Article: Timetable shake-up for buses (Ipswich)

[ozbob]

From the Queensland Times click here!

Timetable shake-up for buses

Timetable shake-up for buses

Zane Jackson | 26th May 2010

TIMETABLES will be reworked and more than 100 new bus stops will be placed around Ipswich to combat the city's notorious and often-late bus service.

Christopher Batjen, of Amberley, waits for his bus on Bell Street.
David Nielsen

TIMETABLES will be reworked and more than 100 new bus stops will be placed around Ipswich to combat the city's notorious and often-late bus service.

Transport Minister and Ipswich MP Rachel Nolan announced the plan yesterday on the same day figures were released showing just 83 per cent of bus services in Ipswich were on time.

Ms Nolan said timetables and services had become outdated and she had worked with bus operator Westside Bus Company to rectify the situation.

"People of Ipswich raised the issues of bus reliability with me and this restructure will provide more direct services with simpler and more reliable timetables," she said.

"I expect more buses around Ipswich to run on time as improved timetables roll out... "There will be updates to many bus services in the western region around Ipswich."

She said Ipswich's booming population saw a dramatic rise in bus use, with almost 1.7million trips taken in the nine months to March 2010, an 11 per cent increase on last year.

She said more detail about the new bus stops and timetables would be released as part of the public consultation period.

Robert Dow, from public transport advocacy group Rail Back on Track, said any move to fix the bus system in Ipswich was a step in the right direction.

"One of the things they have to do is make sure there is plenty of time for people to make train connections, and ensure timetables at bus stops, on paper, and on the TransLink website are the same," he said

A number of Ipswich residents approached by The Queensland Times at bus stops on Bell Street said they often experienced delayed services.

Christopher Batjen, 21, of Amberley, said he regularly caught the bus from his home to Ipswich's CBD and always had to factor the buses being late into his plans.

Rosewood resident Glenn Fidink, 22, said he recently missed a doctor's appointment because of a late bus.

[cartoonbirdhaus]

If buses were a lot more reliable, they could be scheduled to arrive at Bell St 5 minutes before the train from Brisbane pulled in, then depart five minutes later. But to make them reliable enough to do that, you'd probably need a massive roll-out of  bus lanes and signal priority. Infrastructure improvements cost more than better planning, but they make the latter much easier to achieve. (I know, file it under Foamer Fantasies...)

[longboi]

If buses were a lot more reliable, they could be scheduled to arrive at Bell St 5 minutes before the train from Brisbane pulled in, then depart five minutes later. But to make them reliable enough to do that, you'd probably need a massive roll-out of  bus lanes and signal priority. Infrastructure improvements cost more than better planning, but they make the latter much easier to achieve. (I know, file it under Foamer Fantasies...)

Not necessarily - I'm not overly familiar with Ipswich traffic congestion but I can imagine its pretty limited to Brisbane Rd between the motorway and Ipswich CBD. A few queue jumps and bus lanes wouldn't be prohibitively expensive and would definately help in improving reliability.

[cartoonbirdhaus]

I'm not overly familiar with Ipswich traffic congestion but I can imagine its pretty limited to Brisbane Rd between the motorway and Ipswich CBD.

If that's true, then ideally most bus routes would have the same frequencies and operating hours as the train, pulse-timetabled at Bell St interchange. Join together routes that presently head out from Bell St in opposite directions, to create through-routing. Then slot in the 515 - if most other routes depart Bell St at x:05 x:35, have route 515 depart Bell St at x:20 x:50, creating quarter-hourly service alongside another route between two nodes. It would also be good to serve the current 500/501 corridor quarter-hourly - at least as far as Dinmore station.

[ozbob]

Went out to Ipswich today.  Went for a ride on a 504 out to the Workshops Museum.







Photographs R Dow 27th May 2010