24 Dec 2010: SEQ: Boost Airtrain services during Christmas and holiday seasons

[ozbob]

Media release 24 December 2010

SEQ: Boost Airtrain services during Christmas and holiday seasons to avoid meltdown

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport commuters has said that more Airtrain services should be put on, particularly during holiday periods such as Christmas.

RAIL Back on Track highlights the traffic meltdowns, with record traffic swamping Brisbane Airport and causing the provision of emergency car parks at DFO Brisbane Airport. The situation as reported by the Brisbanetimes speaks for itself really (1):

"As reported by Brisbanetimes (1): 'Spokeswoman Rebecca Masci said last night's peak period was one of the worst traffic flows at the airport in its history.

'We came in this morning and tried to come up with a solution,' she said.

'We're expecting the biggest passenger number we've ever had before this Christmas and the traffic already is showing signs [of] congestion.'

'The precinct is suffering, the roads are struggling [and] we've still got a couple of days to Christmas - the biggest day [Christmas Eve] is [still] to come.' "

'Motorists are being urged to wait at the DFO car park for a phone call from arriving passengers before driving to the pick-up/drop-off zone.'

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"Rail Back on Track suggests:

1. That the private Airtrain service consider extending its hours of operation until 11pm during future Christmas periods, and indeed, other high load periods such as Easter, if not all year round to further make the Airtrain the preferred transport solution.  This is important to make Airtrain first choice.

2. Institute a fare discount to pull cars off the roads to the Airport.

3. Boost frequency on the Airtrain line of every 15 minutes during high load periods

"Clearly the private model of running 'profit only' services is not serving the basic community interest as well as it would do under public subsidy, which is to run services which can take people off the roads and put them into trains. Since the Airtrain was built at zero cost to the Queensland Government and costs the Queensland Government nothing to operate, we call on the Queensland Government again subsidise the service after 8pm and to tell us what the outcome of the Airtrain meetings were earlier this year."

"Services must meet community needs. Congestion on the roads leading to Brisbane Airport would be much relieved and people would have a much cheaper trip if they caught the train, with savings for the whole community in terms of reduced road trauma costs, reduced congestion costs and less wasted fuel, and lessened environmental impacts and time savings."

Reference:

1. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/emergency-parking-to-ease-airport-bottleneck-20101223-196df.html

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[ozbob]

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