Bus Extension and Enhancement Programme - BEEP!

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

Bus Extension and Enhancement Programme - BEEP!

9th October 2024



The Bus Extension and Enhancement Programme (BEEP!) is an initiative to improve the number of communities in Queensland with access to high frequency bus services (1).

RAIL Back On Track calls for all political parties and all candidates to support the Bus Extension and Enhancement Programme (BEEP!) at this State Election, and for future improvements.

What are high frequency buses and why are they are important?

A high frequency bus service operates at least every 15 minutes, 7am to 7pm, making it easy to forget about the timetable, easy to connect between routes and other modes (where applicable), and makes it easy for more people to use public transport in their daily lives.

Nobody enjoys finishing an errand or doing overtime and realizing the next bus is 50 minutes away!
The time factor is critical in peoples choice to use public transport.

Queensland has many of these services already, for example:

- The BUZ (Bus Upgrade Zone) network in Brisbane (20 routes)
- CityGliders
- SE and Northern Busway services
- Route 600 on the Sunshine Coast
- Gold Coast Frequent Network (9 Routes)
- The Cook Highway corridor in Cairns
- The Charters Towers Road corridor in Townsville

How is it different to a normal bus?

Most towns in cities in Queensland have a baseline level of bus service to meet community service obligations.
High Frequency Bus services go one step further, providing frequent trunk services along main roads, connecting important destinations. The enhanced speed and convenience makes them more of a viable alternative for busy people and helps get cars off the road.

So what's the issue?

Queensland, and in particular SEQ is, growing rapidly in all directions, faster than the ability of government to build rail lines and roads. It can be years between one major project and the next.
Until that changes, extending new high frequency bus routes to new areas and boosting existing routes to a frequent standard is the quickest, cheapest way to improve our transport system.

However, the issue we currently face is there are huge gaps in our frequent bus services. Some suburbs have frequent buses, but an equivalent suburb just a few kilometres away does not.

In fact, a report by the Climate Council found that only 30% of residents in Greater Brisbane have access to frequent bus services, and these are overwhelmingly concentrated towards the middle of the Brisbane City Council area, with relatively few in the four main surrounding LGAs.
The situation is worse in regional Queensland, for example the booming town of Gladstone has no bus service on a Sunday.

Many Queenslanders want to take advantage of 50 cent fares, but find that the services available in their community are not convenient, so have no choice but to drive.

Many Queenslanders forced to move to cheaper outer areas as a result of the housing crisis are often rudely shocked by the much lower level of bus service these areas have.

The last round of high frequency routes implemented in Queensland were 3 new Gold Coast routes done just prior to the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

We cannot have a growing state yet ignore the expansion of the high frequency bus network for 6 straight years.

How do we improve things?

The Bus Extension and Enhancement Programme (BEEP!) calls for full funding of critical gaps in the network so that most suburbs have at least one high frequency trunk route running through them.
In SEQ, there are over 300+ bus routes, and upgrading just a few dozen would mean the majority of communities could access a frequent route, instead of just 30%.

This would be supplemented by new high frequency orbital routes. A common pain point Queenslanders have with public transport is the time wasted going in to the city and back out again, just to get between adjacent suburbs.

We're not calling for a high frequency bus down every street.
But we shouldn't be in a situation where LGAs like Moreton Bay, with half a million residents, do not have a single high frequency bus route.

BEEP! Is just the start, and it won't solve every transport problem there is. But rolling out high frequency buses is an affordable, common sense way to ensure our public transport system is getting better every day.

Reference:

1. RAIL Back On Track: Bus Extension & Enhancement Programme- BEEP!
https://backontrack.org/docs/beep/BEEPv1.0.pdf PDF 7.6 MB

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track https://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

Facebook ...

Bus Extension and Enhancement Programme - BEEP! 9th October 2024 The Bus Extension and Enhancement Programme (BEEP!)...

Posted by RAIL - Back On Track on Tuesday 8 October 2024

[ozbob]

https://x.com/railbotforum/status/1843830680767344833