Red Rapid a winner?

What I found interesting was that no-one seemed to notice (or care) when the Chief Minister admitted that the new articulated buses will replace existing articulated buses. What this will mean in practice is that Red Rapid peak services probably won’t be serviced using artics, because all of those buses are already allocated to school and Xpresso services. By simply replacing existing buses, they will still be used exactly where they are being used now.

Being the fourth busiest ACTION route is actually not a ringing endorsement of route 200 – it’s the only route to operate every 15 minutes during the day, yet services which run half hourly (2, 313, 312) carry more passengers. Which is not to say that it isn’t busy during peak times, just questioning whether a 15 minute frequency during off-peak is entirely necessary.

Also, it’s worth pointing out that the Network 12 is only expected to commence on 28 May – the start date is not yet certain.

The artics are also too long for bike racks, hence why none of the existing fleet (some of which will be kept) don’t have them either.

Yurgle_the_Yeti said :

I agree that the crowding on Flemington Rd buses is an issue. However, the link you gave only refers to the current 3-axle steer-tag buses being too long for racks. There is nothing in there about bike racks not being able to be fitted on articulated buses…

Fair point. My bad.

Gungahlin Al said :

The greater frequency of services on Flemington Road cannot come soon enough. The crowding on peak buses is ridiculous. If you get on anywhere after the Gungahlin town centre, you can forget sitting down. And for Harrison/Mitchell people it’s hello front doorstep.

A bit concerning is that Katy has said that bike racks can’t be fitted to the new articulated buses that are on their way (eventually) because they’d then be too long: http://act.greens.org.au/content/question-without-notice-action-bus-services-routes-timetables-overcrowding-29-march-2012

I agree that the crowding on Flemington Rd buses is an issue. However, the link you gave only refers to the current 3-axle steer-tag buses being too long for racks. There is nothing in there about bike racks not being able to be fitted on articulated buses…

The greater frequency of services on Flemington Road cannot come soon enough. The crowding on peak buses is ridiculous. If you get on anywhere after the Gungahlin town centre, you can forget sitting down. And for Harrison/Mitchell people it’s hello front doorstep.

A bit concerning is that Katy has said that bike racks can’t be fitted to the new articulated buses that are on their way (eventually) because they’d then be too long: http://act.greens.org.au/content/question-without-notice-action-bus-services-routes-timetables-overcrowding-29-march-2012

Lower Narrabundah residents will benefit from the new Red Rapid bus stop on Canberra Ave near Nyrang St in May.
The downside is that Kingston Railway Station is no longer on the route. Is this a portent that the Kingston Railway Station & rail-line will be demolished and taken back to just over the Monaro Highway?

JessP said :

Why are the bus’s always late?

I’m on a 312 and the bleeding bus is never on time in peak hour. Then it takes and HOUR to get from Evatt to Woden.

How fast do you realistic think it should take?

When you break it down 1 hour isn’t all that unreasonable for the journey you mention. That is 25 minutes in the suburbs collecting passengers on the way to Belconnen, then 20 mins from Belconnen to Civic and 15 Civic to Woden.

I can see a way to cut 5 minutes off the trip, that is by avoiding UC and Haydon Drive (as the 333 of old used to), but not much else to reduce the time. The sad thing with buses is a) they need to go around the burbs to collect passengers, and b) need to drop them somewhere, either way it isn’t going to be super fast. Maybe what you want is a point to point service, which umm many have and it’s called a car. Not as cheap in the long run though.

JessP said :

Why are the bus’s always late?

I’m on a 312 and the bleeding bus is never on time in peak hour. Then it takes and HOUR to get from Evatt to Woden.

I really hope that data from MyWay is going to be used to make the information published in timetables more accurate. Now that the buses have GPS systems installed, ACTION should be able to see what real world timings are like compared to the published timetable, and if necessary adjust the timetable.

I’d also like to have the option to see when the bus normally arrives at my particular stop, instead of having to estimate how long it’d take to get from the closest timing point to my stop.

I really hope that the work ACTION are doing to develop smart phone apps flows down to every aspect of their online presence (which at the moment, is pretty sub standard), and the power of having GPS enables buses is fully utilised.

Imagine how quick interchanges would be if the rapid buses worked like trains.. Swipe on before the bus came and swipe off after you get off!

Why are the bus’s always late? I’m on a 312 and the bleeding bus is never on time in peak hour. Then it takes and HOUR to get from Evatt to Woden.