8 Mar 2011: SEQ: Rebalanced transport required for Airport Link ...

[ozbob]

Media release 8 March 2011

SEQ: Rebalanced transport required for Airport Link Car Rapid Transit

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport passengers and an advocate for public transport calls for a cross-town BUZ 358 and 'BUZification' of the Great Circle Bus Line to mitigate the effects of the Airport Link 'Car Rapid Transit' project.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

" 'Car Rapid Transit' is a low capacity, high-pollution, high user toll rapid transit mode. The Courier-Mail reports that the number of vehicles on Stafford Road are tipped to increase by 61 percent (17 000 more vehicles per day)(1). The proposed mitigating strategies of a cycleway and transit lanes simply do not have the capacity to pull any meaningful mode share shift away from the car and are not projects which have funding allocated."

RAIL Back on Track calls for the introduction of a cross-town BUZ 358 from day 1 of Airport Link opening, linking (2):

* The Gap Shopping Centre
* Great Western Shopping Centre
* Mitchelton Rail
* Brookside Shopping Centre
* Stafford Rd BUZ 345 Intersection
* Stafford City Shopping Centre
* Eagle Junction Rail
* Toombul Shopping Centre
* DFO Brisbane Airport

"We note a route similar to this is proposed as a TransLink High Frequency Priority (HFP) route in Connecting SEQ 2031(3). The calls for more road tunnels for orbital and cross-town travel are proof that there is demand for non-CBD trips, the problem is that the radial public transport network design at the moment does not properly cater to this kind of trip."

"The Melbourne SmartBus is a high frequency orbital bus rapid transit network that, like a ring road, allows people to take non-CBD trips (4). The service is extremely popular and should be brought to Brisbane. We note that the route 903 orbital SmartBus in Melbourne, which does not go into the CBD, is carrying 17 000 passengers per weekday (about 4.4 million passengers per year) which is comparable to Brisbane's BUZ routes (5,6). If a route could achieve the same patronage on Stafford Rd, it would exactly offset the number of projected increased car trips on this road."

"While we welcome the construction of the logically independent and separate Northern Busway project as part of Airport Link, our main concern with the Airport Link Car Rapid Transit project is the potential negative financial effects on Brisbane's profitable Airtrain. If Airport Link causes Airtrain to lose patronage, what will that mean for service frequencies and scope of hours on that line?"

"RAIL Back on Track calls for the total abandonment of 'balanced' transport policies based around Car Rapid Transit and a shift to 'rebalanced transport' based around walking, cycling, buses, ferries and rail. Incentives for public transport must be combined with disincentives for driving because any other combination is self-defeating."

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

References:

1. Airport Link neighbours face traffic surge
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/airport-link-neighbours-face-traffic-surge/story-e6freoof-1226016767016

2. Weaving a total network: cross-town and orbital routes
http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=5018.0

3. Page 6 of SEQ 2031 shows a HFP route from Mitchelton, along Stafford Road to Airport Village.

4. SmartBus, Department of Transport, Melbourne
http://tinyurl.com/4m8972w

5. First Orbital SmartBus attracts thousands of new daily passengers
http://www.busvic.asn.au/database/files/BusSolutions2.pdf

"Melbourne's first Orbital SmartBus, route 903, has already generated around 30,000 new passenger trips per week after services commenced in April 2009."

6. Smartbus http://transport.vic.gov.au/smartbus

    SmartBus routes consists of 5 cross-town high frequency bus routes

    Route 900 from Rowville to Caulfield along Wellington Road.

    Route 901 from Frankston to Melbourne Airport, via Dandenong, Ringwood, Blackburn, Greensborough, Epping and Broadmeadows.

    Route 902 from Chelsea to Airport West, via Springvale, Glen Waverley, Nunawading, Eltham, Greensborough and Broadmeadows.

    Route 903 from Mordialloc to Altona, via Oakleigh, Box Hill, Heidelberg, Coburg, Essendon and Sunshine...

    And Route 703 from Blackburn to Clayton along Blackburn Road.