Cairns Post: Time to rev up Cairns' slow coaches

[colinw]

Cairns Post: Time to rev up Cairns' slow coaches - click here

Time to rev up Cairns' slow coaches

Brad Ryan

Thursday, October 21, 2010

CAIRNS' buses are unreliable, too infrequent and often dirty, and they take too long to get from A to B.

And a State Government plan for an improved bus service, which has so far only received enough funding to cover further planning, needs to be properly funded and fast-tracked.

That's the almost unanimous view of passengers, community leaders and transport advocates who spoke to The Cairns Post about the city's public transport network yesterday.

The region's State Government-contracted bus service provider, Sunbus, says it is working on improving local services and expects to complete a review within weeks.

Spokeswoman Cherie Beaumont-Tyson said Sunbus had also recently boosted its fleet with 26 new low-floor accessible buses with improved airconditioning and suspension technology.

But many believe an urgent overhaul of the area's public transport system is needed, with the Cairns region's population expected to grow from about 160,000 to more than 205,000 in the next 20 years.

Much of that growth will be concentrated in the city's expanding south, where bus users complain services are infrequent and trips to the CBD take too long.

The Government's Cairns Transit Network plan, which involves developing a "rapid bus network" with special bus lanes and 60 stations between Gordonvale, Redlynch and Palm Cove, is part of a 30-year plan for the city's transport system.

While $195,000 is being spent on developing the plan, no money has been allocated for its implementation and no timeline has been set for its completion.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan was overseas yesterday, but a Department of Transport spokeswoman said money would be set aside "in future years".

She said short-term priorities included a CBD Transit Mall upgrade and new stations at Edmonton town centre, Cairns' TAFE and James Cook University.

"Over time, new stations and corridors will be rolled out alongside development of the Mt Peter growth area and proposed Smithfield Town Centre," she said.

Lobby group Cairns Action on Sustainable Transport said the plans were inadequate and called for light rail to be among future transport infrastructure.

The group has proposed two main routes – one between Gordonvale and the northern beaches, the other between Gordonvale and Redlynch via the CBD.

"But besides the longer term plan, the frequency and coverage of services need to be improved dramatically in the short-term so people feel they can actually rely on public transport in this city," CAST spokesman Jonathan Strauss said.

"People don't use the existing service because it is unreliable."

Southside councillor Nancy Lanskey said transport was a major issue for her constituents.

"It's one of those issues that's mentioned regularly and consistently, and I don't like to be negative but I don't hear much positive comment," Cr Lanskey said.

In the north, councillor Julia Leu called for the 30-year transport plan to be fast-tracked.

"The plans that I've seen look very extensive and no doubt would be a great improvement but 30 years seems a very long time to wait and they really need to dramatically shorten that."

[#Metro]

http://www.takesteps.org/cast/
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2010/10/21/131561_local-news.html

Ive moved to Cairns from Perth, and have used public transport all my life. Cairns' bus system is absolutely shocking. They are late or early, or dont come at all. they take forever, and the timetables are useless, and hard to read unless you know the area. I think Sunbus should have a look at the Transperth (Perth's bus system) and take a leaf out of their book!

Posted by: Erin Williams 8:38am today

http://cairnsactionforsustainabletransport.blogspot.com/

[Sunbus610]

And sadly, links to the Cairns Transit Network website (via Dept of TMR site) which covered future plans for improvements to PT in our northern city doesn't work anymore 

[colinw]

Could it be that even bus projects are subject to "Kippa-Ring Disease" now? 

[mufreight]

only in Queensland

[colinw]

All I can find is a placeholder page on the TMR website: click here.

The actual project site - http://www.cairnstransitnetwork.com.au/ - appears to be dead. 

[#Metro]

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=Cairns&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Cairns+Queensland&gl=au&ei=wee_TJa-C4uPceu4tNAL&ved=0CCoQ8gEwAA&ll=-16.925984,145.767996&spn=0.011742,0.029955&t=h&z=16

Something very interesting about Cairns- there is a lot of railway all over the city just sitting there.
This connects to Cairns Central railway station it seems.
Why not build a few stations and run diesel light rail services on those lines. Add to that BRT bus services along the main road corridors and you'd have a good network.

Example of Diesel light rail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-Train

Public Transport in Brisbane is getting better- train frequency is terrible, bus services on the busway are great, but off the busway, they are still terrible (every 30 minutes most places), BUZ helps but if you don't live near a BUZ, service frequency is 30 minutes or so.

Compare this to country places! PT is virtually non-existent! If this were Germany or France or Switzerland, there would be good PT, even in the smaller towns.

[colinw]

Cairns was the last provincial city in Queensland to lose its suburban railcar service, some time around the late 1970s I believe.

Going back to the 1960s, Cairns had a suburban railcar service that extended from Gordonvale to Redlynch, with some longer distance runs to Aloomba and Tully, plus a daily tablelands service to Ravenshoe via Mareeba & Atherton.

The suburban runs died some time in the 1970s, but the Tully and Ravenshoe services lingered on into the '80s, with Ravenshoe only ceasing in 1989.

I have seen somewhere a photo of a peak hour railmotor in Cairns that practically had people hanging out the windows it was so crowded.  It was one of those low ceiling red rail motors like Red Fred at the ARHS Rosewood Railway.

[#Metro]

What's a railmotor?

[#Metro]

Network Map: http://www.sunbus.com.au/cairns/current/Cairns%20network%20Aug%202010.pdf

Services: http://www.sunbus.com.au/sit_timetable_cairns.htm

[ozbob]

QGR 3'6" Rail Motor service to Eton, at Mackay 1954.

Photograph P G Dow 1954

[ozbob]

Corinda, this rail motor used to run between Corinda and Yeerongpilly

Photograph R Dow  

[somebody]

What's a railmotor?

A DMU.  Or a petrol powered one.  Is that a PMU?

[#Metro]

What is the gauge up there? Is it standard or narrow or something else?

[somebody]

3'6", except for cane trains which are 2' IIRC.

[#Metro]

So narrow gauge...

[ozbob]

The rail motors were standard QGR services.

I just stumbled upon this,  wow!  --> http://aso.gov.au/titles/home-movies/australias-first-double-decker/clip2/