SEQ Bus Network Review

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

15th November 2013

Greetings,

A RAIL Back On Track member has reported that the Cultural Centre Bus Congestion is as bad as ever ( http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=9045.msg134759#msg134759 ).  The BCC bus review has failed to deliver any real network improvements. The TransLink bus review would have significantly reduced the number of near empty buses running through this congestion mess, freeing up funds and buses to deliver high frequency bus services to hundreds of thousands more citizens of Brisbane.  What is happening now is that we now have a dichotomous public transport network in SEQ.  The rail and bus network throughout SEQ which is sadly separate from Brisbane City Council's BT bus network.  BCC see other operators as competitors and fail to grasp the fact that their bus network is in a terminal spiral. Sadly though, in order to prop up the BCC bus network, the other bus regions are now being starved of funds and all regions are facing cuts to  services,  reduced frequency and spans.

We strongly supported the TransLink bus review because it would have delivered the necessary network reforms for all. Delivering a much better connected network, which would have driven very significant patronage growth. BCC directed BT to not cooperate with TransLink. To then subsequently give BCC the authority to continue their mediocre bus network was a disgrace and a failure to look after the community overall.  The lack of political support for TransLink, the appropriate authority to deliver the necessary network is now proving to be very costly.  South East Queensland is waking up to the fact they have been sacrificed on the alter of political expediency and compounded by a  gross failure of leadership.

Enjoy the failure!

Best wishes
Robert

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

=================

Media release 15th October 2012 re-released 15th November 2013



SEQ: BCC Bus Review Fail a Raw Deal for Brisbane and SEQ

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport believes that the Brisbane City Council bus review is not making an appropriate amount of service changes and is continuing to support low frequency routes with significant amounts of duplication, leading to ongoing high fares and high subsidy, and consequently stagnating patronage.  Wastage in the Brisbane bus region means less service funds for the other bus regions of SEQ.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"Brisbane City Council's bus review stage two was implemented on the 14th October but does not go far enough with proposed network changes."

"A RAIL Back On Track member has suggested by reducing the number of bus routes along Coronation Drive from 24 to 8 and feeding customers to Indooroopilly and Toowong railway stations, the number of frequent bus routes in the western suburbs can be increased from the current three to up to six, including a west Toowong/Taringa feeder bus which increases the number of bus services in these areas from four services on a Sunday to 60, and improves frequency in many areas from hourly to every 15 minutes. [1]"

Such a review would provide six frequent routes, including: - Frequent route running from UQ to Indooroopilly via Toowong, increasing frequency for users of the 411, 414, 415, 470 and parts of the 417 - Frequent route from UQ to Moggill, allowing for passengers from Moggill to be fed to rail and provide a frequent route to UQ from Indooroopilly along Swann Road - Frequent route to the Centenary suburbs, a current PT black hole

"While this concept only covers Brisbane's western suburbs, this concept can be expanded to cover the bus networks in all parts of Brisbane - whether it be north or south of the river!"

"If Brisbane City Council was legitimate about its claims to look after the ratepayers of Brisbane, it would move away from the mantra of a direct service network model and instead move towards a legible, frequent, connective network like that which is outlined in this suggested network."

References:

1. James' New Brisbane West Bus Network http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=10275.0

2. Map of Frequent Network Brisbane West http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=10275.msg133256#msg133256

Contact:

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

[techblitz]

1 year on lol....

Somehow i  get the feeling bt/bcc cares not for the rantings......when they are making a ton off the inner busway,unis,hospitals,shopping centres via the 1or 2 zone trips/connections.As per my experience with the intercepted 340 last week.

Just yesterday i took a 115 inbound from rocklea south..1pmish....total of 8 on board between rocklea and annerley.....bad right? Considering it passed thru moorooka.
Bad news though folks....inbetween annerley and qsbs it picked up 15-20 people. Money made back from the air carrying in the outer suburbs.
So in effect...not only did this air carrying 115....provide basic hourly coverage within closer walking distance to what TL proposed for rocklea south residents....the route also got into qsbs station with a decent load for that time of day...an absolute farce for sure!!

[ozbob]

Who cares what BCC thinks,  changes are on the way ... don't you worry about that!

Techblitz, your constant apologies for mediocrity is getting tiresome.

We actually support the entire public transport community, not a narrow band of pampered bus people.

The facts speak for themself.  The behaviour of BCC towards TransLink was and is still pathetic.  It has been an issue since I became first became interested in why public transport in SEQ is such a mess in 2006. Was again confirmed yesterday at Redlands.   

Ho humm ..

[ozbob]

http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2013/03/bue-review-gets-passed-to-brisbane-city-council.html

612 ABC Brisbane

Bus review gets passed to Brisbane City Council

22 March 2013 , 10:34 AM by Sally Rope

Were you happy with the State Government Bus review, or did you lose a favourite bus route?

Millions of dollars were spent on the review, it was announced with much fanfare by State Transport Minister Scott Emerson - a week down the track - it's off!

Yesterday, Brisbane Mayor Graham Quirk announced the State Government had passed the review process to Brisbane City Council.

Robert Dow is the spokesperson for Rail Back On Track, a community group fighting for a sustainable public transport system, and he spoke to Kelly Higgins-Devine...

Click --> here!

Kelly also spoke to Transport minister Scott Emerson, who tried to explain the reasoning behind the move...

Click --> here!

^ Worth listening too again ...  Kelly HD was one of a few in the media that actually saw through the charade ...

[ozbob]

Kelly is one of the sharpest journos at times on 612 Brisbane radio  ...

[techblitz]

Who cares what BCC thinks,  changes are on the way ... don't you worry about that!

Techblitz, your constant apologies for mediocrity is getting tiresome.

We actually support the entire public transport community, not a narrow band of pampered bus people.

The facts speak for themself.  The behaviour of BCC towards TransLink was and is still pathetic.  It has been an issue since I became first became interested in why public transport in SEQ is such a mess in 2006. Was again confirmed yesterday at Redlands.   

Ho humm ..

Enlighten us on your predictions...or at least give a general category where you will think the MAJOR change will come from? Fares? Bus network? Bus companies?
With inner city fringe development going great guns ( coorparoo, newstead/tennerife and potentially southern west end)..as well as chermside and garden city.....more and more people will rely on buses and there will be even MORE money to be made for the small zone inner city/busway trips where rail cannot cover.

About the only major change i see coming will be the gocard system contract renewal and a potential fare restructure. Or potential cancellation of the buz standard for late night services restructure. Other than thay it will be small steps gradually....which is the way to go....

[ozbob]

Fares are a given, particularly as it is looking increasingly likely that the next state election might be early (probably late 2014 early 2015)

Another big clue here --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=9045.msg134780#msg134780

[STB]

Techblitz - it was indicated to me in the Redlands yesterday that due to Brisbane City Council wanting to hold onto their ineffcient bus network that is costing TransLink dearly to maintain, but yet have their planning powers tied so they can't touch it without politics getting in the way and BCC having a vested interest in maintaining their network for financial reasons (ie: TL paying them for the network they are trying to maintain and not giving TL the power to alter that network), other regions are now starting to pay for that through cuts and reductions as Planners struggle to deal with a lack of finances that is spilling out into the other regions due to BCC sucking up TL's total budget for providing bus services.

It's a serious situation, and TL themselves are getting frustrated by the situation.  The Planners are wanting to put on more services in the outer regions, but due to how the system is set up, and BCC refusing to work with TL as was revealed earlier this year through an RTI, TL does not have the money to upgrade services in the outer regions without cutting services in the process.  The Redlands will be having more cuts than upgrades in this new network, and TL told me directly that we were lucky to have those reductions, as they were seriously planning on cutting the weekend local routes in the region to try and recoup the KMs spent sucked up by Brisbane City Council.

Frankly, BCC has had a stranglehold over TransLink since TransLink was first set up.   TL have very little say in route design and timetabling of Brisbane Transport routes, and this is now affecting the outer regions.  As far as BCC is concerned, the outer regions can stay off BT buses, which Campbell Newman himself said when he was Lord Mayor several years ago, that he wanted to see the outer regions not use BT buses, that was ridiculed at the time from memory.  And I know first hand that the BT Planning job at TransLink is simply a tick and flick job due to TL having very little say in what BT/BCC does.

TransLink does have capable Planners there, and they all sit under one roof who manage the various regions across the network.  BT/BCC have their own Planners and they don't give a damn, or even would be aware what the outer regions do, they only care for their own network, screw everyone else, type mentality for reasons simply more on keeping their power and having the state pay for it.  The 'looking out for ratepayers' is simply a political smokescreen, I know that from being on the inside.

[James]

1 year on lol....

Somehow i  get the feeling bt/bcc cares not for the rantings......when they are making a ton off the inner busway,unis,hospitals,shopping centres via the 1or 2 zone trips/connections.As per my experience with the intercepted 340 last week.

Just yesterday i took a 115 inbound from rocklea south..1pmish....total of 8 on board between rocklea and annerley.....bad right? Considering it passed thru moorooka.
Bad news though folks....inbetween annerley and qsbs it picked up 15-20 people. Money made back from the air carrying in the outer suburbs.
So in effect...not only did this air carrying 115....provide basic hourly coverage within closer walking distance to what TL proposed for rocklea south residents....the route also got into qsbs station with a decent load for that time of day...an absolute farce for sure!!

Techblitz, I had an identical experience aboard the 115 when I went on urban safari. It left Acacia Ridge with around 6 pax, then picked up 12 at Moorooka, and then all up arrived with a full seated load at Wooloongabba.

This isn't "115 success story", this is "Why we need 125 BUZ".

Enlighten us on your predictions...or at least give a general category where you will think the MAJOR change will come from? Fares? Bus network? Bus companies?
With inner city fringe development going great guns ( coorparoo, newstead/tennerife and potentially southern west end)..as well as chermside and garden city.....more and more people will rely on buses and there will be even MORE money to be made for the small zone inner city/busway trips where rail cannot cover.

About the only major change i see coming will be the gocard system contract renewal and a potential fare restructure. Or potential cancellation of the buz standard for late night services restructure. Other than thay it will be small steps gradually....which is the way to go....

Then run bloody short-running trips ffs! This type of thinking is stupid, that we should run buses everywhere, and as a result of running buses all over the place, we get good frequency in some places so some of these routes will pick up good patronage. No, they steal patronage, and I can guarantee that there was probably a 100 BUZ within about 5 minutes of your 115 service.

This is like saying because the 428 has good loads, we should run ALL of them out to Chapel Hill. NO NO NO. You match each corridor with proper demand, and run shortworkings if necessary. I saw an outbound 115 leave around 9am one morning... the SOLE PASSENGER boarded at Wooloongabba. That's right, there was only one passenger on board for the whole trip!

Back to your example, there are only two things this shows:
1. Moorooka (along Beaudesert Road) needs a decent service
2. Ipswich Road is a high demand corridor
3. Acacia Ridge routes are obviously there for coverage

And we already knew that. As such, we send an hourly coverage feeder route through Acacia Ridge (possibly to Moorooka - I had concerns that a lack of Acacia Ridge - Moorooka link would send PT usage back significantly in that area), de-BUZ the 100 and then BUZ the 125, as the 125 covers all the necessary stops (with semi-frequent rail serving Moorooka).

Small steps gradually is not the way to do it. The first thing which should be done is terminate most 400 series routes at Indro. This, as done by my bus plan, is "shovel ready" (i.e. BT could call me today and I'm sure I could get a working bus timetable out for all routes by Monday). It is so simple and doesn't need reform. Yet BT chucks it in the bin and does NOTHING to Indro-bound routes aside from cut and add a few services. NOTHING. Not even the 427/428/432, which frequently suffers from over-crowding and services which carry air due to service bunching. Small steps (cutting each route steadily) is not the way to do it either. You might as well just take the thing out in one go.

[techblitz]

Quite aware of the situation with outer brisbane and its private operators stb.
I know TL had no funds due to lack of frequency upgrades for the moreton region..
Any spare they came up with,they chose to provide better coverage over freq upgrades on the busier routes. Eg: newport loops/680. That paints a small picture doesnt it? Basic coverage over frequency..

Look this can be argued till the cows come home...we know that bt has its depot situation finalised and they wont be purchasing any new buses for a while. They will slowly but surely reshuffle the underperformers around and get the vfm up. (TL brisbane review was a little too drastic for my liking)

In the meantime we know that inner city population will grow exponentially....more money will come from the inner busway and finance future busway expansions. All going well the busways will make thier way out to capalaba and the hyperdome. Providing we have an honest bcc....eventually the private operators will have more funds thrown @ them to provide better frequency. Like i said...honesty willing.

[techblitz]

@ james...i use ipswich rd far more than you than just the occasional safari tour lol...

125 buz was not only a step back for salisbury/nathan/tarragindi residents losing the 120. But how this thing could have handled the counter peak loads heading inbound ( especially school times when the 124 gets its standing loads)....this would have been quite entertaining.

Take the bus routes along these corridors frequently my friend before making judgment on them...

[longboi]

Quite aware of the situation with outer brisbane and its private operators stb.
I know TL had no funds due to lack of frequency upgrades for the moreton region..
Any spare they came up with,they chose to provide better coverage over freq upgrades on the busier routes. Eg: newport loops/680. That paints a small picture doesnt it? Basic coverage over frequency..

Look this can be argued till the cows come home...we know that bt has its depot situation finalised and they wont be purchasing any new buses for a while. They will slowly but surely reshuffle the underperformers around and get the vfm up. (TL brisbane review was a little too drastic for my liking)

In the meantime we know that inner city population will grow exponentially....more money will come from the inner busway and finance future busway expansions. All going well the busways will make thier way out to capalaba and the hyperdome. Providing we have an honest bcc....eventually the private operators will have more funds thrown @ them to provide better frequency. Like i said...honesty willing.

Well no, that's not quite right. Your growth theory, in conjunction with maintaining the status quo, will just give BCC more reason to expand their inefficient network.
Additonally, if you are also pushing for lower fares then you wipe out any significant gains in revenue resulting from the associated growth in patronage.

Bob is on the money with his little clue a few posts up.

[longboi]

@ james...i use ipswich rd far more than you than just the occasional safari tour lol...

125 buz was not only a step back for salisbury/nathan/tarragindi residents losing the 120. But how this thing could have handled the counter peak loads heading inbound ( especially school times when the 124 gets its standing loads)....this would have been quite entertaining.

Take the bus routes along these corridors frequently my friend before making judgment on them...

Increase frequency or put on a school route/short working to manage the small fluctuation for that half-hour period per day. Justifying a second, full-time route to deal with a small bump in patronage is just plain lunacy.

[STB]

Quite aware of the situation with outer brisbane and its private operators stb.
I know TL had no funds due to lack of frequency upgrades for the moreton region..
Any spare they came up with,they chose to provide better coverage over freq upgrades on the busier routes. Eg: newport loops/680. That paints a small picture doesnt it? Basic coverage over frequency..

Look this can be argued till the cows come home...we know that bt has its depot situation finalised and they wont be purchasing any new buses for a while. They will slowly but surely reshuffle the underperformers around and get the vfm up. (TL brisbane review was a little too drastic for my liking)

In the meantime we know that inner city population will grow exponentially....more money will come from the inner busway and finance future busway expansions. All going well the busways will make thier way out to capalaba and the hyperdome. Providing we have an honest bcc....eventually the private operators will have more funds thrown @ them to provide better frequency. Like i said...honesty willing.

If you already know this stuff, then why are you still sprouting that the status quo should stay?  The status quo is what's causing other regions to lose out and the high fares to maintain the subsidy ratio.

[HappyTrainGuy]

Tech, they don't need more buses. They need a proper connected network. One that feeds further out suburbs into key hubs such as railway stations, bus interchanges and busway stations to connect to higher capacity/core routes rather than single seat safari tours to the city. I don't know too much about other regions/areas from personal experience but the Gympie Road-City via Valley corridor is complete overkill with funds flying out of the cheque book. I've documented how all the buses queue up on the busway and then go through to the valley like a military cargo run through Afghanistan. The same on the reverse run outbound. They all queue up outside the sex shop and strip clubs then make their way over to the hospital. Unfortunately this is repeated multiple times across the whole of the Brisbane BT bus network. James has done some great work documenting for us the BT Conga lines towards Toowong. Having a network set up to compete with other bus operators and designed not to go near any railway stations because of the competition between them and the railways before Translink was formed doesn't help the cause either.














The Moreton Bay mods are actually for the railway network. If you put it on a map you'll see how quickly everything falls into place for the Redcliffe area. It seems like coverage now but once the railway line is up it will all fall into place for a proper and connected integrated public transport network - something which is really lacking in the Brisbane area. 680 also has its reasons (needs a better peak service as the railway line dumps so many people at Petrie).

IMO the review might have been too drastic in some areas (Nudgee/Banyo for example) but for the northern region of Brisbane it was a massive and I mean massive advancement in public transport and connectivity. Truly bringing the network into a new era. But now its back to the 1950's. What most people forget was that it was a draft. It wasn't final. And they didn't have any help from BT because of the BCC wanting to play politics.

[techblitz]

Well i for one hold at least an ounce of positivity for brisbanes bus network.More money in.....no more buses purchased/leased.....no more depots built...the money has to be spent somewhere....it will lead to better services somewhere.....

[STB]

FYI there is a petition going to save the Logan City routes including routes 556 and 557 for example.

http://www.change.org/petitions/logan-city-bus-routes-don-t-cut-logan-bus-routes-we-rely-on-it-everyday?share_id=YTzUoSGaYf&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition

The petition organizer, posted on Facebook that he'd like to see route 557 upgraded to a more frequent route, and the only reason it's not capturing people is because it only runs a few times a day (this is despite routes 545 and 554 covering where the 557 goes through).

[techblitz]

@htg
Apart from your picture spam.....ever heard of [img] ?
A good post....
2 sides to every story of course...TL are not gods at transport planning...
Tl and hornibrook were put in charge to fix the connections for bus feeders at petrie. Remember....no bt planning involved here...this is purely qr,tl & hornibrook...

If you check the 680 timetable you will notice the standard 13 minute wait between 680 arrival and ipswich train departure. 13 minutes is there for a reason but how attractive is this wait?
I will tell you how attractive. It now pays to stay on the 680 to chermside...walk across the road and connect there instead of using the train to the city.
Infact if one wants to get from petrie to garden city it will be 12 minutes faster using the 680/77 than catching the train/111...

How do i know these issues? Because i actually do the trips...im currently following up an issue at grand plaza south carpark stop and will have to deal with both translink and Bt gcity depot...should be interesting...
Look Bt and TL both have major flaws in thier reviews...either with the design or the implementation....in the case of TL it was thier halfarsed secondary routes explanations...in the case of bt...the still major duplication of the inner busway in the off-peak.

[#Metro]

Thanks Techblitz. Pictures far more powerful than just words.
The more images cataloguing the waste, the stronger our case for change is.

I urge anyone who sees waste, to (if safe and legal) to photograph it and share.

[James]

@ james...i use ipswich rd far more than you than just the occasional safari tour lol...

125 buz was not only a step back for salisbury/nathan/tarragindi residents losing the 120. But how this thing could have handled the counter peak loads heading inbound ( especially school times when the 124 gets its standing loads)....this would have been quite entertaining.

Take the bus routes along these corridors frequently my friend before making judgment on them...

I've mentioned previously I used 100 BUZ several times to get from the PA to Bunnings Oxley. I passed judgement on the route then, and my judgement stands. The route is brilliant in peak, but counter-peak and during times of low demand, the route does awfully past Moorooka, and the 'Moderate' VFM shows that. It is not the peak direction running which stuffs over the 100, it is counter-peak. Hence why I support an F25-like feeder to Oxley/Darra. Saves resources and allows for good counter-peak travel too from the railway line, not to mention reduces dead-running.

I travelled again on the 100 a few days ago... left Moorooka with around 8 pax at 10am in the morning, yet had ~30 people on leaving Wooloongabba (and several boarded along the way for trips along Ipswich Road). Ipswich Road and Inala/Forest Lake have different profiles and different transit needs. We should not be clumping the two together as a frequent.

From what I've seen of the 120, the route would have been reasonably combined with other routes/covered by BUZ 125. 120 also passes very close to some busway stations too.

@htg
Apart from your picture spam.....ever heard of









And from the day BCC's bus cost explosion engulfed my trip to the City

[SurfRail]

Gold Coast span of hours appear to be locked in.  Too bad, so sad.

My townhouse within 400m of Robina Station should hopefully go unconditional next week and settle second week of December.

Under the new network, I can access any bus route in the city from Robina Station with no more than 2 transfers (bus-bus-bus or rail-bus-bus).  The number of routes requiring 2 transfers to access is limited to the 719, the TX1 and the local routes that hub out of The Pines (and even then it is a single transfer if I start my journey at the Town Centre on the 761 or 765).  In some cases 2 transfers to access the other routes will be more convenient than the single transfer option anyway.

Single seat trip to Brisbane, and only 2 transfers to get to most of SEQ in fact.

Poor buggers still living in Carrara by then won't know what hit them. 

Oh well, can't say I didn't try.

[ozbob]

Thanks SurfRail for your efforts!  Better to have tried, and not left wondering what if ...

Still more to come is my best guess.   Elections have a strange way of concentrating minds ..

[HappyTrainGuy]

Yep. The 77 is faster hands down because of the clem 7 routing. 370 can be faster Kedron-Albion using the surface roads as I was overtaken by one a few times but the majority of the speed comes from the clem 7. I've said previously the 77 is a brilliant route for Northside-Southside trips especially during peak hour. That's another thing I disagreed with in the Translink review when it proposed to cut the route - it should have been retained for peak only as the time savings were massive compared to going via the city. Combine the 77 with a proper integrated network and it would solidly deserve a place in the network. Currently its a meh of a route because of the other route designs. Even with the frequency of peak hour services the 77 just smashed the transit times. The return leg took a hit but if the Chermside section of running was fixed up my god that would be one of Brisbane's fastest bus routes for covering distance. You would be lucky to get from Chermside-Griffith Uni in under 30 minutes if you were driving there yourself. Just imagine how fast it would be if the Airport link tunnel was also used with the Clem7

07:00 AM    'Chermside (Hamilton Road)' Hamilton Road    07:26 AM    Griffith University Station

Compare that running time with the scheduled route of the 7.00am 330 express buz + connecting 140 express buz. It would arrive at the same destination a full 21 minutes later

330 Express buz Chermside-CCBS
7.00-7.32
140 Express buz CCBS-Griffith Uni
7.34-7.47

[Gazza]

Excellent post/pics James..sums up the situation in the West beautifully.

Just waiting for Techblitz to come along and say why the current set up is a big success 

[techblitz]

Thanks Techblitz. Pictures far more powerful than just words.
The more images cataloguing the waste, the stronger our case for change is.

I urge anyone who sees waste, to (if safe and legal) to photograph it and share.

I could actually counter with pics of Full buses but i have morals and dont like plastering pics of people on the internet without thier permission...
If thats your thing..go for it...

@gazza

Not even going to bother...outnumbered too much..
A question though gazza...Why did you turn up @ sherwood rd rocklea markets stopif you are so anti bcc review?

[Gazza]

They misqouted me. I said that there was no reason to remove services from the markets, because you could use empty Sherwood depot movements to connect to/from the main network, but that never made it into the article.

Not even going to bother...outnumbered too much..

Yep, but you post foamy ideas like rockets from Northlakes etc, to benefit the 50 or so pax that manage to fit on that bus.

[Gazza]

I could actually counter with pics of Full buses but i have morals and dont like plastering pics of people on the internet without thier permission...
If thats your thing..go for it...

Bull, you can blank out faces quickly in MS Paint if you want to take the moral high ground, and its not like this is the only situation where strangers get into photos...What about pics taken at a concert, or a theme park, or general rail photography, or any other countless situations.

[ozbob]

Street photographer's rights  --> http://www.artslaw.com.au/info-sheets/info-sheet/street-photographers-rights/

[#Metro]

^ What a FANTASTIC image! You even got the chair of the PT committee at BCC in the shot too! AHHAHAH

[HappyTrainGuy]

I could actually counter with pics of Full buses but i have morals and dont like plastering pics of people on the internet without thier permission...

Full buses going nowhere stuck in traffic? And I can counter that by popping over to Aspley/Taigum and take photos of empty buz routes that roam the streets at night. I'd only have to blank the drivers faces 

The whole Brisbane network really needs a complete re do. The routes are to scenic and long. The frequency is just awful. Running hours can be just as bad. And the lack of connection to other routes and key areas. The BT network is still pretty much the same as it was in the anti-railway days. It's 2013. Its a integrated public transport network with one of the best ticking (GoCard, not the fares) and its time to bring Brisbanes bus network into the current century.

[Old Northern Road]

@htg
Apart from your picture spam.....ever heard of [img] ?
A good post....
2 sides to every story of course...TL are not gods at transport planning...
Tl and hornibrook were put in charge to fix the connections for bus feeders at petrie. Remember....no bt planning involved here...this is purely qr,tl & hornibrook...

If you check the 680 timetable you will notice the standard 13 minute wait between 680 arrival and ipswich train departure. 13 minutes is there for a reason but how attractive is this wait?
I will tell you how attractive. It now pays to stay on the 680 to chermside...walk across the road and connect there instead of using the train to the city.
Infact if one wants to get from petrie to garden city it will be 12 minutes faster using the 680/77 than catching the train/111...

How do i know these issues? Because i actually do the trips...im currently following up an issue at grand plaza south carpark stop and will have to deal with both translink and Bt gcity depot...should be interesting...
Look Bt and TL both have major flaws in thier reviews...either with the design or the implementation....in the case of TL it was thier halfarsed secondary routes explanations...in the case of bt...the still major duplication of the inner busway in the off-peak.

It's quite common for the 680 to be more than 13 minutes late by the time it reaches Petrie. Even during off peak the train is considerably faster than the bus to get to the city. Peak hour it isn't even close. The train is already in the city before the bus has even reached Chermside. It might be faster to use the bus to get to Garden City but very few people would be traveling to Garden City from the north side anyway.

[techblitz]

@htg,james,LD and any other snaphappy"s

Somehow i get the feeling the little pics arent getting the desired results and influencing the right people. Which in this case..would be quirk,emerson,matic,miltonD. The current powerbrokers for brisbanes bus network. Ive said it before and will say it again. New battle plan needed to get thier attention. Actual face to face meetings would be a start....but your too busy flaming them or cracking jokes to even take you seriously...

Ps: mr top dog in transit...how is that bulimba letterbox drop coming along? Those are the kinds of ideas which would get thier attention...

[#Metro]

@htg,james,LD and any other snaphappy"s

Somehow i get the feeling the little pics arent getting the desired results and influencing the right people. Which in this case..would be quirk,emerson,matic,miltonD. The current powerbrokers for brisbanes bus network. Ive said it before and will say it again. New battle plan needed to get thier attention. Actual face to face meetings would be a start....but your too busy flaming them or cracking jokes to even take you seriously...

Ps: mr top dog in transit...how is that bulimba letterbox drop coming along? Those are the kinds of ideas which would get thier attention...

Nothing is going to happen PT wise until next year. Everyone is going to Christmas work parties / chasing stray cats and things are progressively shutting down already. BCC is a dead dog and not worth writing to barking at or wasting time sending correspondence to, they are just going to feed it into the shredder. TransLink has been trying for 10 years to make them come around, what makes you think that you're about to be the first to change their mind?

WOOF!

[ozbob]

@htg,james,LD and any other snaphappy"s

Somehow i get the feeling the little pics arent getting the desired results and influencing the right people. Which in this case..would be quirk,emerson,matic,miltonD. The current powerbrokers for brisbanes bus network. Ive said it before and will say it again. New battle plan needed to get thier attention. Actual face to face meetings would be a start....but your too busy flaming them or cracking jokes to even take you seriously...

Ps: mr top dog in transit...how is that bulimba letterbox drop coming along? Those are the kinds of ideas which would get thier attention...

After many many meetings with your so called 'power brokers' over the years techblitz I have come to the conclusion it is largely a waste of time, and is often an attempt to appease rather than real policy development.  The thing that gets results is media.  Keep snapping guys ...

Meetings with bureaucrats can be a little more meaningful than with our so called elected representatives.  They are ones actually churning out the advice etc.

[ozbob]

^LDT  2013 ain't over quite yet ... one never knows what 'surprises' might be in store for us all!

[techblitz]

Ozbob i believe its termed as "waiting for a miracle to happen" 

The miracle being the "miraculous" breakup of BT.

[James]

Gold Coast span of hours appear to be locked in.  Too bad, so sad.

My townhouse within 400m of Robina Station should hopefully go unconditional next week and settle second week of December.

Under the new network, I can access any bus route in the city from Robina Station with no more than 2 transfers (bus-bus-bus or rail-bus-bus).  The number of routes requiring 2 transfers to access is limited to the 719, the TX1 and the local routes that hub out of The Pines (and even then it is a single transfer if I start my journey at the Town Centre on the 761 or 765).  In some cases 2 transfers to access the other routes will be more convenient than the single transfer option anyway.

Single seat trip to Brisbane, and only 2 transfers to get to most of SEQ in fact.

Poor buggers still living in Carrara by then won't know what hit them. 

Oh well, can't say I didn't try.

And with the stroke of a pen, SurfRail has better access to Brisbane City than most of the people living in the northern suburbs of Brisbane...   

I could actually counter with pics of Full buses but i have morals and dont like plastering pics of people on the internet without thier permission...
If thats your thing..go for it...

@gazza

Not even going to bother...outnumbered too much..
A question though gazza...Why did you turn up @ sherwood rd rocklea markets stopif you are so anti bcc review?

Stop taking a bloody moral highground. I've taken photos of buses on numerous times, even when the driver has seen it, and it has not been an issue. Most of the time you can barely see the driver, yet alone pax. The only reason you don't take photos is because it is rare that you have the opportunity to take a photo of a full bus due to the amount of air in the network.

@htg,james,LD and any other snaphappy"s

Somehow i get the feeling the little pics arent getting the desired results and influencing the right people. Which in this case..would be quirk,emerson,matic,miltonD. The current powerbrokers for brisbanes bus network. Ive said it before and will say it again. New battle plan needed to get thier attention. Actual face to face meetings would be a start....but your too busy flaming them or cracking jokes to even take you seriously...

Ps: mr top dog in transit...how is that bulimba letterbox drop coming along? Those are the kinds of ideas which would get thier attention...

Ozbob has stated that media is the way to get things out, and I agree. Emerson is my local MP, but I know he can do SFA with regards to

Milton Dick is a ranting, raving idiot, all you have to do is see some of his comments on the bus review. He has as many brain cells as Cr Johnson, who essentially campaigned against a frequent route and improved bus network into her ward.

Emerson doesn't control BCC, so talking to him won't do anything (and yes, I could go down that path if I so desired, he uses my bus route, so if there's anybody on this forum who would be motivated enough to talk to him, it would be me). Milton Dick will probably just send anything we give to him to the BCC planners, who will subsequently put it down the shredder. The only one who I personally would see any use talking to is Quirk, and he is probably too high up for anybody to get direct access to him.

It is only a matter of time until BCC is forced to reform its own network after BT's costs engulf Brisbane City Council. BT will eventually become a huge behemoth which cripples the function of the rest of BCC (maintenance, rubbish collection etc.) and turns into a massive money drain for TransLink. Newman and his cost-cutting ways will force him to simply burn BCC's network to avoid all of SEQ simply being swallowed by BCC's direct services mantra.

In the mean time, we simply have to keep up the pressure and try and make the populace realise that BCC's review was not in their best interests, either financially or in terms of PT accessibility.

[HappyTrainGuy]

I tried getting in contact with a couple in the BCC regarding the 327/338/357/359. Long story short they said I'd be better off contacting Translink. Must not have helped talking about areas outside the BCC boundary lines

[#Metro]

The miracle being the "miraculous" breakup of BT.

We have a few miracles under our belt we all should be proud of.

First, route 535 Springfield - a RBOT idea.
Second, route 369 - a RBOT idea
Third, route 590 - a RBOT idea
Fourth, trains every 15 minutes on all existing lines on current infrastructure - will be done come Jan 20, (this in itself is a MIRACLE of EPIC proportions)
Fifth, merger of route 66 + 109, an RBOT idea.

I have done some digging in BCC minutes, and I can confirm that the handing of the TL bus review to BCC has resulted in Brisbane Transport running at a $16 million (IIRC) loss which BCC wishes to progressively phase out over the next three years.

Like I keep saying, it is financially unsustainable. The drivers will want a pay rise in 3 years. There's no savings to be found here.

[Cam]

To show how efficient Brisbane's PT network is, how about comparing numbers of drivers/staff and passenger numbers entering and exiting the CBD with other cities in Australia? Has anyone seen such statistics?