Does anyone aside from Simon Corbell want a busway?

At Mark of Sydney: “Gunzels”: You Sir, know something about train fan boys.

And, Agreed

Step 1.
Make buses free.

Step 2.
From step 1 work out the maximum PT usage.

Step 3.
Work out the cost/benefit of a train.
Each person that catches a free bus would be assigned a token amount of money as they would have less impact on the roads.

If you can get the numbers for buses up then it makes sense to put in trains,
any trains would mean that money for expanding roads would then be spent of trains instead as the current roads wont need expanding.

Step 4.
When you work out we can have trains.
Rezone land along the route and sell to the highest bidder (these become mini interchanges/stations).
$$ from extra land value goes to train budget.

Step 5.
Encourage people to mix bike travel with trains.

Check out Brisbane’s evolving Busway network, it is fantastic. I really don’t see what advantage a light rail provides over a well-designed busway network in a low-medium density city such as Canberra.

Mysteryman said :

Your taxes are going up anyway. You may as well get something good for it!

I should have said raising my taxes even more.

thehutch said :

Yes, I don’t want the Government to do anything unless it directly helps me! Selfish much?

I’ll admit to being selfish, but there’s a difference between not wanting something and being opposed to something. Language isn’t logic, so the law of the excluded middle doesn’t apply.

johnboy said :

The biggest problem with busways it seems is that we can only have buses at hours convenient to the social plans of bus drivers.

Does this mean I win. I seem to have annoyed JB

I’m all for a BRT if for example the bus goes directly from say Town centre to town centre, with some services that do midway stops. eg at 80km/h thats a 15minute trip from Tugg to Civic and probably a bit shorter from Gungahlin to Civic.

Also BRT can be converted at a later date. The ACT government likes doing things in steps eg the GDE.

johnboy said :

The biggest problem with busways it seems is that we can only have buses at hours convenient to the social plans of bus drivers.

Maybe we could get a Gina Reinhart deal with overseas workers, but the TWU’s wouldn’t be happy with that

Amanda Bresnan’s comment that ‘NSW has just costed an extension to its light rail network at a per-kilometre cost that is less than half the ACT Government’s per-kilometre estimate for light rail in Canberra’ ignores the fact that the Sydney light rail extension (from Lilyfield to Dulwich Hill) will be over an existing rail freight line.

As was done with the existing section from Darling Harbour, all that is needed is to lay new track over the existing rail bed, which comes complete with tunnels and bridges, and build an overhead power supply and some new tram stops.

Without the existing rail infrastructure no one in their right mind would build a public transport right of way along this corridor – it has no significant employment centres and little by way of higher density housing (except at the CBD end). I use the current service and it’s a very relaxing way of getting into the city – you can always get a seat as few people use it apart from gamblers riding between Haymarket and the Casino.

If the state Labor Government hadn’t already put the extension in train in respond to demands by inner west progressives (like me), there is no way the O’Farrell Government would have gone ahead.

The current obsession with trams has been described by a pro-public transport expert as ‘modal fetishism’. Sydney had a bad case of it under the previous government, prompted IMHO by a growing inferiority complex in relation to Melbourne.

Instead of gunzel-like obsessing about the technology, public transport activists in Canberra would be better off focusing on setting the routes and levels of service expected of a rapid transport system and letting the experts work out the most cost-effective solution.

This shouldn’t be about a rolls-royce solution for the Gungahlin-to-city route, but about the best solution for the entire city for the available money.

On the face of it, I’d go for bus rapid transport:
– you get more bang for your buck
– the vehicles can be used on public roads as well as the right of way so local services can use the right of way and there is less need for passengers to change
– buses can use a range of power sources, including overhead power, batteries, and hybrid power
– if a bus breaks down it doesn’t block the line until it’s removed

But then again I’m no expert, unlike the Greens and light rail gunzels.

mcwingstar said :

johnboy said :

The biggest problem with busways it seems is that we can only have buses at hours convenient to the social plans of bus drivers.

I don’t believe rail “drivers” are any less socially inclined.
I have nothing to back this up, but wouldn’t the need for double-up of support staff (maintenance etc) make it even more business-hours focused?

In Copenhagen they have driver-less trains with there metro system, but a metro costs $$$$ than light rail and $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ than BRT!

johnboy said :

The biggest problem with busways it seems is that we can only have buses at hours convenient to the social plans of bus drivers.

I don’t believe rail “drivers” are any less socially inclined.
I have nothing to back this up, but wouldn’t the need for double-up of support staff (maintenance etc) make it even more business-hours focused?