28 November 2012

The return of the Nightrider

| johnboy
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nightrider

Mayor Rattenbury brings news that with the drinking season upon us the night buses are coming back:

“The Nightrider service is a convenient public transport option to help people home safely after a night out in Civic this festive season,” Mr Rattenbury said.

“ACTION buses will provide the service. Like last year, it will operate on 7-8 December, 14-15 December, 21-22 December and a New Year’s Eve service on 31 December 2012.

“Fares will be $5 to ensure the service is an affordable option for people to get home. Last year the $5 fare proved very popular with a total of 2608 people using Nightrider across the four weekends. This compared to 979 people using the service in the same period in 2010 when the fare was $10.

“After feedback from last year, we have decided to bring the departure times forward. The first bus will now depart from 12.30 am rather than 1 am. This will help attract a new market to the service such as late night movie goers.

“I am pleased to say that the Nightrider service is funded for the next three years, rather than receiving one-off funding year to year.

“We will evaluate the service after it concludes next year, including by looking at options for a potential expansion to the service,” Mr Rattenbury said.

The Nightrider bus will depart from Platform 7 at the City Bus Station. Eight Nightrider routes will take passengers home every 90 minutes between 12.30 am and 4.15 am with extra services to operate on New Year’s Eve.

The Nightrider routes will service suburbs in Belconnen, Gungahlin, Inner-North, Inner-South, Woden and Tuggeranong dropping passengers at the bus stop nearest to their home. Each bus will have CCTV facilities and ACTION supervisors will be within the City Bus Station to assist with marshalling

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eyeLikeCarrots10:28 am 30 Nov 12

Used it once in 2010 – Happily pissed as a nitt with some workmates who live around Spence, Macgregor areas.

It was fine.. a bit of a long trip home becuase a bogan breader was having a shouting match against a guy in a $5 hipster suit.

If anyone thinks a nightrider bus trip home is bad they’ve never been sandwiched into a Toyota minivan with 11,000 Vietnamese people in 35% heat between Hanoi and Ninh Binh

They should market this with a pic of the Hoff.
I would love to see him ‘plastered’ on the side of the bus

Holden Caulfield said :

I couldn’t see this bit in the press release. I assume it was just an administrative oversight:

I am the Nightrider! A fuel injected suicide machine. I am the rocker! The mighty hand of vengeance who needs no road worthy!

(He’s just a Holden…so let’s be kind about his fixation.)

Holden Caulfield10:45 am 29 Nov 12

I couldn’t see this bit in the press release. I assume it was just an administrative oversight:

I am the Nightrider! A fuel injected suicide machine. I am the rocker! The mighty hand of vengeance who needs no road worthy!

Throw in a complimentary doggy-bag and it will be a hit!

devils_advocate5:13 pm 28 Nov 12

What is wrong with you people. This is how the nightrider works:

1) chick with 80’s style hotness (big hair, plastered on makeup) experiences some contrived problem, confides in Michael Knight (the Hoff).
2) Hoff makes inept attempt to solve problem, makes it worse and/or ends up getting into trouble himself.
3) Awesome talking pontiac firebird comes to the rescue, while making catty remarks.

Dunno what all this talk about multiple passengers is, the pontiac appears to be a 2 seater.

With targa tops.

Felix the Cat4:00 pm 28 Nov 12

DrKoresh said :

Has anyone here ever actually used the nightrider service and can explain how it works? I’m confused as to where it drops its passengers off and such, considering there won’t be any connecting buses to get them home. I tried to figure it out several years back with some mates but for some reason we weren’t able to.

I used it once, a couple of years ago. You take a bus that’s say going to Gungahlin (if that’s where you live) and you tell the driver where you need to get to and he/she works out a route (worked out on where other are going as well) and drops you usually a few streets away. The trick is to stay sober enough to remember where you live and then be able to walk a few blocks to your house!

DrKoresh said :

Has anyone here ever actually used the nightrider service and can explain how it works? I’m confused as to where it drops its passengers off and such, considering there won’t be any connecting buses to get them home. I tried to figure it out several years back with some mates but for some reason we weren’t able to.

Each Nightrider bus serves a wide area, e.g. “Gungahlin”. When you get on you tell the driver where you want to get off — generally a bus stop, not necessarily “your stop” but one close by, probably on a major road or at a landmark like a local shopping centre. Depending on where you live, the resulting route could meander through six suburbs before reaching yours, but you’ll get home eventually.

The first time I caught one, years ago, the driver took a stupid route because he went wherever who was yelling the loudest told him to go. Last time the driver had a map and worked out a route as people got on, which went very well.

Glad to see it running again.

Has anyone here ever actually used the nightrider service and can explain how it works? I’m confused as to where it drops its passengers off and such, considering there won’t be any connecting buses to get them home. I tried to figure it out several years back with some mates but for some reason we weren’t able to.

Great idea…Just advertise it’s extistence and the changes to it properly- better patronage last year due to increased TV, print, radio ads- halving the fare couldn’t have hurt it either..

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