Logan and Southern Region

[#Metro]

I think what a lot of people are missing here as well is that public transport is not only a transport issue, it is also a social justice issue.  Many parts of Logan are some of the most disadvantaged (read: poorest) areas of SEQ.  By denying these people adequate public transport they are in many cases being denied the opportunity to improve their lives through employment and community participation.  Forcing them to take taxis at even higher fares they can't afford is not the answer.

Absolutely, there's no unemployment discount either, which I think is disgusting.

Also, the trading hours restrictions have no sound basis and deny people to work hours that would give them good pay like evenings, weekends and after hours. But that's not a RBOT issue.

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> For shoppers, Sunday's the new Saturday

[longboi]

Brisbanetimes --> For shoppers, Sunday's the new Saturday

Was just going to bring that one up.

Eventually the market will see more of your traditional Mon-Sat services (post office, medical etc.) open on Sundays but as SR said it's the horse and PT is the cart.

[techblitz]

Brisbanetimes --> For shoppers, Sunday's the new Saturday

nice timing 

didn't centrelink use to give travel assistance for the unemployed to go to interviews?
If this has been scrapped something needs to be put back in place as its an absolute disincentive for people to attend interviews etc etc and more incentive to just fudge up their activity form and stay home. 3/4/5 dollars matters when your on a low budget. And there would be plenty feeling the pinch in areas such as inala,woodridge,goodna,bplains etc

[nathandavid88]

Bus connections between Yarrabilba and the rest of the world are apparently improving according the the local rag. Logan Coaches, who runs non-Translink services between Beenleigh/Loganholme/Loganlea Station and Logan Village/Canungra/Tamborine Village is now servicing Yarrabilba as well (it does practically travel right past anyway).

Weekdays inbound from Yarrabilba: 7:00am (commuter service), 9:30am (both services start from Canungra at 6:30am and 9am)
Weekdays outbound from Loganlea Station: 1:35pm, 6:10pm (commuter service) (1:35 pm service starts at Beenleigh Station at 1:15pm)

They even get Saturday services!

Inbound from Yarrabilba: 9am, 12noon, 3pm (starting at Canungra at 8:30am, 11:30am and 2:30pm
Outbound from Beenleigh Station: 10am, 1pm, 4pm 

According to the boss of Logan Coaches, they will be adding more services as Yarrabilba grows. I wonder if they have their eye on becoming the Translink service provider for those areas in the future? Even without Translink subsidies, they don't seem to be doing too badly, and the fares they charge aren't too bad really.

[ozbob]

Logan and Southern Region changes from 20 Jan 2014

--> http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/seq-bus-network-review-2013/logan

[techblitz]

Albert logan news 20.02.14

[techblitz]

Another week another 'they cut my bus!' news article (found via the TL ripoff fbook page)
Quite interesting how EASILY these types of stories make the news outlets....

Logan Reporter --> Bus cuts irk passengers

[ozbob]

Twitter

Shannon Fentiman ‏@ShannonFentiman

Locals rallying to save Logan bus services from LNP cuts with @jackietrad and @MickdeBrenni #qldpol http://t.co/HMzTM62FfI

[achiruel]

Locals rallying to save Logan bus services from LNP cuts with @jackietrad and @MickdeBrenni #qldpol http://t.co/HMzTM62FfI

I wonder where Desley Scott (Member for Woodridge, ALP) was?

[nathandavid88]

From today's local rag (Albert & Logan News):

Bus hopes face a rough ride

HIKE OF UP TO 1.4KM FOR ELDERLY RESIDENTS TRIGGERS PLEA FOR A NEW STOP ON STATION RD

From page 02 ELDERLY Bethania residents are being left with taxis as their only real transport option, but they have got it lucky, according to Waterford state LNP MP Mike Latter.

Maureen Lawrence, Labor candidate for Waterford Shannon Fentiman and Beatrice Wood at the bus stop, which is a long way from many residents homes.
Beatrice Wood, 89, and Maureen Lawrence, 77, have given up on catching the bus. TransLink guidelines indicate 400m is the "typical" walking distance to a bus stop, yet Fairfax Ave resident Ms Lawrence, who relies on a walker, has a 1.4km journey to the nearest stop on King Arthur Boulevard. To make matters worse, the stop has no shelter or seating.

Ms Wood is worried about what might be when she gives up her car and driver's licence in October.

"You just can't do ( the walk), so eventually we are going to be prisoners," she said. Labor's candidate for Waterford Shannon Fentiman said residents would get better access to buses if a stop was put on Station Rd.

"It wouldn't cost them anything," Ms Fentiman said.

"It would just be the council putting a stop in."

However, Mr Latter said there were even bigger public transport issues at hand that he was focusing on.

"I'm fighting for areas like Woodlands that don't have a bus service at all," he said.

Mr Latter said it was vital to deliver a bus to the thousands of residents in the booming development area to the north of Bahrs Scrub, where the Woodlands and Stockland estates are located. He said once Ridgevale Boulevard was connected through to Tallagandra Rd, TransLink would be in a position to re-route a service to take a path through the aforementioned estates to Edens Landing via the Holmview shopping centre.

He added that there was a chance Station Rd could be serviced by the route.

Mr Latter agreed with Ms Wood on the need for a lift at the Bethania train station overpass to ensure additional disability services considering there are nine nearby retirement homes, but he admitted it was not an imminent project.

I wonder whether this route through Bahrs Scrub and Woodlands is actually something on the Translink drawing board, or whether its words from the local member's mouth?

[STB]

From today's local rag (Albert & Logan News):

Bus hopes face a rough ride

HIKE OF UP TO 1.4KM FOR ELDERLY RESIDENTS TRIGGERS PLEA FOR A NEW STOP ON STATION RD

From page 02 ELDERLY Bethania residents are being left with taxis as their only real transport option, but they have got it lucky, according to Waterford state LNP MP Mike Latter.

Maureen Lawrence, Labor candidate for Waterford Shannon Fentiman and Beatrice Wood at the bus stop, which is a long way from many residents homes.
Beatrice Wood, 89, and Maureen Lawrence, 77, have given up on catching the bus. TransLink guidelines indicate 400m is the "typical" walking distance to a bus stop, yet Fairfax Ave resident Ms Lawrence, who relies on a walker, has a 1.4km journey to the nearest stop on King Arthur Boulevard. To make matters worse, the stop has no shelter or seating.

Ms Wood is worried about what might be when she gives up her car and driver's licence in October.

"You just can't do ( the walk), so eventually we are going to be prisoners," she said. Labor's candidate for Waterford Shannon Fentiman said residents would get better access to buses if a stop was put on Station Rd.

"It wouldn't cost them anything," Ms Fentiman said.

"It would just be the council putting a stop in."

However, Mr Latter said there were even bigger public transport issues at hand that he was focusing on.

"I'm fighting for areas like Woodlands that don't have a bus service at all," he said.

Mr Latter said it was vital to deliver a bus to the thousands of residents in the booming development area to the north of Bahrs Scrub, where the Woodlands and Stockland estates are located. He said once Ridgevale Boulevard was connected through to Tallagandra Rd, TransLink would be in a position to re-route a service to take a path through the aforementioned estates to Edens Landing via the Holmview shopping centre.

He added that there was a chance Station Rd could be serviced by the route.

Mr Latter agreed with Ms Wood on the need for a lift at the Bethania train station overpass to ensure additional disability services considering there are nine nearby retirement homes, but he admitted it was not an imminent project.

I wonder whether this route through Bahrs Scrub and Woodlands is actually something on the Translink drawing board, or whether its words from the local member's mouth?

That's kind of confusing, there isn't a bus route that runs along Station Rd, it runs along Montrose Ave, one street over (routes 562B, 563), and there is already a bus stop on King Island Bvd.  Honestly for elderly folks like these, I think flexilink type transport would be better rather than typical public transport.

A service in Woodlands might give a chance to properly review the Beenleigh/Southern Logan network, as currently it's a very circuitous route design (route 562 and 563 in particular).

[techblitz]

facebook complaint from a commuter well adversed on logan region issues...

Hi Jes it's different stops of different days. Perfect example this week is 550 & 560 Services from Browns Plains stop D at Grand Plaza 4.17pm 550 and 4.33pm 560 at least 11 minutes late 4 days in a row due to arriving late from previous runs! I mean however that Logan & Gold Coast need a peak hour review of ALL services as I've been reading posts from others over last few days and I'm not the only one having this problem PEAK SERVICES are very unreliable and this is starting to have an impact on driver behavior that is starting to make traveling uncomfortable on busses and dangerous to other road users. My 550 today (not giving you times) as this is a general issue was 15 minutes late and when he picked me up then drove down right lane all the way just cutting off cars at will on Browns Plains road to stop at stops. He was only doing this to make up time as there is very little to no allowance in timetables for peak hour services just look at your own posts and how often your letting people or people tell you busses are late there almost always peak services!

he seems to be highlighting the 550 at pm peak from 4pm - 6pm

just did a check for weekday services to browns plains...here goes
550
offpeak 10.30 - 2.30    trip time scehduled is 36 minutes
changes ever so slightly for 2 services 3-4 pm where trip time is extended to 39 minutes...buuuuut....from 4pmish onwards it gets put back to 36 minutes??...
560 to brownsplains is a little bit more respectable....its 30 minutes scheduled off-peak and then from 3pmish to 7pmish its extended by 3 minutes to 33

Both TL and BT need to monitor/act on thier complaints to increase customer satisfaction........ive said it before and will say it again.....if they arent giving the bus drivers adequate time (especially routes based aroud return runs @ peak)....... then bus drivers will end up flouting road rules to make up lost time!

[nathandavid88]

I catch 550 and 560 services daily during peak (from Crestmead/Marsden towards Springwood/Loganholme, generally between 5–6pm), and while I occasionally get the odd one that is 5mins late, I can say that I definitely don't experience buses which are constantly running 10+ minutes late. If this commuter is correct about late buses and being the result of the earlier run, it must be a result of 560s leaving Loganholme at 3:32pm and 550 leaving Springwood at 3:17pm. Those particular services are end of school runs, and are the ones where Translink has already added an extra 3 minutes, probably because there's a school kid getting off at every other stop, and taking his sweet time getting off the bus. This is why the 550's trip time goes back to 36 minutes, as there's no problem with peak service running time, just end of school times. But the question now is, is there really much more Translink can do about it? They've already added an extra 3 minutes, do we want them to add even more padding to the timetable?

Oh, and for the record, it's Translink and Clarks LCBS in these cases, not BT.