On the Buses

[#Metro]

New Bus Routes coming?

He said the union was waiting for information on the impact on between 400 and 500 casual bus drivers and the impact on new bus routes due out in late October.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/job-cuts-send-alarm-bells-ringing-in-brisbane-council-20231023-p5eedm.html

[ozbob]

ABC News --> Brisbane City Council hires hundreds of bus drivers amid staff shortage

Brisbane City Council has hired more than 400 new bus drivers since launching a recruitment campaign earlier this year.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner revealed that 442 recruits had been hired since then and the workforce had grown to 2,600. ...

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/9NewsGoldCoast/status/1732199555851010134?t=sJDQr7KItKAE6eCQTilpXw&s=19

[RowBro]

Translink has changed the colour for bus routes in the GTFS feed from their old primary colour (green) to their new one (pink). I noticed it when searching for a route on google maps this morning and verified it by downloading the GTFS static feed.

[Cazza]

For those interested, here are the fleet numbers for each of the Christmas buses by depot:

Carina- 1858 (Barbie bus)
Eagle Farm- 2148
Garden City- 1281
Sherwood- 2916
Toowong- 2849 (Bluey bus)
Virginia- 2323
Willawong- 1516

Carina's bus (this years winner) is going to be doing some of the City Loop services next week, giving people more of an opportunity to check it out.

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Redbank Plains' Lemonde Sabanga faces Ipswich Court accused of assaulting bus driver in Springfield $

A Redbank Plains man has been accused of assaulting a local bus driver for refusing to let him on the bus, a court has heard

The man told Ipswich Magistrates Court on Tuessday, December 19, that he only "pushed" the driver after drinking more than a litre of alcohol that day.

Lemonde Sabanga, 22, was charged with offences including assault occasioning bodily harm.

The offences allegedly occurred at Springfield Central on December 18.

A police spokesman said early investigations indicated an argument broke out between the bus driver and Mr Sabanga on Trackstar Drive between 5.10pm and 5.35pm. ...

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> 35 patients assessed after bus catches fire on Bruce Highway near Townsville $

More than 30 people were treated by paramedics after their bus was destroyed by fire in North Queensland on Christmas Day.

Queensland Ambulance Service were called to the Bruce Highway near Alligator Creek, south of Townsville, about 2pm to reports of a Greyhound bus on fire. ...

Emergency services workers and passengers at the scene. Picture: Patrick Woods


The Greyhound bus was almost totally destroyed in the blaze. Picture: Patrick Woods

[SurfRail]

https://www.qld.gov.au/transport/public/transport/timetables/qconnect/stradbroke

There are apparently extra services running on Minjerribah / North Stradbroke over the summer break - not that you would know unless you went looking. It is the only urban service left in the State that is still notionally "qconnect".  Appears to be in some sort of timewarp where TransLink is responsible for it (the temporary timetables are in TransLink's journey planner and they are presumably supervising at the back end) but also not.  Possibly has to do with the late 2022 takeover by Kelsian.

[SurfRail]

While I'm at it - ideally I would like the SEQ adjacent areas to all form part of the SEQ ticketing system / fare zones, so the "regional" operators would transition over to the current TransLink service contracts.

Kilcoy services already connect to the rest of the network at Caboolture.  Those services can sit in Zone 3 and 4.

Maleny services already connect to the rest of the network at Landsborough and Nambour.  Those services can sit in Zone 5 and 6.

Despite the lack of connecting services:

- Gympie can sit in Zone 8.  With a modest investment and network redesign / simplification, you could extend the 632 to Gympie and provide local connections to the rail network at Gympie North (especially if a few more Gympie - Nambour services can be whipped up).  The Rainbow Beach service is the only one that wouldn't quite fit, and since it is only one return trip a day in practice and not really accessible to anybody coming from south of Gympie, it probably doesn't matter if it is flat fare given how rubbish it is.

- Toowoomba could sit in Zone 7, and I think that would apply even to the Highfields / Crows Nest service.  The lack of a connection to the rest of the network doesn't matter to me.

- Minjerribah can site in Zone 4.  Eventually walk-on passenger ferry fares could be integrated into the network as well.

Even longer term, I'd like to see SEQ divided into 9 bus regions, each of which has a single operator and which is operationally discrete from the others, and where the route numbering is properly aligned.  Each region would be a package consisting of something like 350-450 buses apiece, and would be responsible for all TransLink services including school specials.  Over time the State would procure all of the fleet and allocate it to the relevant region a la PTA-WA, and all fleet would be low-floor resulting in greater fleet availability / productivity (eg there are 2 basically incompatible fleets on the Sunshine Coast - one for urban work, one for school).

- Region 1 (Brisbane Southside) - BCC Willawong and Garden City - 1## series numbers

- Region 2 (Brisbane Bayside) - BCC Carina, Transdev, Mount Gravatt and Transit Systems - 2## series numbers

- Region 3 (Brisbane Northside) - BCC Eagle Farm and Virginia, the Brisbane Bus Lines Samford service and the Thompsons services other than the 2 into North Lakes - 3## series numbers

- Region 4 (Brisbane Westside) - BCC Toowong and Sherwood - 4## series numbers (including inner city runs)

- Region 5 (Moreton Bay) - Christensens (Kilcoy), Caboolture Bus Lines, Kangaroo Bus Lines, Hornibrook Bus Lines and the 2 Thompsons services into North Lakes - 5## series numbers

- Region 6 (Logan and Scenic Rim) - Bus Queensland Park Ridge, Clarks, Logan Coaches and possible the 2 Kinetic services into Beenleigh - 6## series numbers

- Region 7 (Gold Coast) - Kinetic services other than the 2 into Beenleigh - 7## series numbers, and do a deal with NSW to get Kinetic's Tweed bus services numbered into the same range and put under TransLink's administration.

- Region 8 (Sunshine Coast) - Polleys, Glasshouse, Kinetic and CDC - 8## series numbers

- Region 9 (Western Corridor) - Bus Queensland Ipswich, Southern Cross, Bus Queensland Lockyer, Bus Queensland Toowoomba - 9## series numbers

That should keep things somewhat similar to present but on a more consistent basis, and allow room for growth.

Then to arrange things so there is a completely discrete set of route numbers Statewide:

- Use an alphanumeric system for regional services with a consistent numbering pattern from north to south.  I would consolidate it down to probably 6 different regions, and if any town gets big enough to justify a government funded town bus in future it gets space in the relevant range (eg Port Douglas / Mossman, Tully / Mission Beach, Ingham, Ayr / Home Hill, Charters Towers, Mt Isa, Emerald, Kingaroy, Dalby, Roma etc).

-- Far North Queensland (currently Cairns and Innisfail) - A##

-- North Queensland (currently Townsville and Magnetic Island) - B##

-- Mackay and Whitsundays (currently Bowen, Airlie / Proserpine and Mackay) - C##

-- Central Queensland (currently Rockhampton, Yeppoon / Gracemere and Gladstone) - D##

-- Wide Bay Burnett (currently Bundaberg and Hervey Bay / Maryborough) - E##

-- Darling Downs and "West" (currently Warwick) - W##

- Use F# for SEQ ferries and F## for other ferries

- Use G# for G:link services (and use the same numbers for tram replacement buses)

- Use M# for Brisbane Metro services (which would be off by itself rather than treated the same as other buses)

- Use Q# or Q## for Queensland Rail services Statewide

- Use R# or R## for rail replacement bus services Statewide

- Give every government funded school run Statewide its own 4-digit number, using ranges that are discrete from the local general bus services (eg 8000s for Brisbane southside, 3000s for Gold Coast etc)

[Arnz]

To further add, reworking the 539 timetable (Rosewood to Gatton with occasional extension to Helidon) and extending some services to Toowoomba on a limited stops basis - e.g Rosewood, Laidley, UQ Gatton, Helidon then Toowoomba (4 per day Mon-Fri and 3 on Sat/Sun) could also be handy.  Bus Queensland Ipswich operate most 539 services on Coaches, with an accessible spot for a Wheelchair, so they could operate the coaches on the hypothetical extended Rosewood-Toowoomba runs.

Short run services could operate at the smaller stops inbetween, departing sometime after the extended Toowoomba runs.

An extended 539 would have be specifically timed like the 2/3 per day Gympie North train service to allow a full day into Ipswich (or) Brisbane and Vice-Versa.

[ozbob]

ABC News --> Brisbane lord mayor, Queensland transport minister clash in city bus funding stoush

Key points:

. Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has released new figures suggesting a reduction in bus services in Brisbane

. Mr Schrinner blames the state government for the falling numbers and has called for more funding

. Transport Minister Bart Mellish says Mr Schrinner's statement is an admission of financial mismanagement by council

The LNP-led Brisbane City Council says inadequate funding from the state Labor government has resulted in tens of thousands of fewer bus services operating in the city.

The government has already hit back at the suggestion, saying any reduction in services is a result of financial mismanagement on the part of City Hall.

New figures released by Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner indicate there are now around 82,000 fewer services on the Brisbane bus fleet than there were a decade ago.

According to the council's numbers, Brisbane had 3.15 million regular bus services — excluding CityGlider buses — in 2012-'13, but this had gone backwards to 3.07 million by 2022-'23.

Mr Schrinner laid blame for the falling numbers on the state government as he called for them to put forward more funding. ...

[#Metro]

^ Interface issues between different agencies again. This wouldn't happen in Perth.

[HappyTrainGuy]

Oh no how will we live without the P88...

[verbatim9]

I was on the Shoreline Route 280 yesterday and was lucky to experience the new zero emission bus with the new internal PIDs. Unfortunately the audio announcements were disabled for some reason.

[ozbob]

^ neat!  Thanks.

[Cazza]

Internal PIDs are being rolled out to the Blue Glider fleet, with E1655 being the first bus in service to have them as of today. The 17 other Glider artics will have them put in over the coming months. They are the same style and format as those on the new Spring Hill Loop buses, with 2 on each bus (one towards the front and another in the second compartment after the articulation).

[RowBro]

Got a good snap of the new full driver barriers that are being installed on the Willawong fleet atm (at least I've only seem them from the depot).



Also notice the lack of physical mirrors which are replaced with cameras. Kinda hard to see with the glare, but there's a monitor in front of the driver in the corner for the right side mirror. I imagine there's also a monitor next to the door for the left side mirror (although I havent been able to confirm that).

[SurfRail]

I'm not sure why they are focusing on the oldest buses in the fleet but there you are.

[verbatim9]

Indooroopilly bus interchange is getting an upgrade. More here --->https://www.indooroopillyshopping.com.au/indro!-bus-terminal-upgrades/?fbclid=IwAR30-N9BIHvTTFFL-8AsmO8xd4pcjcDQzjerLefQJ1ZGEedqpiG5I-GqU3I

[verbatim9]

Source - Indooroopilly SC Facebook

[verbatim9]

Check out the new passenger information screens/displays that we are potentially getting along Adelaide Street and other bus stops throughout the city

[SurfRail]

400 more BEVs (apparently on top of the 200 State-owned buses previously announced).

https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/99747

There was a video somewhere on the BT website which I have lost track of.

We can only hope these are all centrally procured and owned - it's about time we did away with each operator being responsible for its own procurement and building cottage scale orders each time.

[ozbob]

Translink Driver Awards voting

> https://translink.com.au/news-and-media/competitions-and-offers/bus-driver-awards/vote

[ozbob]

https://x.com/10NewsFirstQLD/status/1762634596745969682?s=20

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

https://x.com/bne_lordmayor/status/1766016902533648809?s=20

[ozbob]

^
ABC News --> Woman killed after being pinned between bus and building on Edward Street in Brisbane CBD

A female pedestrian has died after a bus crashed into a building in Brisbane's CBD during peak hour on Friday afternoon.

Police have confirmed the woman, who was earlier in a critical condition with "life-threatening injuries", died at the scene.

It's understood the driver lost control and mounted the kerb, just after 5pm, pinning the woman against the ANZAC Square arcade building on Edward Street.

Queensland Ambulance Service said it assessed nine bus passengers who were injured in the collision, with five taken to hospital. ...

[ozbob]

What happened in Brisbane last night was a devastating tragedy. It has left our entire community in shock. To the...

Posted by Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner on Friday, 8 March 2024

[verbatim9]

Hopefully, they will write that bus off. You can't put it back into service considering the seriousness of the accident.

[SurfRail]

^ I suspect it will be a write-off given it is one of the oldest 10% of the fleet, but a fatality alone is absolutely not a justification for a write-off.  There is a Gold Coast bus that started life on the Sunshine Coast but was involved in a fatal head-on collision.  That was extensively rebuilt and sent south where it is still running (according to Anytrip it is out on the road as I type).

[verbatim9]

There was another bus crash on Gympie Road this afternoon. Bus had to get towed away but no one seriously injured thankfully.

[ozbob]

Response to the All Translink bus routes in the GPS unit E-Petition presented to the Queensland Parliament

> file:///C:/Users/Robert%20Dow/Downloads/5724T356-33C8.pdf

====

... I refer to petition 3936-23 lodged with the Legislative Assembly on 13 February 2024,
suggesting all bus companies operating on Translink routes have a Global Positioning
System (GPS) unit fitted with vocal directions for drivers.

I acknowledge the petitioners' concerns that not all Translink vehicles have GPS devices to
provide spoken directions to drivers. Please be assured the Queensland Government is
committed to ensuring the highest safety standards are met in providing an integrated,
efficient and safe public transport network for Queensland.

In order to provide these services across Queensland, the Department of Transport and Main
Roads (TMR) partners with a variety of bus operators under a Service Contract arrangement.
As a result of this arrangement, driver training and route familiarisation is the responsibility of
each individual bus operator. I am advised there are a range of ways that drivers taking new
routes can be confident on an unfamiliar route, including pre-briefs prior to the trip, and road
side signage together with written information.

TMR's delivery partners are continually looking for ways to improve driver training and safety
and, I am happy to report, some of the bus operators have commenced trials on using GPS
units that provide spoken directions to drivers in both training and service delivery.  ...
 

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Transdev bus driver sacked after helping teenager after alleged assault, robbery $

The Transport Workers Union has slammed a bus company for the sacking of a driver who allegedly saved a teenage passenger from being bashed during a violent robbery.

A Bayside bus driver, who intervened when a teenager was allegedly targeted in a violent robbery has been sacked.

The worker was driving the 250 bus route through Middle St, Cleveland on February 18, 2024 at 1pm when three teenagers allegedly entered his bus and stole personal belongings from a teenage passenger.

A Transport Workers Union (TWU) spokesman said the youths allegedly exited the bus with the victim's belongings.

"The victim gave chase and was set upon, at which point the driver intervened," a spokesman said.

"The driver intervened by verbally and physically separating the youths to prevent a further attack," he said.

TWU Queensland Director of Organising, Josh Millroy, said the decision to fire the driver is a "low act". ...

[ozbob]

^

https://x.com/9NewsQueensland/status/1771098885710033406?s=20

[achiruel]

A couple of months ago I was on a bus where the driver kicked off a drunk passenger who was threatening violence against other passengers. I thanked him in person but didn't pass my congratulations on to TransLink because I was concerned something like the above might happen.

[ozbob]

https://x.com/9NewsQueensland/status/1771452790499344408?s=20

[ozbob]

Translink Driver Awards voting

> https://translink.com.au/news-and-media/competitions-and-offers/bus-driver-awards/vote

https://x.com/9NewsQueensland/status/1776895158514020630

[ozbob]

Saturday night was the Bus Driver of the Year awards - where 3 exceptional Queenslanders were recognised for their above...

Posted by Bart Mellish MP on Monday 8 April 2024

[RowBro]

On an Eaglefarm bus with the new digital side mirrors and full driver protection barrier. Good to see it being rolled out on some of the newer buses in the fleet.

[ozbob]

https://x.com/9NewsQueensland/status/1781598657923448845