Article: Doyle calls for all-night trams

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Doyle calls for all-night trams

Doyle calls for all-night trams
Jason Dowling
December 22, 2011 - 3:00AM

The Public Transport Users Association has backed calls from Lord Mayor Robert Doyle for all-night public transport to ease the squeeze at taxi ranks and help revellers get home after a late night in town.

The lord mayor called for a comprehensive transport study of late-night travel demand from the CBD to guide an expansion of public transport services and said all-night trams should be considered.

Endless taxi queues in the city at night this month have led to long waits and growing frustration from people trying to get home.

''You actually need a traffic data study, you need the evidence, you need to know how many people are going home at what time and to where,'' Cr Doyle told The Age.

''Once you work that out then you work out the best way of moving them and for some people that may be short haul tram, it might be we find there is a huge preponderance of people needing to get home to South Yarra, Richmond and South Melbourne and you can do short haul trams to do that,'' he said.

He said longer trips to the growth suburbs could be handled by buses — ''because that's when the roads are less clogged and they are a whole lot cheaper than running train sets''.

''The way Sydney and Brisbane has handled it (late night transport demand) is through buses... they went to 24-hour and seven days a week... we still don't do that,'' Cr Doyle said.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen backed the call for all-night public transport.

''It makes a lot of sense to target Melbourne's nightspots with all-night public transport. Clearly the system as it stands is not coping and it is not just a summer festive season issue, there are overcrowding problems on night rider and problems with taxis all year round,'' he said.

''So it would make sense to have a more extensive night public transport network running seven nights a week,'' Mr Bowen said.
''It could be a mix of later trams and trains and buses as well,'' he said.

A spokesman for Yarra Trams said all-night tram services was a decision for government.

Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder said ''any resourcing of seven day a week all-night public transport services would require significant funding and as such must be weighed against competing priorities as part of Government's  budget deliberations''.

He said the government was ''examining a range of options for promoting existing services and catering for future demand such as increasing the NightRider bus service from the city on Friday and Saturday nights when extra demand is anticipated including New Years Eve and special events''.

''Taxis are and will remain an important part of the late night public transport solution and the Fels Taxi Inquiry is expected to offer suggestions as to ways taxi services in the city at night may be improved, such as encouraging drivers to accept short fares and permitting multi-user bookings,'' he said.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/doyle-calls-for-allnight-trams-20111222-1p67a.html

[#Metro]

The funny thing about Melbourne's trams -- our BUZ buses run more frequently, later in the night.
I think after seven or eight the frequency drops to half hourly...

[Mr X]

And trams run so slow! Sure they can skip congestion but in off peak, it's terribly slow, especially in the city!

[Jonas Jade]

The funny thing about Melbourne's trams -- our BUZ buses run more frequently, later in the night.
I think after seven or eight the frequency drops to half hourly...

After approx 7-9 (exact time varies depending on the route) every night it's 20 minutes except on Sunday nights when it's half hourly.