3 Apr 2011: SEQ: Gold Coast: Feeder buses or car parking?

[ozbob]

Media release 3 April 2011

SEQ: Gold Coast: Feeder buses or car parking?

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 the upgrade to the car parking at Varsity Lakes (1), while better than nothing, isn't as important as feeder bus upgrades.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"There have been several upgrades to the bus services since Varsity Lakes opened with minimal feeder bus services, only bus routes 753 and 756 on 13 December 2009.  Six months later, bus route 765 was downgraded by being diverted into Varsity Lakes for no apparent reason other than to silence a commuter backlash, but the good news was the creation of bus route 761.  In spite of limitations, the 761 has been a big success, which was upgraded again late last year (2).  The other main improvement has been the creation of the 769 bus route."

"The cost of operating the 761 is estimated by RAIL Back on Track to be under $2m annually based on the previous Minister's figures to facilitate 4000 trips/week, ignoring extra trips generated by the upgrade, while the cost of the car park upgrades have not been public but cannot be as cost effective and can only generate 350-700 weekly trips at most."

RAIL Back on Track has some specific concerns with the timetable (3) for the 761:

1)  Why does the half hourly frequency not apply to those wishing to use the service to arrive at Brisbane Central before 9am on a weekday?

2)  Why no increase in operating hours: The train leaving Central at 6:54pm is the last one to connect with a 761 service, and this is 1 hour earlier on weekends.

3)  Why bother with connecting to the train at Robina when it has already connected at Varsity Lakes?  Passengers in between Robina and Varsity Lakes stations can use the 765 and 753 services.  This also undoes the advantage of the Varsity Lakes rail extension for the affected passengers as they must wait at Varsity Lakes for the slower bus service to catch up and allow for coordination at Robina station.  In fact, they are worse off than they would otherwise be as the bus must deviate into Varsity Lakes station.  This service should terminate at Robina Town Centre and co-ordinate with the train at Varsity Lakes station.

4)  While the 761 service in the evenings could be tacked on to the 765, this would mean that either the 765 would need to continue to serve Varsity Lakes station (see next point) or that passengers would need to remember to get off the train at Robina instead.  Both of these options are significantly inferior to late night 761 trips.

5)  The other point is that the 765 which previously provided service south of "The Pines" should be returned to its previous routing along Christine Ave and not serve Varsity Lakes station, as this is a rather useless deviation and doesn't actually service anyone while removing a service which meets almost every train from parts of Christine Ave.  This would allow the 761 to use Scottsdale Dr rather than needing to provide a service to part of Christine Ave.

"RAIL Back on Track repeats its urging for the Gold Coast timetable revamp to be done quickly (4) to allow these issues to be sorted.  The Ipswich timetable revamp has dragged on for three years since the 'first sod was turned' around March 2008 (5), and is still not implemented.

"There is a need for the 761, 765 and ideally the 769 services to meet every train."

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

References:

1. http://translink.com.au/about-translink/reporting-and-publications/media-releases/release/299

2. http://www.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx?id=73004

3. http://translink.com.au/resources/travel-information/services-and-timetables/timetables/110131_761.pdf

4. http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=5570.0

5. South West News, 19 March 2008, p29

[ozbob]

General discussion on car parking solutions --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=532.0