospital.  You can interchange with the train at South Bank.

I also don't see using Montague Rd.  Perhaps it's about the same as using Peel St, but in the Clockwise direction you don't need it.

[ButFli]

No offence but which passengers is this bus going to serve? Where are they from and where are they going? Gotta have a think about non-standard routes like the 77 and 88 that were created with the best of intentions but just didn't work.

I wonder if maybe more inner-city cross-town routes ala 19x might be a better solution. Gabba gabba to Paddington? Actually an expanded Cityloop service from the CBD via Valley, 'roo point, Gabba and Southbank might be good.

[#Metro]

Route 77 illustrates the classic "direct bus to everywhere" problem based on, one seat trips to everywhere trying to imitate car. You can't defeat the car's direct, point-to-point trips. Networks are probably better.

There are no cross-routes or opportunities for boardings inside the tunnel, if it were a surface route, 77 would have the benefit of dropping passengers off and boardings from the street on the surface. In fact, IMHO, it would be worthwhile seeing if 77 could be re-routed up off the busway at Woolloongabba, up Main Street Kangaroo Point, off the Storey Bridge, through the valley and up the the Nth Busway at RBWH to see if that changes its fortunes. Bus priority on Main St Kangaroo Pt will be important here.

As for route 88, again there are heaps upon heaps of Western Suburbs bus routes already operating. They should be getting rid of routes and consolidating those seats, instead they are adding more routes making the system more complicated and the whole thing is already duplicated by so many other routes the utilisation of those buses might have dropped (eg. amount of air parcels overall carried might have increased). I only see demand for P88 in peak hour when there is enough demand to justify this taxi-like service.

Direct buses everywhere mean one thing: FORCED Low Frequency in the suburbs.

More symbols of mobility and substainable transport; we need less symbolism and more things that actually work.
Public transport must carry people not air parcels.

[achiruel]

The whole point of this route is in an attempt to not add to inner-city bus congestion - Adelaide St is now a nightmare, particularly in peak times.  And look at the areas it is servicing, there are lots of high density residential developments and about to become more, e.g. Woollongabba, West End.  Kelvin Grove Urban Village, lots of apartments etc in the Valley, Kangaroo Point.  It's not really duplicating existing routes like the 88.

Sure more through routes can be added but nearly all of these will use Adelaide St adding to the existing congestion, and probably also use CC, which is at breaking point already.  Also if the southern end was changed to go onto the Boggo Rd Busway it could serve interchange to UQ @ Park/Boggo Rd and also PAH (which Busway station is currently under-utilised IMO).

There probably is room of another orbital service as well, somewhere between this one and the GCL, the major problem of course being the lack of river crossings.  Whatever the name, the Brisbane area desperately needs more 'hub' routes to connect the 'spokes' together.

[#Metro]

My previous comments about P88 and 77 were not to do with criticism of your idea;

Though coming around to your orbital idea I feel that it would really work best with two bridges- one at Bulimba/Newstead or New Farm and another at West-End/Toowong. The route length needs to be long enough and the circle big enough to have enough stops to collect enough people.

To be purely descriptive here, there would also considerable competition from two-service transfers (i.e. catching one bus, catch another) because as bus routes converge on the CBD, they are channeled into specific corridors where the frequency increases and transfers to services become very easy.

As the bus might run every 10 minutes or so it seems unlikely to make a dent on bus congestion within the CBD, which I do acknowledge is a problem. But if bus congestion in the city is the problem, doing something about the South East Busway operation, rather than an orbital bus route, seems to be the more relevant problem to focus on.