It is interesting taking apart the figures for each bus route and comparing the % decline each route has had overall. It does paint a picture of the pandemic and where the big losses in patronage occurred - i.e. who stopped going to work and who had to go anyway.
1. The NightLink services have been smashed (understandable given nightclubs couldn't operate for a few months), with an average drop of 35% and the N385 being Brisbane's bus route with the biggest patronage drop (45%).
2. Routes travelling to a University (UQ & Griffith mainly, but also QUT's 391) make up most of the bottom 20 (13/20) once you exclude the NightLink routes, with an average drop of 32.6%.
a) The additional 402 services added mid-last year have made up for the drop on that service, making it one of only four routes to record a patronage gain (the 28, P456 and 304 being the others - all thanks to service changes).
3. Routes which service industrial areas where people had little choice about working have done the best. Route 302 is down by 3.8%, with routes 360/361/364 (Herston), 369 (Stafford Rd / Airport precinct) and 126 (Acacia Ridge TAFE / Industrial area) only down by 10-12%.
4. Welfare routes have generally done better, with the smallest drops of between 10-15% - probably because you wouldn't use a bus route like the 106, 123, 198 or 338 unless it was 'essential' anyway.
5. The frequent network (BUZ + Gliders + 66) have been slightly less resilient than the network overall, recording a 21.0% drop vs. 20.7%. If you exclude the 66 and 412 due to the Uni factor, this improves to 20.2%.
It's interesting to look through and see which individual routes have moved more than others. I'm sure a decent data scientist would be able to piece it together and use demographics to show which communities have embraced working from home and deserted public transport compared to others.
