Inner West Transitway Proposal

[ozbob]

[#Metro]

It would drastically improve travel time, frequency and reliability for anyone travelling to or from UQ, Taringa, Toowong, Indooroopilly or St Lucia by bus. Perhaps more importantly, it would significantly improve the whole public transport system on the south side and west side.

So how many minutes precisely are these 'drastic' travel time improvements? Have they been quantified?

I think Green Team may have well-intentioned policies but they are not rigorous with their policies. You can see this in play with their 'FREE off peak PT for Everybody' public transport policy (both past and future).

Every adult to pay $1 for public transport under the Greens
https://greens.org.au/qld/news/media-release/every-adult-pay-1-public-transport-under-greens

- All public transport fares will be dropped to a flat $1 fare
- All zones within Brisbane will be abolished
- People under 18 will travel free

In their latest update, this policy causes a -$458 million dollar net loss which they try to fill with a 'Developer Tax' - e.g. a Tax on housing, which will just kill off density needed for good PT. A massive annual tax like that would likely be unacceptable to the electorate politically because it would massively increase housing costs and rents.

Specifically with the St Lucia proposals:

SFS Drive
- Not too congested in the off-peak so would perhaps only justify T2 lanes IMHO and only during peak hour
- Bus jump lane at the traffic light at Coldridge St might generate the bulk of the travel time savings (this is the congested part)
- Similar time saving could be made by just making Route 402 a Rocket bus to Toowong

Notwithstanding the above, this one has the most merit of the ones proposed.

Carmody Road Bus Lanes
- A 'Below Point X' proposal (ignoring this will not make it go away or make it any less applicable)
- Corridor is not congested
- Very few bus services on this road - Route 414 which is hourly.
- Thus, if implemented, a demonstrable net reduction in overall road capacity will result

Hawken Drive
- If there was a material error and the image was intended to put bus lanes on Hawken Drive instead of Carmody Rd, the roads are terraced and one lane in parts, this would literally block access to homes and reduce net road capacity simultaneously. It is also not congested in the off-peak, and peak isn't too bad either.

St Lucia Campus Access
UQ Senate will not permit buses to enter the UQ St Lucia campus from the UQ Lakes Station as that was The Promise (TM) made to UQ on construction that there would NEVER be local road access to the UQ campus from the busway (as cars would use it as a shortcut).

Just because a policy is a Green Team policy does not automatically mean it is a good policy. The merit test should always apply. 

[#Metro]

Original Resolution

UQ Senate sets out conditions for construction of BCC Green Bridge
https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2003/10/uq-senate-sets-out-conditions-construction-of-bcc-green-bridge

"The Senate resolution makes it clear that the bridge can never be physically connected with the campus road network, and there will be no through-running bus service connected to the campus or to the suburb of St Lucia," Professor Hay said.

(i) the bridge, now and in the future, has no physical connection with the campus road network and that there will be no through-running bus services;

(v) the BCC, State Government and the University sign legally binding agreements which give effect to these conditions prior to developed design and require unanimous agreement of the parties to any changes to that agreement with any such proposals for change being reported to the Senate;

 

[Jonno]

They Master Plan shows something very different so I suspect they will change this resolution.  It was stupid in the first pace.  Funny how they were happy for 1000's of cars to drive all over the campus.  Blinkered out of touch thinking at the time.

[#Metro]

I think they do not want cars and buses to drive through the campus. Replacing a stream of cars with a stream of buses on Sir William McGregor Drive isn't an improvement - if there were a tunnel this *might* be possible.

I think this is all a bit pie in the sky at the moment. High inflation, rising construction costs, massive public debt and labour shortages means that something like a tunnel link is not even on the horizon IMHO.

Brisbane Metro will also deal with capacity increases for UQ Lakes destinations.

SFS drive proposal worth a look. The other ones don't stack up.

[Gazza]

What are you talking about?
A stream of buses IS an improvement over cars

[Jonno]

Surely our Uni's, as leaders in research and improving the world, should be showing how transport is done right!

Govts have plenty of money for active and public transport!  They just choose to spend the majority of it widening roads and building freeways! It's a choice and one our Uni should be pushing to have changed!

+ what Gazza  said!

[#Metro]

Ok, if you think its great... go to the Vice-Chancellor and UQ Senate with that idea.

Green Bridge agreement in principle
https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2003/08/green-bridge-agreement-principle

Council addressing the University`s concerns about buses running through
any part of the campus and consequential impact on the campus and the St
Lucia community by terminating bus movements on-campus and ensuring there is
no link to the campus road network;

[Jonno]

2003 - 20 years ago!!

[#Metro]

2003 - 20 years ago!!

Well, the University did not want to flood their internal surface roads with high-frequency heavy vehicle traffic then, so why would the UQ Senate and Chancellor suddenly desire to do that now? Especially for the benefit of through traffic with destinations other than UQ. What's in it for UQ? 

Council addressing the University`s concerns about buses running through
any part of the campus and consequential impact on the campus and the St
Lucia community by terminating bus movements on-campus and ensuring there is
no link to the campus road network;

[Jonno]

See # 6 above!

And the position was actually that of the Chancellor at the time!! He is long gone thankfully!

[#Metro]

Well, not only the VC at the time, but also the Senate which passed the resolution AND signed a legally binding agreement with BCC.

None of the university's rightful concerns about flooding their internal surface roads with high-frequency heavy vehicle thru-traffic is addressed or mitigated by 20 years passing since the resolution.

The UQ Senate could not have imagined the sheer volume and frequency of buses (say every 30 seconds or so) at UQ Lakes. We know from pedestrians being knocked down and injured on Adelaide St in the CBD that high-volume high-frequency bus traffic is best contained within Class A ROW. I would imagine UQ would come to a similar view.

Again, of what benefit is it to UQ to agree to becoming a bus traffic thoroughfare?

These conditions have been put there for a reason - Safety and Amenity.

And Mr Berkman MP's proposal for a bus lane on Carmody Rd - a single-lane* uncongested road that has an hourly bus just goes to demonstrate the problems associated with the uncritical acceptance of some of these proposals.



* in each direction

[Aydin]

I think Metro is on the right track; however, on the wrong train.

If the bus lanes along St Lucia were to be erected, realistically, I see the following routes extended:
209 - Extended to Indooroopilly (this route already serves as an East-West link, so extending it further west is a no-brainer.)
66 - Extended to Indooroopilly (not all 66 services would be extended to Indooroopilly, most would still terminate at UQ Lakes - perhaps every 15-30 minutes? This could even replace the 428 or the 432.)
All local services (i.e. 4xx routes) - Extended to UQ Lakes (with maybe one or two even extended further to PAH?) (This would just further improve connectivity between regional and local services.)

All other routes (in my opinion) would serve little added function being further extended towards either Indooroopilly or Coorparoo.

With this in mind, with the frequency of all the aforementioned routes, the bus lanes wouldn't see more than an ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM of 20-25 buses / per hour.
209 - 4 services/h, 66 - 6 services/h, 427 - 2 services/h, 428 - 4 services/h, 432 - 2 services/h, etc.

That being said, I don't think the frequency of buses is the main concern here.

Where I think Metro is right, however, is that the bus lanes should not be erected along St Lucia. This is because if bus lanes were to be erected and the aforementioned routes were to be extended, UQ Lakes would have to undergo a complete reconstruction in order for its capacity to improve. The most logical way I see this happening is to either build a separate busway station as well as an interchange (with through services operating at the station and terminating services servicing the interchange); or build a busway station with a turnaround facility and an adequate bus layover bay. Either way, the original, cost-effective plans of simply painting bus lanes along St Lucia are now thrown out of the window because of the new exorbitant price associated with this frequency upgrade.

[#Metro]

A simple way to do an improvement is to use a planning approach to restructure bus routes to run faster and reduce waiting time.
SFS Drive T2 lanes in peak has merit and should be examined further.

Trial turning route 402 into a Rocket between Toowong and UQ Chancellors Place. Route 411 can also be shortened to terminate at Toowong as well. Doing this will double the service frequency between Toowong and UQ Chancellors Place for Route 411 at near-neutral cost, and cut waiting times by average 7.5 minutes, and up to 15 min, which is on the same level or higher time saving than what a bus lane would provide.

No objection here to a tunnel from UQ Lakes to Chancellors Place under the campus and I note the student union complex is also earmarked for demolition/renewal so it could work hand in hand with that.

I would also suggest looking at the Ipswich line stopping pattern. Complimentary changes to the rail timetable to run Springfield trains at 15 minute intervals all day will allow Ipswich line trains to run express.

Now - we can either stop the all-day express Ipswich train at Milton, or alternatively, stop the Ipswich train at Toowong, and express past Milton. IF the train stops at Toowong (and not Milton) this would give a ~ 5 min trip to Roma St/Central for transferring bus pax from Toowong, and bypass 9 sets of traffic lights on Coronation Drive.

[verbatim9]

No need to change the express stopping pattern. Indooroopilly Station will be a great transit hub once the mass transit corridor is complete from UQ Lakes to Indooroopilly via Indooroopilly High. The overall extension would be quite cheap in terms of running cost, as Translink and BCC could extend Metro services while being able to redeploy buses no longer needed between Indooroopilly and UQ.

[SteelPan]

Inner Orbital Tunnel needed from Toowong end of the "Western Freeway" to out Everton Park way...to include an underground rail capacity as well.

[James]

I just don't know where to start with where this one gets it wrong.

Firstly, you have the existing contract between UQ & the State Government to not through-run buses, including an interchange specifically designed to prevent this. Any re-invention will be challenging geometrically, yet alone politically. UQ has a LOT of money (have you seen the buildings in the CBD they own?) and don't want buses running through campus and interrupting their marketing videos.

Sir William McGregor Drive is also 30km/h, has speed bumps everywhere, and is slow and indirect. Even assuming you could make the bus connection possible, it isn't much faster than simply walking over to Chancellors Place. Sir Fred Schonell Drive isn't really congested either - and when it is, it's generally because Coronation Drive is too, in which case all the buses will just get stuck in the BCC bus conga line there instead.         

And finally, most of the remaining streets suggested (Carmody Rd, Hawken Drive & Swann Rd) are both grossly inappropriate for any form of BRT because they only have two lanes. One passes in front of a school FFS.

In reality, there really isn't a huge demand or a huge time saving for a link between Indooroopilly and the eastern suburbs, and for the few people who need this link, walking between the two bus stations is adequate. The biggest issue is the journey planner doesn't acknowledge this as an option, as it insists on hitting passengers with absurd transfer penalties for daring to walk between two places.

There's a reason the Toowong - Buranda tunnel was the only TransApex road tunnel never built.