2 Jun 2013: SEQ: What now for public transport in south-east Queensland?

[ozbob]

Media release 2nd June 2013



SEQ: What now for public transport in south-east Queensland?

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 has said public transport has now reached a crisis point in terms of fare costs, service frequency, network design and accessibility, and unsustainable patronage. (1).

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"The failure of the bus review process to deliver the network improvements for the Brisbane region now means that the whole of south-east Queensland is now covered with a cloak of transport mediocrity."

"CBD chronic bus congestion, road congestion generally and a lack of bus priority on key arterial roads has now made delays commonplace. Coupled with some of the worlds highest price fares it is little wonder that there has been relative patronage decreases. The BCC Bus Review does very little to reduce these trends and delays. The bus review failure is going to further drive more passengers back to the roads."

"The Brisbane City Council bus review process has just delivered more of the same failure that led Minister Emerson to call for the bus review in the first place."

"The TransLink bus review set out to grow patronage, help contain costs by a better structured frequent network, better integration with other modes, and better manage infrastructure constraints."

"The outcomes from the BCC bus review, accepted without question by Minister Emerson for political reasons rather than for reasons of network improvement, have not delivered the necessary network improvements. The current infrastructure bottlenecks on the bus network remain and will only worsen. Pressure on the worlds worst fare system remains."

"Brisbane City Council through the transport agency Brisbane Transport sees itself as a disconnected independent public transport operator that ignores the network wide impact of its primarily political positions.  It is beyond farce that the transport authority, TransLink, has been relegated to lapdog status by a Minister completely out of touch with the real public transport community need."

"Unless the issues are properly addressed - namely affordability frequency and accessibility for all of south-east Queensland, we are rapidly heading to a worsening of what can only be described as a seriously under-performing transport network."

Reference:

1. http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=9951.msg126151#msg126151

Contact:

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

[ozbob]

Discussion --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=9045.msg127132#msg127132

[ozbob]

Twitter

Blair ‏@TalkativeBlair 5h

LOL & they say Brisbane's public transport isn't broken. Throw one spanner in the works & it looks like this. http://i.imgur.com/KNt5nxt.jpg  #qldpol

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[#Metro]

Sorry, but I think the main beneficiaries of this network are the drivers' interests and not the passenger. Look at the photo above. Huge amount of drivers, barely any passengers in there. Most of those buses would be at 50% capacity or worse.

$400 gets automatically taxed off residents in Brisbane to fund this, regardless of how good or bad the service is, and cost is per kilometre which means the more route-km you have, the more windy and slow, the more money your entreprise gets in subsidies.

It's not good.

[ozbob]

...  only 38% of available seat-capacity is being used on services crossing the Victoria Bridge in the AM peak hour.

http://translink.com.au/resources/travel-information/service-updates/seq-bus-network-review/seq-network-review-part3-proposed-network.pdf

It is an air bridge ...

[#Metro]

^ That's interesting.

Assume a standard car transporting 1 person, the driver. There are three seats in the back and two in the front.

(1 occupied / 5 seats total) * 100 = 20%

Not much better than car I am afraid...

I imagine off peak might be even worse

[ozbob]

Another thing worth noting is that there is a great view of Victoria Bridge from the Capital Hill Building on George, and the Ministerial Board Room and offices provides a great view of the bus jam ....

It is not as though they don't know about it, they appear to be more than happy to let the mediocrity continue ...

Fools ...

[techblitz]

I think bcc may be conducting a trial of some sort with the 117 termination at the gabba.
Hopefully it will then lead to more services terminating there.
a patronage increase is needed for the 340 leg inbound from the gabba in the am peak.
Perfect opportunity to test the waters.

[aldonius]

Regarding that 38% figure (for those who like myself were unsure) - that's just Victoria Bridge citybound services.

Counter-peak is of course even lower at 17.4%.

Be interesting to see the equivalent Captain Cook bridge figures.