CBD bus departure synchronisation

[triplethree]

Good evening people,

Just read an interesting discussion on another thread between Simon and Golliwog about a poll that Simon started about whether the flagfall component of TransLink fares should be abolished. Golliwog raised the issue of buses to St Pauls Tce in Spring Hill leaving from different stops in the CBD at the same half-hourly frequency (the 301 and the 320) but being clustered together when they could be spaced out to give an even 15-minute frequency along St Pauls Tce.

That reminded me of the tragedy that is public transport to the Grange. As things currently stand, there are six services an hour from the CBD to the Grange, with their weekday off-peak departure times:

• 379 all-stops via Lutwyche Rd (leaves Stop 23 Adelaide St x:16 and x:46)
• 346 & 353 all-stops via Northey St (leaves Stop 143 Edward St x:10 and x:40)
• 325 & 335 expresses via Newmarket or RBWH (leaves Stop 56 Queen St x:10 and x:40)

If you miss the 379 - you must walk one or two blocks and wait 24 minutes, even though six buses an hour service your destination! Crazeful crazy craziness.

Heading into town from the Grange, we have:

• 379: departs x:28 and x:58 (or thereabouts, varies through the day)
• 346 & 353: departs x:12 and x:42
• 325 & 335: departs x:15 and x:45

So at least this one is a little bit more even, with the longest wait being 14 minutes. Still, the inbound services depart from different stops clustered around the same intersection (Days Rd & Webster Rd).

So what can be done? In an ideal world with a simple "spider-web" polar grid of CBD radials and cross-suburban feeders (which would probably suit Brisbane the most), there would be just one, possibly two (one via Newmarket, one via RBWH), routes running frequently going from town to the Grange leaving from the same sequence of CBD stops. But before we reach this nirvana, perhaps we can at least attempt to synchronise city departures in cases like this? The same goes for 301 and 320 to St Pauls Terrace, Alice Street departures (which IIRC are quite closely clustered together), Everton Park services (350/351/352/357/359/360), and any other origin/destination pair served by multiple bus routes.

[Golliwog]

I don't know how easy it is to change city stop locations, but I think these things are well worth raising with Translink. I don't know if they monitor RBOT or not in terms of feedback etc but I think raising things like these common spines and their timings is useful. IIRC, we sort of raised the 110 and 115 (Beaudesert Rd and out to Acacia Ridge and beyond) which have a common spine but used to have a similar issue in terms of timing being bunched. Can't remember if they also previously had different CBD stop locations, but I do recall TL changed the running so that Beaudesert Rd got an even service at the same time as the did the BUZ 100.

[#Metro]

Something needs to be done about buses leaving from the Valley and going north. Have a look at the bus diagram outside the Valley Rail station (outbound). It is a TOTAL MESS of bus services and half of them go on Safari tours. Northside is a grid - how bleeping hard is it to make buses travel in straight lines? Impossible it seems!

Just makes me want to hold my hands up in horror and go CUT CUT CUT!!

[somebody]

I think there shouldn't be so many different ways of getting to Grange.  I'm not completely sure what purposes the 346 and 353 serve.  I also don't support the 335's city-valley-RBH-Wilston route.