Bribie Island park 'n' ride opens with bus changes

[ozbob]

http://www.translink.com.au/servicechange.php?1282003518

Bribie Island park 'n' ride opens with bus changes

From Monday 30 August, the $4.2 million Bribie Island park 'n' ride will open to commuters.

As part of the opening, TransLink is introducing improvements to Bribie Island bus services as follows:

   * Routes 640 and 643 will stop at the new park 'n' ride instead of the shopping centre - providing better public transport access for people travelling long distances.
   * There will be minor timetable changes to route 634 with some services leaving earlier
   * Routes 641, 642 and 644 will stop at both the park 'n' ride and the shopping centre, with some minor changes to running times.

These service changes will improve efficiency and reliability of Bribie Island bus services.
Affected services

   * Bus number 640
   * Bus number 641
   * Bus number 642
   * Bus number 643
   * Bus number 644

[#Metro]

$35 000 per car park.

I wonder though, as we have more of these P+R's will we see problems like the rail station car parks?
I don't think P+R is good value for public money. But if it were private money and the surrounding area was
made a TOD (is this possible with a bus?) and there was a contribution to pay for this, I would be OK with the idea.

[Jonno]

Sydney is planning light rail meanwhile Brisbane is building Park and Rides.  Sydney has learnt it's lesson the hard way and so it seems will Brisbane.  We should be learning from others mistakes not by making the same ones.

[Golliwog]

Yes a TOD would be possible with a bus stop. TOD's aren't the newest thing out there. Fully planned mixes of residential and comercial space are, but a shoping area around a PT station has occured before of it own free will. If you look at a lot of the roads which used to have tram lines, you'll find that most of the places where the shops are used to be a tram station or terminus.

[#Metro]

That's a good idea.
Sort of like a high street, stones corner kind of TOD.

Why doesn't TL offer tenders to do these things?
They can get someone else's cash to pay for the upgrades.

[Golliwog]

Because shops like that aren't TL's business, approvals for that sort of thing would be a local council thing I would think. This Bribie Island P+R is right next to (or very close to anyway) the shopping center anyway. I thought that was half the reason why they were building this, because the shopping center was getting sick of commuters parking in their parking lot.

[Jonno]

And of course the new car park will not be used by both passengers and shoppers. And when it us all overflowing not a lot will have been gained other than encouraging more driving most like to the shops.

[#Metro]

Because shops like that aren't TL's business, approvals for that sort of thing would be a local council thing I would think. This Bribie Island P+R is right next to (or very close to anyway) the shopping center anyway.

But it should be their business. How can TL not be interested in something like this?
Isn't this what every local council dreams of? Good PT next to shops?

[Golliwog]

I agree that its a good thing and TL should support these sorts of things, but their goal is to provide and maintain the PT network, not set up shops. I do however think that when they come to do these sort of things there should be consultation with council and business stakeholders as to if they want to have something tied in with it, from which it is the councils/business's job to carry out the planning and construction of the shops or whatever else. Translink should not be opposed to those sorts of thing, however it isn't their business to set them up.

[O_128]

A great idea would be to integrate post offices at stations as well as newsagents

[#Metro]

Sure Golliwog. But is sounds like buck passing to me.
For these TODs to happen a lot of stakeholders need to get in the same room. That's the job of a government/government agency.
More people near stations:

- the less TL needs to pay for it, the more money can go around upgrading other things
- more people near the station means more passengers (this is one of their aims)
- integrated transport- integrated with Land uses.

I think TL is taking a very narrow view of what 'integrated' means. Its a lot more than standardised ticketing and fares!

[FrequencyCrusader]

Although I'm usually sceptical of millions being poured into P+Rs (Klump Rd?!? wtf?!) I actually congratulate Translink for this one. It's as much a bus stop/K+R upgrade as it is a P+R:  3 or 4 buses all arrive at the same time to maximise transfer capability, and they've outgrown the old stop outside Target. The local buses will still let Granny pop into Target, but they'll also connect at the P+R if she wants to go into Caboolture/Brisbane. And I'm also for this P+R because it is supporting a popular & frequent rail-feeder bus!!

The 640 is timed to meet Caboolture trains every time in both directions. It was so popular a feeder bus that they had to improve the frequency to hourly (yes, this was an upgrade to the frequency before  ) I once caught a 640 filled with prams and snotty-nosed kids on school holidays that QR held the city-bound train for 3 minutes until the bus arrived. I've since moved and no longer use the 640, so I can speak semi-objectively about it; oh and I too used to clog up the Woolies carpark to catch the 640.

Also this P+R is far enough away from the shopping centre to not be used by shoppers (at this stage). Incidentally, moving this major bus stop has now caused the retirement home on Village Ave to become a TOD!

(btw Translink if you're reading this, what's the deal with the "634" typo in your press release? That's some world-class proofreading... And fix the timetable to say the 4:13pm bus meets the train arriving at 4:13 - you say it doesn't, but the bus always waits for transferring passengers! Similarly the 5:13 bus waiting for the 5:12 and 5:22 expresses!) /endrant 

[Golliwog]

TT: I think the larger scale TODs are still not within Translinks domain to set up, IMO that should be something for DTMR to do. IIRC they have a section for integrated transport.