On the Buses

[ozbob]

A rare event ... three City Loop buses together at the Corner of George and Alice Streets.

Spotted on the walk down to Roma St station this afternoon around 4pm.

Buses were 642, 640 and 641.





Photograph R Dow 13th January 2010

[SteelPan]

Copy to "backontrack.org"
Monday, 18 January, 2010
Bus Service - 345 Buzz Service (OUTBOUND from Brisbane City)
From King George Square Bus Station to Aspley
Scheduled Time: 5.55pm
**Failed to Arrive/Cancelled**

[mufreight]

The cardinal rule with any public transport is NEVER run early and try to run to time, there is never any justification for services running early under any circumstances.

[ozbob]

BBL bus (down) on rail bus duties between Darra and Oxley heading up the 'Canossa Hill' in the light rain early Saturday morning ..



Photograph R Dow 6th March 2010

[STB]

On my way to a meeting yesterday afternoon (about 6pm.) was on an inbound route 200 and hit a busjam between Southbank and Cultural Centre, approaching the turnoff into the semi busway/road to Cultural Centre busway station.  Took 15 minutes to travel from Southbank busway to Culture Centre busway stations!

[ozbob]

Track closure Corinda - Rosewood 20 to 21 March 2010

Rail Bus (down) heading up Canossa Hill Oxley



BBL Articulated Bus at Corinda Rail



Photographs R Dow 20th March 2010

[Jon Bryant]

On my way to a meeting yesterday afternoon (about 6pm.) was on an inbound route 200 and hit a busjam between Southbank and Cultural Centre, approaching the turnoff into the semi busway/road to Cultural Centre busway station.  Took 15 minutes to travel from Southbank busway to Culture Centre busway stations!

the Busway is at capacity and must be grade separated immediately and then converted to lightrail.  We can not add more buses tho the busway.  High frequency trunk routes must be put in place now with feeder services.

[somebody]

the Busway is at capacity and must be grade separated immediately and then converted to lightrail.  We can not add more buses tho the busway.  High frequency trunk routes must be put in place now with feeder services.

Or you could just route more buses over the Captain Cook Bridge.

On my way to a meeting yesterday afternoon (about 6pm.) was on an inbound route 200 and hit a busjam between Southbank and Cultural Centre, approaching the turnoff into the semi busway/road to Cultural Centre busway station.  Took 15 minutes to travel from Southbank busway to Culture Centre busway stations!

That's counter peak!  I presume there was an accident or something.

[#Metro]

I agree 100% Jonno.  

The busway should be grade separated and converted to light rail or light metro. More and more buses are just going to choke our city in busjam and eat up city space with bigger and bigger terminals. King George Square and Queen St Bus Station already have limited capacity as it is. The large numbers of buses on Adelaide street make it very dangerous and discouraging for cyclists who often get put in a precarious bus-cyclist-bus or car-cyclist-bus sandwich on Adelaide Street. Not to mention dealing with buses pulling in and out of stops.

Grade separation
Grade separation of the Melbourne street end should be priority. People have died or been hit crossing in this area.  
Surely that is enough to get something of a more permanent safety solution? Grade separation will also make bus travel better when complete.

While buses might be cheaper in the short term and faster to put on the busway, it will only delay what I see as the inevitable.
More delays mean that it might even be harder to convert, the disruptions faced and passengers inconvenienced will be larger and constructions could be far more expensive. Cheap now, expensive to go back and fix up again later.
Not to mention the busjam on city streets and capacity at both King George Square and Queen Street station running out.


Often it is said that buses are  "more flexible" than LRT and get around obstructions like this.
If this is true, let see some of this "flexibility" while the tracks get laid in the Busway.
Out of the city, an LRT service down the Mains Road corridor to Browns Plains should also be considered as an alternative to running QR trains on the nearby freight alignment. It seems easier and cheaper given the many issues with using the freight alignment.

The superbus option will only act as a stop-gap measure between now and 2020-2026.
It should only be used to buy time while better options are considered.

[stephenk]

I agree 100% Jonno.  

The busway should be grade separated and converted to light rail or light metro. More and more buses are just going to choke our city in busjam and eat up city space with bigger and bigger terminals. King George Square and Queen St Bus Station already have limited capacity as it is. The large numbers of buses on Adelaide street make it very dangerous and discouraging for cyclists who often get put in a precarious bus-cyclist-bus or car-cyclist-bus sandwich on Adelaide Street. Not to mention dealing with buses pulling in and out of stops.

Grade separation
Grade separation of the Melbourne street end should be priority. People have died or been hit crossing in this area.  
Surely that is enough to get something of a more permanent safety solution? Grade separation will also make bus travel better when complete.

While buses might be cheaper in the short term and faster to put on the busway, it will only delay what I see as the inevitable.
More delays mean that it might even be harder to convert, the disruptions faced and passengers inconvenienced will be larger and constructions could be far more expensive. Cheap now, expensive to go back and fix up again later.
Not to mention the busjam on city streets and capacity at both King George Square and Queen Street station running out.


Often it is said that buses are  "more flexible" than LRT and get around obstructions like this.
If this is true, let see some of this "flexibility" while the tracks get laid in the Busway.
Out of the city, an LRT service down the Mains Road corridor to Browns Plains should also be considered as an alternative to running QR trains on the nearby freight alignment. It seems easier and cheaper given the many issues with using the freight alignment.

The superbus option will only act as a stop-gap measure between now and 2020-2026.
It should only be used to buy time while better options are considered.

You are flogging the dead horse again Tramtrain.

Converting the busway to LRT will NOT increase capacity.
Converting the busway to LRT will cost a lot of money (which isn't available anyway) for no/little benefit.

You still have yet to make a convincing argument otherwise.

[#Metro]

Stephenk, I know that you disagree with me.
But it really isn't up to me to convince anyone of anything.
I'll leave it to people (and the gov) to make up their own minds.
They usually do studies before making decisions anyhow.

Let's leave it at that.

[#Metro]

Jonno wrote

the Busway is at capacity and must be grade separated immediately and then converted to lightrail.
We can not add more buses tho the busway.  High frequency trunk routes must be put in place now with feeder services.

Grade separation of the busway will be important, not just for light rail/light metro but also for all buses.

A proper busway has proper separation, and especially if it is going to carry high volumes of traffic and very large, high speed vehicles.
Construction of the Adelaide street bridge will also help improve bus flow, decrease Cultural Centre congestion and possibly add more platforms to reduce it further.
It would also present an opportunity to install wide cyclist lanes on the bridge, similar to the Eleanor Schonell Bridge at the moment.

Bus lanes over the Captain Cook Bridge are worthwhile in their own right, and would certainly help things.
However, they are not a substitute for the Adelaide St Bridge or grade separation of the Melbourne St portal.

The reasons being:
1. Only used heavily during the peak hour for rocket services.
2. Problems and danger at the Melbourne St portal/pedestrian/car would be unchanged.
3. No effect on bus services such as 4XX, 3XX and 19X which must use Cultural Centre.
4. Cultural Centre, South Bank and Mater Hill are also some of the most popular destinations on the Busway, thus most services should travel this route.

There could be another, alternative busway entry portal from Woolloongabba.
But due to point #4 and the ICRCS tunnel and metro earmarked for going there anyway it might be less worthwhile than upgrades in and around the Cultural Centre.

[#Metro]

Jonno wrote

High frequency trunk routes must be put in place now with feeder services.

High frequency trunk routes & feeders are a good idea IMHO.
It means that:
* any bus on the platform is probably your bus to catch.
* it would cut down waiting and crowding at the inner city platforms. Waiting is done at the feeder platforms, or there is no waiting.
* less empty seats on the trunk route, more efficient use of busway capacity

Any connector or feeder would have to be high frequency though.
High volume busways do this, such as in Bogota where they have green feeder buses and everyone then changes to a red bi-arctic. NB: The Bogota busway is generally 4 lanes all up all the way.

Actually, this idea is partially used on the busway already.
Feeder services are mostly used during peak hour.
They are rocket buses which go direct to the CBD via the Expressway, and are a major reason why BCC worries about the busway reaching capacity in the future.
During the rest of the day, however, these buses simply don't run.
You have to walk, cycle, transfer or drive to catch the "all day route" to the city.

With larger buses and more people, I think we will see these rocket feeder buses slowly disappear in favour of a "terminate & transfer model" at the main busway stations.

[ozbob]

Down railbus on rail substitution duties between Darra and Oxley



Photograph R Dow 10th April 2010

[ozbob]

Went for ride to QUT KG ..  outbound on a 340, inbound on a 66.  Go card equipment worked fine both trips.





Photographs R Dow 14th April 2010

[Sir Loin]

Went to get the train (Cleveland line) into the city last Sunday morning around 8-9 only to discover it only came once an hour 

Decided to get the bus, which was no biggie initially (I can't remember the service number, but departed outside Morningside station on Wynnum road).
When it arrived it was an older bus with steps to get on and a rail divider splitting the steps, which was akward seeing as our 3 month old was asleep in his buggy. Had to take him out and he woke, which I guess is our problem for not taking the car.

Anyway, out of interest, what would have happened if someone in a wheelchair had wanted to get on?
Is their any regulations for buses these days in terms of access?
 

[somebody]

I'm not sure if there are any regulations, but I believe all new buses are low floor.  There's still a sizeable portion of high floor buses going around but these mostly only come out in peak hour.  If someone in a wheelchair had wanted to get on they'd have had to wait for the next one, unless they were eligible for a subsidised cab or some such I guess.

Was this a BT operated service?  If so, I'm a little surprised that it was high floor on a Sunday, or maybe there are more high floors at Carina than Toowong.

Regarding the hourly Sunday am train frequency, you may be interested to hear that it is the subject of some recent feedback I sent to TL.

[Otto]

Went to get the train (Cleveland line) into the city last Sunday morning around 8-9 only to discover it only came once an hour 

Decided to get the bus, which was no biggie initially (I can't remember the service number, but departed outside Morningside station on Wynnum road).
When it arrived it was an older bus with steps to get on and a rail divider splitting the steps, which was akward seeing as our 3 month old was asleep in his buggy. Had to take him out and he woke, which I guess is our problem for not taking the car.

Anyway, out of interest, what would have happened if someone in a wheelchair had wanted to get on?
Is their any regulations for buses these days in terms of access?
 

Service would have been a 235 ( turning from Thynne rd to Wynnum rd ) or 227 ( along Wynnum rd )....

Carina has not yet got enough low floors to operate all low floor services on weekends..

Anyone needing a low floor service can call the depot direct the day before and a low floor will be provided on the requested service.

[#Metro]

Otto, it looks like you have had a lot of failed GoCards there- a total of 11!

[Otto]

Otto, it looks like you have had a lot of failed GoCards there- a total of 11!

That's passengers GoCards as they board my service..

[WTN]

Noticed signs today at Cultural Centre and Mater Hill that conductors will no longer be around to sell tickets from the 27th.  The signs asked passengers to use the ticket machines.  I assume the same goes for South Bank.  It's about time since they brought in the ticket machines!

[Golliwog]

Will they be moving the ticket sellers to other major bus stops that do not have ticket machines?

[ozbob]

I saw a Greyhound Coach trying to negotiate Oxley Bus Stop A early yesterday morning (1st May) - rail bus duties. Unable to do it due to overhead height restrictions, best on the express runs I think. Driver did well to get the coach back out and through the kiss and ride lane.

[ozbob]

Some pics around Herston









Photographs R Dow 10th June 2010

[ozbob]

Closure Corinda - Ipswich - Rosewood 10th 11th July 2010

Rail buses Corinda



Photograph R Dow 11th July 2010

[ozbob]

New bus stops top end of Queen St





Photographs R Dow 18th July 2010

[Sunbus610]

Bus driver assaulted at Plaza
Nikkii Joyce | 10th August 2010 (Sunshine Coast Daily)
       
A Sunbus driver was allegedly assaulted on Saturday night after he came to the rescue of a 16-year-old girl who had been pushed and spat on.

Anthony ReginatoA SUNSHINE Coast bus driver was punched in the face after he came to the rescue of a 16-year-old girl who had been pushed and spat on, according to police.

The alleged offender was found minutes later in possession of a knife.

The 45-year-old Sunbus driver was allegedly assaulted during a break in his shift at Sunshine Plaza in Maroochydore on Saturday at 9.40pm.

Read more HERE

[ozbob]

The second bus to use the re-established bus stop B at Darra



Photograph R Dow 23rd August 2010

[colinw]

Today my route 554 bus to work - 7:55AM ex stop 92 (Beeleigh Rd - Kuraby Station) to Eight Mile Plains busway station - was full by stop 87 (Stiller Drive & Woodlands Dr).  All but 4 passengers used Go Card.  Around half the passengers were full fare, the remainder were Griffith Uni & Macgregor State High students.

This is a very encouraging level of uptake of a relatively new service.  A big thumbs up to TransLink & Clarks Logan City for providing the service, and an equally big thumbs down to Karawatha Ward councillor Gail McPherson for steadfastly resisting introduction of a Kuraby bus service for years "because there is no demand" - her opposition to our bus service was one of the reasons I voted Green at the last two council elections.  Also a giant thumbs down to the NIMBY residents action group in Stiller Drive who opposed buses travelling along their suburban street - if it such a bad idea why are the stops in your street providing most of the passengers on the route?

One nitpick: five people transferring from train (7:50AM at Kuraby, thence express to Coopers Plains) barely made the bus, due to a combination of slightly late arrival of the train & slightly early bus departure.  The bus had closed doors & was leaving when they ran up.  Clearly not a guaranteed connection although the 5 minutes between train & bus should be sufficient.

If the level of loading I saw this morning continues, more services will be required.  By Stop 85 (Underwood & Levington roads) people were having trouble boarding.


cheers,
Colin

[ozbob]

A 103 bus at Darra



Photographs R Dow 2nd September 2010

[Sunbus610]

Just a friendly reminder Ozbob to push forward a proposal to BT/TL to consider the introduction of a Sunday (service) timetable for the Brisbane Transport operated Great Circle Line (route 598/599) bus service 

[colinw]

I did the P.A. hospital run from work again yesterday afternoon.  The 169 from Eight Mile Plains was "by the numbers" and ran to the minute.  

Alas, when I left the hospital around 6:00PM to go home, it all went pear shaped.  

Previously I have had no problems catching a U.Q Lakes service one stop from P.A. to Boggo Road to then transfer to the Beenleigh Line.  Last night proceedings were anything but smooth.  I arrived at the bus station a bit after 6:00PM - which I know is cutting it a bit fine to get the 6:13PM Beenleigh from Park Road, but have managed it before.  This time, I ended up waiting for over 20 minutes before a UQ bound bus arrived.  The screens showed a series of buses (209, 109, 169, etc.) counting down, Due, then departing, but these were phantom departures.  No bus came, although four "not in service" empties ran through. Not that it inconvenienced anyone else - I was the only passenger on the bus station for the entire period.

Still waiting at P.A., I saw my 6:13 Beenleigh train depart around the curve towards Dutton Park.  Eventually a 169 came (no sign of the previous 169, 209, 109, etc.  that had been shown on the screens), and I got to Park Road in time to see yet another super-crowded 3-car Cleveland train.  I was unable to swipe my Go Card on that 169 service, because the readers were in "power down" mode and the driver just waved me on.

I ended up on the 6:44PM Beenleigh from Park Road - yes, that's right - a 31 MINUTE gap between outbound Beenleigh Line services right on the shoulder of peak.  The 6 car Beenleigh train was very quiet, in contrast with the 3 car Clevelands I was seeing.

One final nitpick, my EMU home (set 82, car EM 182) was the dirtiest I have ever seen a Brisbane train.  Grot, food scraps & shredded Mx papers all over the floor, the outside very badly graffiti damaged.

Over all, not a good experience, and if I wasn't a committed public transport user it would have made me seriously question using the system again.

cheers,
Colin

[STB]

Here's a new one...

I found out that Veolia and Mt Gravatt services cannot communicate with each other for passenger transfers.

If a Veolia service is running late and the Mt Gravatt service is due out the Veolia driver has no way of contacting the Mt Gravatt service that he has a passenger who needs to transfer, and vice versa as they don't share two way radio communications.

I wouldn't be surprise if this exists in other areas, eg: the northern region (Bribie Island Bus Service, Caboolture Bus Lines, Kangaroo Bus Lines and Hornibrook).

Missing the Mt Gravatt service results in an hour wait for the next one.

[ozbob]

Thanks for both reports.  The communication issue is compounding the poor frequency.  It needs to be addressed ...

[Sunbus610]

I'm guessing the same possibly happens with rail/bus connections at certain stations too.

[Golliwog]

Had an interesting trip on the 109 this morning. Heading into the city, the driver got confused (she said she had been doing it all morning) and instead of turning left off the bridge to get to Adelaide street went down into the Queen St Bus station. The driver apologised and asked if anyone needed to get to Adelaide street and so we went through King George Square, came out the Roma St portal and back tracked to Adelaide Street. No one really seemed to mind as it was an honest mistake.

[O_128]

Had an interesting trip on the 109 this morning. Heading into the city, the driver got confused (she said she had been doing it all morning) and instead of turning left off the bridge to get to Adelaide street went down into the Queen St Bus station. The driver apologised and asked if anyone needed to get to Adelaide street and so we went through King George Square, came out the Roma St portal and back tracked to Adelaide Street. No one really seemed to mind as it was an honest mistake.

Haha maybe they are hopefully planning on changing the route to that =)

[Arnz]

The trains up on the Sunshine Coast gets delayed if the connecting buses (630/631 and 605/615) runs late.  Sunbus drivers are able to communicate with Landsborough/Nambour station staff directly from the bus.

[ozbob]

Track closure 11-12th September Corinda / Rosewood.  Buses at Corinda rail station.





Photographs R Dow 12th September 2010

[Sunbus610]

Have your say Townsville!!........'Peoples Choice Awards' selection......Sunbus Redbus 'VOTE HERE' (source ~ Townsville Bulletin newspaper)