14 Aug 2013: SEQ: Bus Bridge Cost to be Uploaded to State Government?

[ozbob]

Media release 14th August 2013



SEQ: Bus Bridge Cost to be Uploaded to State Government?

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers calls for the break up of the Brisbane Transport's local government bus monopoly and bus contracts to be thrown open to competition before funding BCC's bus bridge (1).

Indicating his strong support for the project, Cr Schrinner said the link "needs to happen to happen to help facilitate the growth in our bus network".

"Buses have real difficulty getting across the [Victoria] Bridge because of the bottleneck that exists," he said.

But Cr Schrinner indicated the council might not have the funds to cover the costs of the bridge.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"The TransLink bus review revealed that a significant proportion of bus passengers within the BCC area are on just 8% of the bus routes. It is extremely costly to run every bus to and from the CBD in terms of infrastructure, bus operations. Suburbs miss out on frequent buses due to money being spent on duplication and waste. This is the reason why Bulimba, The Northwest and Centenary Suburbs do not have frequent bus services."

"Cultural Centre congestion is a result of huge volumes of air carried by BCC buses:

•   64.8% of AM peak inbound buses are <50% full
•   78.4% of all services during the day are <50% full
•   50% of PM peak outbound buses are <50% full"

"Passenger growth trends on the Brisbane Transport network have flatlined since 2009, the result of high fares that is in turn the result of BCC clinging to a high waste network design. This high waste design is a political inefficiency, the result of BCC  with:

* Regulatory capture of TransLink
* Refusing to reform the bus network in a meaningful way due to local political inflexibility
* Inability to see that a number of bus routes is a measure of complexity not convenience
* Invention of high waste services such as Maroon CityGlider which adds nothing new to the network, particularly around Stones Corner
* Retention of high waste legacy services such as route 161
* Refusal to introduce connections, based on experiences 30 plus years ago in an era of pre-integrated ticketing and non-integrated fares
* Problems running buses across BCC boundaries (i.e. refused merger of 555 and 111)
* Major denial over high levels of air carried through Cultural Centre in peak hour due to excessive routes and archaic network design

"A Right to Information request (RTI) on BCC revealed that BT was instructed months before the final review to refuse meeting with TransLink on at least six occasions. No funding for a bridge should be provided until a full explanation by BCC before Parliament is provided as to what the purpose of this refusal was."

"If a private operator behaved the way BCC has, it would have its contract shredded and rightly so. The City of Brisbane Act 2010 should be altered to strip BCC of all public transport functions immediately."

"The Lord Mayor and BCC can no longer be trusted to run Brisbane's buses. After a decade of games, it's time to dump Brisbane City Council and separate Brisbane Transport."

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

References:

1. Bridge cost close to being revealed http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/bridge-cost-close-to-being-revealed-20130813-2rud6.html

2. Lord Mayor and BCC can no longer be trusted to run city's buses http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=9895.0

3. SEQ: Bus review shambles confirmed by RTI http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=10146.0

4. "Transferring" can be good for you, and good for your city http://www.humantransit.org/2009/04/why-transferring-is-good-for-you-and-good-for-your-city.html

[ozbob]

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