Routes 111/555 duplication

[Mr X]

Hm so I recently moved to a place near 8 mile plains bus station and I've noticed this weird phenomena.

Both routes 111 and 555 operate every 15min during the day, every day.
On weekends, the 111 comes 5 mins after the 555 to make a 10-5-10-5-10min bus wait between services. all good, no complaints. (I assume holland park west and greenslopes also have those two services as the 130/140/150 run express).

But on weekdays the 555 comes 2mins after the 111 to make it a 13-2-13-2-13-2 min wait (holland park west and greenslopes also have the 160 to fill in the gaps). I know the intention is to probably stop Brisbane people clogging up the 555 but it seems like a huge waste of resources, funding two duplicate bus services from 8MP -> Cultural Centre, stopping every station, leaving within 2mins of each other.

So seeing as the 555 is a regional connector bus, wouldn't it make more sense to run it express from Garden City or Griffith Uni to Buranda and then send it over the Captain Cook, with the 111/160 coming 2mins later to pick up anyone who wants to go to HPW/Greenslopes/South Bank stretch?

I also think an argument could be made for the 111/160/555 to have similar city stop locations.

[BrizCommuter]

I occasionally have to travel from South Bank to 8MP for work and the 111/555 almost always come in convoy after a 15 minute wait. Very annoying. Looking forward to the 3 min Brisbane Metro frequencies sometime next decade.

[Mr X]

Yup. Though it just occurred to me that one could take the 130/140/150/160 to Griffith Uni and then swap to a 169 or 77 to 8MP.

[James]

A sensible transit agency would have the 111 and 555 timetables co-ordinated such that they run on even 7-8 minute frequencies, like the 700 and 701 Broadbeach South - Tweed Heads did before the G: opened.

A forward thinking organisation would merge the two routes, and run it as just one BUZ route. Can be bumped up to 6bph, or have short running services, as required. Plenty of artics around to run the 111/555, and the busier stations (Garden City, Griffith Uni and Buranda) are served by multiple express BUZes anyway. Freed up resources can go to other parts of Brisbane in need of services.

[achiruel]

A sensible transit agency would have the 111 and 555 timetables co-ordinated such that they run on even 7-8 minute frequencies, like the 700 and 701 Broadbeach South - Tweed Heads did before the G: opened.

A forward thinking organisation would merge the two routes, and run it as just one BUZ route. Can be bumped up to 6bph, or have short running services, as required. Plenty of artics around to run the 111/555, and the busier stations (Garden City, Griffith Uni and Buranda) are served by multiple express BUZes anyway. Freed up resources can go to other parts of Brisbane in need of services.

While there is a good argument to co-ordinate the 111/555 better, I don't believe it should be two routes under the one number. I don't like outbound short workings (inbound is ok) because I think that every time I get on a 555 I should end up at Loganholme (I actually hate the night-time 555 for this reason, it really should've been allocated a different route number or a letter modifier (S555 for Slow?).

[STB]

A sensible transit agency would have the 111 and 555 timetables co-ordinated such that they run on even 7-8 minute frequencies, like the 700 and 701 Broadbeach South - Tweed Heads did before the G: opened.

A forward thinking organisation would merge the two routes, and run it as just one BUZ route. Can be bumped up to 6bph, or have short running services, as required. Plenty of artics around to run the 111/555, and the busier stations (Garden City, Griffith Uni and Buranda) are served by multiple express BUZes anyway. Freed up resources can go to other parts of Brisbane in need of services.

While there is a good argument to co-ordinate the 111/555 better, I don't believe it should be two routes under the one number. I don't like outbound short workings (inbound is ok) because I think that every time I get on a 555 I should end up at Loganholme (I actually hate the night-time 555 for this reason, it really should've been allocated a different route number or a letter modifier (S555 for Slow?).

I agree with Archiruel.  The 555 services a different market to the 111 (primarily Logan passengers) and needs to be timed correctly to connect with services at Springwood and Loganholme (which those routes beyond those locations then need to link in with the train network).  The 555 gets chockers as it is, even in the middle of the day it can be quite busy, and loading up the 111 passengers on top of the 555 passengers I don't think is a good idea (especially in the busy times).  All I'd look at doing for the 555 is running it express from Garden City or Griffith Uni to Buranda, the distance involved between Logan and the City is significant and if routes 130/140/150 run from a similar distance and run part express, why can't the 555.

NB: I'm guessing the 555 probably went all stations originally to build up the frequency along the busway as Logan was one of the first places to have the network completely redone from scratch - I don't think it's needed nowadays though with plenty of opportunity to transfer on the busway to other routes to access intermediate stations.

As a side note, routes 563, 564/568 and the 562 really need to be revisited.  1 hour to go from Bethania to Loganholme compared to about a 15min drive - Eagleby really should have it's own route between Beenleigh and Loganholme IMHO.

[SurfRail]

Everywhere between around Helensvale and the Hyperdome needs to be completely revisited.  Even to the south and the north of there, while not needing a complete rewrite in terms of coverage and alignment, services do not run frequently enough - there are very few routes that run even half-hourly and none at high frequency apart from the TX7 and the train (and then only in the peaks).

[Andrew]

I think that making the 555 express (at least Griffith Uni to Buranda or Mater Hill) would be good in the long term.  When they get some more busway built, I always thought an all stops route from say Springwood to Woolloongabba might have a market.  It could provide the all stops service from the Logan area along the busway whilst also linking the SE Busway direct with the Gabba.

[verbatim9]

^^Questioning the purpose of advocating change here. Do bus passengers on this route want timetable reform for these services now? Or are they willing to wait until BNE Metro is completed?