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Public Transport in the Gateway Mwy corridor

Started by achiruel, August 01, 2011, 11:43:44 AM

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achiruel

The Gateway Motorway carries some tens of thousands of vehicles daily.  While many of these may be freight/couriers, there is probably a large proportion that are for the purpose of private transport.

One of the reasons perhaps is there is very little in the way of public transport in this corridor.  Running a bus along the motorway won't get a lot of patronage as there is very little in the way of destinations in direct walking distance.  However, what if the bus stopped at each exit and connected with buses running along the intersecting roads?

The Gateway Bus could start at Kuraby station (obviously a new on/off ramp would need to be built here but it could be cheap as it would only need to go on northbound and off southbound, and it would be bus only, no need for a fully-fledge flyover type interchange).

Stop at Eight Mile Plains for interchange with various buses.  A frequent route running from Sunnybank via McCullough St, Padstow Rd & Miles Platting Rd terminating at EMP.

Stop at Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Rd for a frequent bus running between Garden City & Mackenzie and a less frequent one to Capalaba.

Stop at Old Cleveland Rd for a frequent bus running between Carindale & Capalaba (change at Carindale for further west or Capalaba for further east)

Stop at Wynnum Rd for a frequent bus between Morningside and Wynnum or Manly.  I'm not really sure about route to Wynnum Manly there really needs to be three: one via Wynnum Rd, one via Manly & Wondall Rds and one via Manly Rd.

Stop at Lytton Rd for a frequent bus between Morningside (via Lytton/Junction Rds) and Wynnum via Lindum (although perhaps the eastern leg could be a less frequent route).

That's the southside section at least.  I know it's a fairly raw idea and needs a lot of work but what do people think of the basic concept?

Golliwog

I like the premise of the idea and thnk it should be done more widely across SEQ (ie: frequent routes along main roads and encouraging interchange at intersections, etc). That said however, I'm not sure if this one would get up anytime soon. The services would need to be quite frequent or timed precisely to allow for a good interchange, and theres the additional infrastructure required that you point out for Kuraby. But I do like it.
There is no silver bullet... but there is silver buckshot.
Never argue with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Bulimba30A

Agree in theory, but there would need to be a bit of a build in and around the exits themselves to be suitable for interchange.

Jonno

The trips ate there even without major interchange development.  It will come in time. There will be a day when freight and passenger lines run in the middle of the Motorway.

achiruel

Quote from: Jonno on August 02, 2011, 08:22:36 AM
The trips ate there even without major interchange development.  It will come in time. There will be a day when freight and passenger lines run in the middle of the Motorway.

That would be the ultimate goal of a project like this, but I thought buses with minimal infrastructure required (at least compared to rail) would be a good starting point.

The biggest problem I see is with how congested that Gateway gets during peak hour is that it would be very difficult to co-ordinate interchange times, for this reason I think that during this time all routes would need to run every 10 minutes or better.

Jonno

Totally agree that you would start with a dedicated road freight lane and a bus lane.  Due to congestion at interchange points the bus route would have to operate as dedicated route with feeders and cross-city connections. Not sure how you give freight priority aceess to their lane? Do you make it the outside lane with cars stuck between bus lane and freight lane? I like that. Sounds terrifying!!!!!!

AnonymouslyBad

I like the sound of the idea. But as others have said I think you'd need to roll out a fair bit of infrastructure to make it worthwhile. Simply having a bus pull off the Gateway at every exit, service a non-descript bus stop and get back on the Gateway would probably be a waste of time, and quite frustrating for all involved. You'd need proper interchanges, and preferably with direct access to the motorway.
The other thing is that most commuters would have already transferred onto the Gateway service, so expecting them to transfer yet again to reach their destination 1km away would probably be a tough sell.

Although there's a lot of traffic on the Gateway, most of it is only going to one of a few places. There's the long-haul trips between north and south - probably not much that can be done about them, and radial services may be comparable in peak anyway. But there's a handful of local destinations which seem to clog up the Gateway every morning, and have incredibly poor public transport: Murrarie, Eagle Farm/Port of Brisbane area and the airport are the ones that come to mind. I can see a high-frequency route that directly accesses these destinations, but via the Gateway, working well - kind of like an upgraded and improved GCL. The 590 may turn out to be one half of this if it has a decent route...
I know, I know, it's a bit messy, but so is the area. That said, I'm all for a proper Gateway Busway if they ever find the money for it, no doubt one day in the distant, distant future ;)

Bulimba30A

What about a rocket style service say browns plains, eight mile plains, eagle farm gcl stop, dfo, airport?  That should provide good connections to 590 and gcl as long as your going in the same direction. It would also provide a fast connection between browns plains and the busway.  May need to upgrade the gcl stop a bit but would require no infrastructure build. Would this be achievable on the current set up of eight mile plains?

If that were done it might be best to extend 590 to eight mile plains for optimum connections.

Jonno

#8
... But if we don't starting imementing such ideas we are going to either hit congestion hell or bankrupt the country trying to build more and more roads. Somethings got to give! Doing more of the same is not going to miraculously achieve a new outcome!

achiruel

Quote from: Jonno on August 03, 2011, 08:34:05 AM
... But if we don't starting imementing such ideas we are going to either hit congestion hell

I think we've already hit it?  Have you seen the Gateway north from EMP, even at 5:30am it's severely congested, I can only imagine what it's like during the thick of peak hour (fortunately I don't need to travel then).

O_128

Quote from: achiruel on August 04, 2011, 06:09:12 AM
Quote from: Jonno on August 03, 2011, 08:34:05 AM
... But if we don't starting imementing such ideas we are going to either hit congestion hell

I think we've already hit it?  Have you seen the Gateway north from EMP, even at 5:30am it's severely congested, I can only imagine what it's like during the thick of peak hour (fortunately I don't need to travel then).


Obviously time for a third gateway bridge
"Where else but Queensland?"

Jonno

your right according to the daily traffic reports. I wrote hell because I could not type amagedon on the train.

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