SEQ Bus Network Review

[ozbob]

From the Brisbane mX 21st March 2013 page 1

Challenge is on

[Mr X]

I can't believe that BCC think that having routes like the 314 continuing to exist, and 412/88, 88/111/160/555, 200/222, 330/333/340 etc.continuing to duplicate each other and all with inconsistent city stop locations was good for the network?? they're nuts.

[Jonno]

F*********************************************************************K YOU!

+1

+1

[ozbob]

Most on this blog at Brisbanetimes seem to see through it all --> here!

[doggo]

All it means is the rest of SEQ will be paying inflated fares for the long term to support unsustainable planning practice's in bcc

I shall be going by car more often now.

[Mr X]

I'd like to see Quirk publicly apologise to the residents of Yeronga and other suburbs who would have received better services from this review, but will now get nothing.

Is that a flying pig I see?

[pangwen]

I for one am not at all surprised by this.  Too many degradations in service were proposed with little reason given.

What would have been an OK outcome is to go back to the proposals in phase two.

+1 simon

+2. Too many (negative) changes, with too few supporting details. Eg the not-well-publicised massive reduction in city to valley services, with the removal of over a dozen services (including 199, 370, 375, and what looked like 196), only a couple of 'secondary' replacements.

We need change, but rapid change with little consultation is not the way to go.

[techblitz]

chopping and changing the buz network and reducing its operating hours is what did it for me.Plus the cutting of services from sherwood rd.
Sure..... insigificant byproducts of the bigger picture....but nope sorry....these new proposals messed around with something that looked like and STILL looks like succeeding.
Deleting the 120 and the 100 and perhaps the 411/GCL/180 were major focal points for the southside.Not really sure for the north.
Sure there were some good cross town ideas suggested but these are still perfectly achievable without messing with the majority of the current core frequents.
Only a select couple of buz routes need to be adjusted to remove duplication and thats it.
Other than that? Leave them alone.Too much work has been done to get them where they are today.POPULAR!
Time to work on this duplication that the maroon glider has now created!

[newbris]

How can Newman allow this ridiculous move. Must I pay for state govt transport planners to plan my bus network and then pay rates for my local council planners to half do the same job again.

Forget translink informing BCC about the reasons behind the changes, clearly the minister was not even across sound transport planning principles. I suspected as much when I heard him muttering about improved frequencies rather than rattling off the many advantages of the reviewed network. I can only presume he spends his evenings reading about road funding models.

This constant political decision making is disgraceful. While not yet perfect there are so many things to like in this review:
- Super stops - who hasn't waited for ever for this to happen?
- All services from a region using same stop with best in/out CBD access. eg inner north/west buses into KGS rather than surface running.
- Frequent, highly legible, better spaced, better routed, trunk routes.
- Transfers to the train network for far outer routes to avoid congestion, reduce bus salaries, reduce competing modes, improve reliability etc etc
- New frequent routes to areas that currently miss out.
- Redesigned secondary routes with the promise of constant review and tweaking of such routes even after the review was implemented.
- Cutting air routes.
- Better cross town routes.
- Improving CCB mess without super expensive concrete based solutions.
- Split GCL.

Quirk saying no major review was needed........I could cry. Emerson handing planning to BCC....I could cry. Why can't these men respect professional expertise. It seems the ego you need to win these positions makes you prone to thinking you know more than the professionals...

[newbris]

This is going to sound really bad and I hope i don't cop too much criticism for this... but its the community's fault for overreacting to every little change. I understand some where significantly affected, but I don't think many went online and checked the changes it was a case of someone telling someone "oh our bus is getting cut" "oh really? GRR" without checking that online new proposals often covered the 'deleting' of a route. People just heard about the cuts without checking the changes. Yes maybe a better education program for the community may have helped... but their responses triggered political influence from BCC and pressure from BCC was too much for Emerson...

Just my two cents.

But surely that is a totally predicable part of the change management process faced by all cities. The public aren't paid to study, plan and implement bus network improvements. Translink, led by the the minster, are.

[James]

chopping and changing the buz network and reducing its operating hours is what did it for me.Plus the cutting of services from sherwood rd.
Sure..... insigificant byproducts of the bigger picture....but nope sorry....these new proposals messed around with something that looked like and STILL looks like succeeding.
Deleting the 120 and the 100 and perhaps the 411/GCL/180 were major focal points for the southside.Not really sure for the north.
Sure there were some good cross town ideas suggested but these are still perfectly achievable without messing with the majority of the current core frequents.
Only a select couple of buz routes need to be adjusted to remove duplication and thats it.
Other than that? Leave them alone.Too much work has been done to get them where they are today.POPULAR!
Time to work on this duplication that the maroon glider has now created!

The 411 needed to be retained, I encourage you to travel to an address on Hawken Drive using train + 428, it will take you double the time it would in a 411. 412 will just take the long way and get stuck in the same stuff the 411 will.

Handing BCC planning power just proves that changes were poorly communicated to the point where people were advocating for poor frequency. Attacks by the media (partly perpetuated by elderly residents who want to see their tram bus route stay) combined attacks by the ALP and BCC mean Emerson has effectively caved. Instead of seeing there were things which needed improving (e.g. keeping the 444 at high-frequency standard, ensuring west Toowong was still served etc.), Emerson has taken the easy way out and washed his hands of all responsibility, ensuring we get left with brilliant bus routes like the 416, 417 and 435 all running hourly deliveries of fresh, suburban air direct to the CBD, while ensuring places which deserve high-frequency route.

While this would have taken a while, span of hours for all routes should have been included, not just high-frequency. Maybe if people saw their bus coming more than hourly off-peak they would have re-thought putting up posters everywhere. And yes, everywhere. People in the Centenary suburbs along the 454 route are running campaigns to save their bus route. 

[johnnigh]

Has anyone suggested to Mr Emerson that he hand over Queensland Rail to the BCC?

[newbris]

Has anyone suggested to Mr Emerson that he hand over Queensland Rail to the BCC?

Has anyone suggested to Mr Emerson that he hand over his pay packet to the BCC?

[HappyTrainGuy]

This is going to sound really bad and I hope i don't cop too much criticism for this... but its the community's fault for overreacting to every little change. I understand some where significantly affected, but I don't think many went online and checked the changes it was a case of someone telling someone "oh our bus is getting cut" "oh really? GRR" without checking that online new proposals often covered the 'deleting' of a route. People just heard about the cuts without checking the changes. Yes maybe a better education program for the community may have helped... but their responses triggered political influence from BCC and pressure from BCC was too much for Emerson...

Just my two cents.

I agree to some extent. Most of the complaints came from a few select people/areas/routes rather than a large majority of the BCC routes. That spreaded like wildfire that most people were having their bus route cut because translink didn't execute it well enough to what they could have done compared to the past (think surveys). They could have made a more public presence eg public showing (info provided at shopping centres, interchanges, train stations etc), better maps (an overall map rather than searching for a specific route), outlining what their schedule was (stage 2: public display of the new network. Still seeking feedback on the routes. Detailed frequent/ rough secondary routes timetables still to come apon feedback on new routes. Stage 3: public display of the new network with detailed or rough times/frequencies of all routes. Potential expansion in the future. Still looking at public feedback on the new routes, frequencies and span of hours. Stage 4: Implimention of the new network).

[#Metro]

Brisbane transport was never ever going to agree ever ever ever to anything that breaks the direct trip mantra. BCC has "captured" the regulators, writes its own rules, thumbs it's nose at translink, gets a blank cheque, creates services at will, has ALL the control but none of the responsibility. When it wants to palm off, it just says "thats a translink responsibility". It's all bullsh*t. BT and BCC are in control and are above the law, as demonstrated today.

All Bcc will so is token window dressing, the fundamental reasons why fares were so high, has not bbeen addressed. If emerson stays, he will have the impossible task of selling 7.5% fare increases for the same old crappy network we have today.

The bus network as currently run is unsustainable financially and operationally. It doesnt matter whether people accept the changes or not; what is unsustainable will not be sustained. Bus volumes to the CBD are going to double in 10 years and operating costs are going berserk.
You can't defeat gravity- something has to break eventually. The last government lost an election on the back of huge fare rises, and this government us set to do exactly the same.

many years ago I went to a railbot pt conference at central, where divisional managerof BT was rhett and it was all bus bus bus, Direct bus, no connections to trains, people won't transfer etc. I asked him in question time

[Golliwog]

Simon, et al in that camp: I agree with you that many of the proposed changes were poorly explained and/or marked up. It was a bit of a sign really that the route maps appeared to have been done in MS Paint. But my point is, many of the ideas they were putting forward were good, they just needed to put more effort/have a bigger budget for explaining it all to everyone. And I do think going to councilors and explaining roughly what the proposed changes for their area were and also the bigger picture of what they were trying to achieve. Instead you basically had the whole of BCC turn on them.

As for handing over the review to BCC, that's just (pardon my french) but F*&KING STUPID. They're most of the reason we needed a review in the first place. The whole point of Translink is to have ONE BODY organising routes and timetables. Not letting BCC have free reign over their stuff, and everyone else be damned.

Where to from here? I plan on writing a few letters to both my local MP, and my local councilor. The number of times we've talked to our councilor about the 362 and been fobbed off with that's the States responsibility, now that they've been handed it I'm going to push strongly for their (Translinks) proposal regarding the 362 to be implemented.

[techblitz]

they definitely needed to be more concise on the secondary routes........prolly one of the core reasons why there were so many protests fired in ........they needed to outline in more detail the proposed peak and offpeak frequencies for these secondary routes!
Lets look at the buz route 100 which was to be canned and replaced with the secondary route as well as that frequent cross town oxley feeder( morning trains run express darra-indro?)
Seriously....did they even do any forecasting on implications for this region before deciding to just can a very popular frequent route?
Lets look at the 4bph 369 cross-town......absolute failure even though it fed 2 rail lines...ferny grove and toombul....did they honestly expect this oxley feeder to not suffer the same fate as the 369?

I could also guarantee you that the secondary route s502 would have suffered overcrowding issues in peak due to pax not wanting to bother with that train connection to oxley and instead opt for the 1 trip seat to the city.The beauty of the 100 trip is the fast ipwisch motorway section from oxley through to rocklea,moorooka.

Sorry but imo these 2 bus route proposals should have been reversed. The secondary route should have been the oxley-mt ommaney feeder and buz 100 remains frequent and direct (I do realise that the ipswich rd duplication needs to be look at)
Remember the 369 results should be at least be partially referereced before implementing other 15min rail feeding cross-town services.

[SurfRail]

The 369 competes with direct buses to the city for its whole length, and avoids the Lutwyche shops.  No wonder it wasn't working.

Now we'll never know if Brisbane was ready to make the leap to a transfer-oriented system.  Big Brother decided we weren't ready and needed to be protected from the harshness of a world where you had to do something inhumane like changing from a bus to a train.

[#Metro]

Some people are missing the point

BT AND BCC WILL NEVER EVER EVER EVER LET GO OF THE DIRECT BUS SINGLE SEATS MANTRA.

I know because I have met the divisional manager of BT, and it's bus bus bus all the way. Trains be damned!The maps and explanations could be the best on earth, BCC is in control. Like I said, LAPDOG.

[Jonno]

I am lost for words I am so angry.  I had just finished a plan that shows with 18 trunk lines (plus the Gliders) operating more like rail lines (aka not CBD terminators), bus lanes, 800 m spaced stops (yes some people would need to walk 800m at the fringe not the norm- it will do them good), existing rail and high frequency service you could create a Vienna, Berlin, Paris, London type network that cover 95%+ of Brisbane from Strathpine to Beenleigh out to Ipswich. No secondary routes just a network of high frequency routes that run across the whole region.

Will chuck in the bin now!!

[SurfRail]

Maybe it would be easier to just give QR over to BCC and work from the other direction.

We're getting about as much traction going the way we have been as poor old IMU173...

[techblitz]

im just of the opnion that any cross town services not flowing direct to the city should first be implemented at half hourly to guage user interest and upped to 15 mins at peak only.
Implenting them straight up as 15 min services @ offpeak just so they meet every train is a bit well.......
its also clear that half hourly buses feeding into a train station with 10 minute arriving train services (eg: petrie station /680 can be a recipe for disaster so in terms of this oxley feeder.....the smart thing would be to have it half hourly off-peak and 15 minutes at peak.

[#Metro]

im just of the opnion that any cross town services not flowing direct to the city should first be implemented at half hourly to guage user interest and upped to 15 mins at peak only.
Implenting them straight up as 15 min services @ offpeak just so they meet every train is a bit well.......
its also clear that half hourly buses feeding into a train station with 10 minute arriving train services (eg: petrie station /680 can be a recipe for disaster so in terms of this oxley feeder.....the smart thing would be to have it half hourly off-peak and 15 minutes at peak.

Cross Town and feeder services seem to work just fine in Melbourne (smartbus) and Perth (Circleroute) and into the Joondalup and other lines.
Toronto runs 98% of bus routes to train stations - very few buses ever make it into the Toronto CBD.

[HappyTrainGuy]

The 369 competes with direct buses to the city for its whole length, and avoids the Lutwyche shops.  No wonder it wasn't working.

There are very few proper rail feeder routes in the BCC area. The 336/337 is one of the best examples of their poor feeder network. It feeds 2 bus interchanges, feeds 1 railway station, feeds 8-9 school, feeds areas not serviced by buses, feeds a retirement village, feeds multiple shopping complexes and shopping areas but is ran every 2 hours and its span of hours is about 8am-4pm. It has poor patronage despite getting good loads on the first and last services and still has to contend with the 325/335/340 which can sometimes be can just a handful of minutes before. Ferny Grove has its own feeder route but it operates similar to the 336/337 with a very poor span of hours. 329 starts in the forest far far away from Bracken Ridge and runs to and from Carseldine but its only one way each time depending on the direction of peak hour ie inbound only in the morning/outbound only in the arvo. 328 is similar in that it just misses everything considering it used to be taken care of the 325/335/339 when it terminated at Taigum (old timetable and explination of how it formed from/to the 325/335/339 http://translink.com.au/resources/travel-information/network-information/timetables/110606-328.pdf ). 327 skips feeding Bald Hills/Strathpine during peak hour despite the bus. 338 is just a quick hop to Strathpine (on the old train timetable and the new one if you run its faster to train to Strathpine and then get the 338 to Chermside with the minimal reverse peak hour traffic to Eatons Hill as the 357/359 gets caught up in the peak hour traffic) but the last bus going past the station around 5.25pm (the driver will sometimes wait if they see people trying to quickly make their way to the stop). 326.... doesn't run on Sundays. Frequently delayed. Has dwells everywhere. The 326/327 arrive at Geebung at exactly the same time the train does so you get to see plenty of this...

And this.

While you wait in traffic at the lights or as your bus goes past the station (turn left lane remains green but thru/parked traffic can block the lane).

Regards to Petrie and the 680 that would be minimal delay wise due to a late 2014/early 2015 implimentation with a early 2016 MBRL spur being completed. Just run a couple extra 680's starting at Strathpine or Petrie which they should already be doing now.

[techblitz]

Since it is pretty much is back to square 1
First on the agenda for bcc should be the slight restructuring of the 18 buz services which have the most duplication eg: 200,222,333,330,340.
Get them all sorted.They are the prioroties as they carry the most value.
Also extend some of them where need be.eg: service yeronga,centenary.Factor in the new glider.The uni glider iwill still be on the cards no doubt.

Second step is to slowly work on restructuring the secondary routes to have them terminate without going into the city.
The priority should be pinpointing/creating/redesigning some super stations where a large amount of buses terminate without heading direct into the city.this should be one of the long term plans for the bus network.
Future park and rides (and some current) should be redesigned with multi level car parks with a loop design to allow easy termination of buses so pax have an easy reconnection with another high frequent bus service.
It would appear that most passengers have no qualms with hoping off a bus.....as long as they are remaining on the same platform and waiting for another bus.
Train transfers however seem to be somewhat frowned upon (espcially when we are talking about late buses!) Station design could also be another factor ( take a look at darra and the trek people face just to swap platforms)
There are people believe it or not that like to avoid train travel at any cost....and i can think of only one reason....SIGNAL FAILURES
Some will do anything to stay on the buses.
HTG thos pics remind of connecting at sherwood station

I see that a lot of forum members have really been hit hard today and have lost hope in the whole PT system.
Time to look forward though and keep thesebcc transport planners honest and roll out the suggestions.....

[#Metro]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Short-haired-Dachshund.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapdog

Fetch!!

The term lapdog is also used to describe a submissive person, such as a "yes" man, or an institution that can be very easily controlled (as in the lapdog press in contrast to the tougher, more confronting watchdog press).

[#Metro]

I am lost for words I am so angry.  I had just finished a plan that shows with 18 trunk lines (plus the Gliders) operating more like rail lines (aka not CBD terminators), bus lanes, 800 m spaced stops (yes some people would need to walk 800m at the fringe not the norm- it will do them good), existing rail and high frequency service you could create a Vienna, Berlin, Paris, London type network that cover 95%+ of Brisbane from Strathpine to Beenleigh out to Ipswich. No secondary routes just a network of high frequency routes that run across the whole region.

Will chuck in the bin now!!

Post it up. I think the report from the TL website should be downloaded and stored on the RAILBOT site somewhere. Gov't will want to bury it ASAP no doubt and erase it from history.

[#Metro]

Latest!

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/brisbane-city-council-parks-proposed-bus-network-changes-as-queensland-transport-minister-scott-emerson-backs-down/story-e6freoof-1226602872427

[HappyTrainGuy]

There are people believe it or not that like to avoid train travel at any cost....and i can think of only one reason....SIGNAL FAILURES

Some people hate catching the bus because of..... TRAFFIC 

Even walking is faster it seems these days!

Hahaha

[ozbob]

Media release 22 March 2013

SEQ: Bus Review: Call for Transport Minister to resign


Image: Part of Auckland's Frequent Network; Auckland, NZ bus review reached the same conclusions that TransLink did.
http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af104/tramtrain/AKT_FN_zpsd92d963d.jpg

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers calls for the Transport Minister to resign after effectively abolishing the functions of his own department yesterday. A snap poll of RAIL Back On Track Members' supports this call (see http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=9749.0).

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"Last year, TransLink and Auckland Transport, Auckland NZ were both given identical tasks - to fix up their bus systems. Both TransLink and Auckland Transport have reached near identical conclusions and recommendations - Redeploy service, make the system simpler, introduce connections and create a frequent network. The NZ bus review enjoys good public support. The same cannot be said for Brisbane."

"Commuters will ultimately lose. The return of 15% and 20 % fare rises or even greater for the same old system are coming now that inefficiencies cannot be reduced."

Losses:

Centenary Suburbs- Centenary high frequency BUZ service cancelled. Centenary residents will have to make do with choosing between 10 different low frequency and indirect bus routes. Western Suburbs commuters will lose access to express trains at Indooroopilly which only take 8 minutes to the CBD and are congestion-free.

Yeronga - Yeronga high frequency BUZ service cancelled. Yeronga residents will have to make do with the indirect hourly route 105.

Northwestern suburbs - Albany Creek high frequency BUZ service cancelled. Residents will have to make do with hourly services.

Bulimba - improvements to weekday and weekend frequency cancelled. Residents will have to make do with indirect, slow and infrequent services such as 232 Cannon Hill and large gaps on weekends and evenings.

Super stops - who hasn't waited for ever for this to happen?

All services from a region using same stop with best in/out CBD access. eg inner north/west buses into KGS rather than surface running.

Frequent, highly legible, better spaced, better routed, trunk routes.

Transfers to the train network for far outer routes to avoid congestion, reduce bus salaries, reduce competing modes, improve reliability

New frequent routes to areas that currently miss out.

Redesigned secondary routes with the promise of constant review and tweaking of such routes even after the review was implemented.

Cutting of air routes, freeing up resources for areas without decent services.

Better cross town routes.

Improving Cultural Centre Bus mess without super expensive concrete based solutions.

Splitting of the Great Circle line.


"The most damning statistic that was revealed was that the bus network, with it's 75% taxpayer subsidies and annual 20% and 15% fare rises, was that the bus network is transporting 50% air. Air!"

"The next fare rise must not be higher than inflation. Passengers will simply refuse to pay."

"The Minister for Transport should consider handing in his resignation over this scandal. Brisbane City Council clearly is a transport failure,  tells the regulator what to do ( i.e. TransLink), and can do whatever it likes with funds, route planning, timetabling, creating routes at will, while passengers pay more and more and more."

"The Transport Minister has totally, completely and spectacularly lost control of his own departmental responsibilities."

"What is going to occur in other regions of SEQ such as Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich,  Redlands, Moreton Bay?  Are these regions now to have ongoing mediocre services as a consequent of propping up BCC's failed bus network?"

"Queensland Rail now should be given back full control for SEQ rail in terms of planning and timetabling.  The Minister has made TransLink redundant.  Brisbane City Council sees rail as a competitor, not as part of an integrated public transport network.  What a perverse outcome the Minister has created."

"It is also clear that whatever network plans or costings TransLink does means absolutely nothing now. Brisbane City Council, has all the power and none of the responsibility or accountability as demonstrated with the Maroon CityGlider fiasco and our discovery of  'Paris Hilton' rocket bus services. The Lord Mayor, Graham Quirk summed it up nicely when it was reported:  'He said while ultimately it was TransLink's responsibility, they were pleased to be taking over the process.'"

References:

1. "Transferring" can be good for you, and good for your city http://www.humantransit.org/2009/04/why-transferring-is-good-for-you-and-good-for-your-city.html

2. Controversial changes to the bus network across Brisbane have been scrapped http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/central/controversial-changes-to-the-bus-network-across-brisbane-have-been-scrapped/story-fn8m0qb4-1226602783644

3. Paris Hilton Rocket 161 http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=9045.msg122020;topicseen#msg122020

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

From the Couriermail click here!

Brisbane City Council parks proposed bus network changes as Queensland Transport Minister Scott Emerson backs down

Brisbane City Council parks proposed bus network changes as Queensland Transport Minister Scott Emerson backs down

    by: Robyn Ironside
    From: The Courier-Mail
    March 22, 2013 12:00AM

SWEEPING changes recommended for Brisbane's bus network have been thrown out by the city council after the State Government handed responsibility for the review to the local authority.

In an extraordinary backdown, Transport Minister Scott Emerson announced any changes to the bus network would now be made by the Brisbane City Council, which had objected to the recommendations.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk welcomed the decision, saying the BCC would re-start the review from scratch.

"What we had on the table was a whole revolutionary approach to change and I don't believe it was warranted given the strong patronage growth in our city," Cr Quirk said.

"My view was that Brisbane's bus services were not broken with annual patronage rising from 48 million passengers to 80 million since 2004, so a major overhaul was not required."

Mr Emerson initiated the review last June to try to get southeast Queensland buses operating more cost effectively.

The results, released two weeks ago, recommended that southeast Queensland's 456 bus routes be slashed to 345.

The proposals sparked protests by commuters, unions and the LNP-led BCC, which last week passed a motion opposing some of the changes.

"They should be very happy that we've listened to their concerns, heard their concerns about the Translink proposal and now said to them any changes in bus routes will be decided by the Council itself," said Mr Emerson.

The backdown was labelled a "most retrograde step" by commuter group Back on Track, which had supported the network review.

Spokesman Robert Dow said BCC was the primary reason public transport in southeast Queensland was such a mess.

"The proposed bus changes were based on sound planning principles and would have positioned Brisbane and SEQ for a much better integrated public transport network," Mr Dow said.

"There were some issues and that would have been addressed. Sometimes it takes political courage to do the right thing, something lacking in Queensland."

Transport Minister Scott Emerson has denied the decision to give BCC ownership of the review was a "backdown" by the government, annoyed by the Council's lack of support.

"What I'm saying now to Brisbane City Council is, this network on Brisbane will remain as it is unless Brisbane City Council decides changes need to be made," said Mr Emerson.

Mr Emerson said any changes decided by the BCC must not increase pressure in fares.

"The reality is, any changes that the BCC decides it has to make, has to come within their budget," he said.

"Any route changes that occur in Brisbane will be decided by BCC."

The review was developed after receiving more than 6000 pieces of feedback over the last six months and more recently almost 10,000 submissions were received.

Earlier this week, Mr Ermerson announced a number of routes would be retained, including the popular 411.

A spokesman for Mr Emerson said Translink would continue to collect feedback on other areas of the bus network, but any changes would be made in consultation with local councils.

[cartoonbirdhaus]

My next home will not be in SEQ, and with any luck will be in 5'3" territory.

Melbourne or Adelaide? Even the latter has a sensibly-planned system, even if rail is quite marginal there. (And whilst it's another "big country town", at least rents and crime rates are lower than here, too!)

[aldonius]

I think the report from the TL website should be downloaded and stored on the RAILBOT site somewhere. Gov't will want to bury it ASAP no doubt and erase it from history.

Images and website text have just been saved locally
All 205 MB of it...

Now to figure out a way to make it available. I'm thinking Google Drive. Uploading to there overnight.
Will add pdf report and fix links tomorrow. edit: probably not going to be able to make the links work nicely.

Once that's done I can make it public (or not... copyright hissy fits have been thrown for far less, never mind that this content was produced by a government organisation and should automatically be public domain).

[ozbob]

... I think the report from the TL website should be downloaded and stored on the RAILBOT site somewhere. Gov't will want to bury it ASAP no doubt and erase it from history.

I downloaded the files as soon as it was up.  They can pull it we have copies ...

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

22nd March 2013

Re: SEQ: Bus Review: Call for Transport Minister to resign

Greetings,

The Minister for Transport, Mr Emerson could have and perhaps should have done this.

Ok, there is a lot of public concern with the proposed bus changes.  Lets stop the process and get the parties together to work it through.  TransLink should have sat down with the councils and explained what was actually planned.  Made the changes that were necessary and prepared a proper educational campaign to explain the process.

This is what a competent Minister would have done in my opinion.  Simply to drop the bundle, abandon the 'transport ship', and let BCC run berserk again is not governing for the community.

Public transport has been put back 30-40 years.  We are back to the 1970s and 80s once again.  Other jurisdictions are moving forwards with connected, high frequency networks.  SEQ is now a laughing stock of the public transport world.

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

Media release 22 March 2013

SEQ: Bus Review: Call for Transport Minister to resign


Image: Part of Auckland's Frequent Network; Auckland, NZ bus review reached the same conclusions that TransLink did.
http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af104/tramtrain/AKT_FN_zpsd92d963d.jpg

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers calls for the Transport Minister to resign after effectively abolishing the functions of his own department yesterday. A snap poll of RAIL Back On Track Members' supports this call (see http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=9749.0).

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"Last year, TransLink and Auckland Transport, Auckland NZ were both given identical tasks - to fix up their bus systems. Both TransLink and Auckland Transport have reached near identical conclusions and recommendations - Redeploy service, make the system simpler, introduce connections and create a frequent network. The NZ bus review enjoys good public support. The same cannot be said for Brisbane."

"Commuters will ultimately lose. The return of 15% and 20 % fare rises or even greater for the same old system are coming now that inefficiencies cannot be reduced."

Losses:

Centenary Suburbs- Centenary high frequency BUZ service cancelled. Centenary residents will have to make do with choosing between 10 different low frequency and indirect bus routes. Western Suburbs commuters will lose access to express trains at Indooroopilly which only take 8 minutes to the CBD and are congestion-free.

Yeronga - Yeronga high frequency BUZ service cancelled. Yeronga residents will have to make do with the indirect hourly route 105.

Northwestern suburbs - Albany Creek high frequency BUZ service cancelled. Residents will have to make do with hourly services.

Bulimba - improvements to weekday and weekend frequency cancelled. Residents will have to make do with indirect, slow and infrequent services such as 232 Cannon Hill and large gaps on weekends and evenings.

Super stops - who hasn't waited for ever for this to happen?

All services from a region using same stop with best in/out CBD access. eg inner north/west buses into KGS rather than surface running.

Frequent, highly legible, better spaced, better routed, trunk routes.

Transfers to the train network for far outer routes to avoid congestion, reduce bus salaries, reduce competing modes, improve reliability

New frequent routes to areas that currently miss out.

Redesigned secondary routes with the promise of constant review and tweaking of such routes even after the review was implemented.

Cutting of air routes, freeing up resources for areas without decent services.

Better cross town routes.

Improving Cultural Centre Bus mess without super expensive concrete based solutions.

Splitting of the Great Circle line.


"The most damning statistic that was revealed was that the bus network, with it's 75% taxpayer subsidies and annual 20% and 15% fare rises, was that the bus network is transporting 50% air. Air!"

"The next fare rise must not be higher than inflation. Passengers will simply refuse to pay."

"The Minister for Transport should consider handing in his resignation over this scandal. Brisbane City Council clearly is a transport failure,  tells the regulator what to do ( i.e. TransLink), and can do whatever it likes with funds, route planning, timetabling, creating routes at will, while passengers pay more and more and more."

"The Transport Minister has totally, completely and spectacularly lost control of his own departmental responsibilities."

"What is going to occur in other regions of SEQ such as Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich,  Redlands, Moreton Bay?  Are these regions now to have ongoing mediocre services as a consequent of propping up BCC's failed bus network?"

"Queensland Rail now should be given back full control for SEQ rail in terms of planning and timetabling.  The Minister has made TransLink redundant.  Brisbane City Council sees rail as a competitor, not as part of an integrated public transport network.  What a perverse outcome the Minister has created."

"It is also clear that whatever network plans or costings TransLink does means absolutely nothing now. Brisbane City Council, has all the power and none of the responsibility or accountability as demonstrated with the Maroon CityGlider fiasco and our discovery of  'Paris Hilton' rocket bus services. The Lord Mayor, Graham Quirk summed it up nicely when it was reported:  'He said while ultimately it was TransLink's responsibility, they were pleased to be taking over the process.'"

References:

1. "Transferring" can be good for you, and good for your city http://www.humantransit.org/2009/04/why-transferring-is-good-for-you-and-good-for-your-city.html

2. Controversial changes to the bus network across Brisbane have been scrapped http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/central/controversial-changes-to-the-bus-network-across-brisbane-have-been-scrapped/story-fn8m0qb4-1226602783644

3. Paris Hilton Rocket 161 http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=9045.msg122020;topicseen#msg122020

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

Channel 7 News Bus route backflip

--> http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/queensland/watch/93a674f3-51fe-3e92-adc8-0119402446ea/bus-route-backflip/

[ozbob]

From the Queensland Times 22nd March 2013 page 5

Bus changes draw just 10 Ipswich comments



No hysterical bleats or media ...  all good basically.

[ozbob]

From the Queensland Times 22nd March 2013 page 5

Bus changes draw just 10 Ipswich comments



No hysterical bleats or media ...  all good basically.

The 524 comment was mine, I was shooting for high frequency ... lol  (actually just testing the form and I identified an error with the PDF generation if you recall) ...

[ozbob]

Interview on 612 ABC Brisbane this morning at 8.40am or thereabouts on the developments with respect to the bus review ...

[Jonno]

The Lord Mayor just declared war on Rail Back on Track on 4BC.  He disagrees with a lot of our ideas and that probably explains why public transport is 8% of trips.  He says that a transfer will for force people off public transport. So his current system is working so well at 8%!!!