Action Buses... AGAIN

voytek3 said :

Why is it that it is always people that live out in scumgahlin that write these stupid pieces? You live in the biggest hole in the southern hemisphere. You are lucky to even have public transport out there.

Insightful, elegant and sophisticated prose from master voytek.

Cheers for the enlightenment old chap :/

Why is it that it is always people that live out in scumgahlin that write these stupid pieces? You live in the biggest hole in the southern hemisphere. You are lucky to even have public transport out there.

FioBla said :

johnboy said :

newcastle does have significant rail

I’m going to phrase this carefully. You are correct that Newcastle has train tracks. But I doubt a normal person would look at Newcastle’s heavy rail, and say “yes, that really adds to Newcastle public transport system”.

Then they should look again. Newcastle does have a reasonable suburban heavy rail service, although it is not as widespread as it was and developers keep looking at the railway station area and want to get rid of it (and where have we heard that recently, closer to home?).

FioBla said :

johnboy said :

newcastle does have significant rail

I’m going to phrase this carefully. You are correct that Newcastle has train tracks. But I doubt a normal person would look at Newcastle’s heavy rail, and say “yes, that really adds to Newcastle public transport system”.

Unlike e.g. the rail in Sydney (not saying that it’s great).

Couldn’t agree more, Newcastle has the tracks, but the ‘local’ service towards Wyong is about every hour, same too with the line towards Maitland. The line to Sydney serves a very narrow corridor and the line to Maitland much the same except at Maitland itself.

johnboy said :

newcastle does have significant rail

I’m going to phrase this carefully. You are correct that Newcastle has train tracks. But I doubt a normal person would look at Newcastle’s heavy rail, and say “yes, that really adds to Newcastle public transport system”.

Unlike e.g. the rail in Sydney (not saying that it’s great).

First, I think that Gungahlin does have a relatively poorer service (weekend and weekday) to Civic, compared to what Tuggeranong & Belconnen do (although the Tuggeranong-Civic route also services Woden). From that point of view, it does seem justifiable to hope that the Red Rapid will eventually be as frequent as the Blue Rapid is.

But. I also think that Canberra has far better services than a city of its population deserves. And that those services are expensive. Population-wise, the closest Australia city to Canberra is probably Newcastle. The quality of the roads, the extensiveness of highway-quality roads, and the bus service, are miles better in Canberra. Even if you’re not familiar with Newcastle, have a look at the network map and time tables on: http://www.newcastlebuses.info.

At this stage, the usual fall back is: but we’re a designed city, or but we’re the capital, or but… 

Dunno about that. The Hunter region exports a ton of coal. Maybe they deserve the amenities we take for granted.

Not suggesting that people shouldn’t complain. By all means, complain. As mentioned the above suggestion (in the guise of a hyperbolic complaint (the food is terrible—and such small portions!)) has merit. There was an earlier suggestion that the Blue Rapid service Wanniassa, which after looking at a map, I thought was quite valid: http://the-riotact.com/no-bus-stops-on-athllon-drive-kambahwanniassa/110158

And http://the-riotact.com/tag/action has several other complaint-containing-suggestions.

Unfortunately the timetotalk thing for “Network 2014” has ended. But there are some changes at http://www.action.act.gov.au/news/network-14

johnboy said :

chicken and egg with the weekend services though.

if they weren’t so crap they might get more than the utter desperadoes.

Reminds me of the time about 15 years ago when I asked in a supermarket for free range eggs, and was told there was no demand… (Actually there was a space for them, which was always empty, so I suspect that as well as me “demanding” them, whenever they did get stock they were probably selling out instantly.)

The market is not always right – it is easily manipulated.

IP

watto23 said :

I agree with the OP in the sense of the time it takes to get from A-B. Now maybe a weekend is asking too much to expect commuter grade service, but in general buses will take 2-3 times longer than a car journey. And the light rail won’t help because its a slow service down northbourne, when what we really need is rapid intercity public transport via rail or dedicated busways.

Bull crap. Have a look at a timetable, the connections between the town centres are already fast and regular. Besides how much more do you reckon you can knock off the travel times? I know you could knock 5 off Belconnen to the City by going back to the old 333 routing which avoided UC, CIT and Calvary Hospital, though each of those are traffic generators so really worth keeping. Don’t see how you could make City to Woden any quicker, nor for that matter Woden to Tuggeranong.

About the only route that could be made quicker is City to Gungahlin by making it limited stops.

Now what slows the buses down end to end is the meandering through the suburbs. Something that unfortunately is a necessary evil as they need to do that to pick up enough people to make the service worth while. Cannot think of anyway to make the trips in the burbs any quicker, except maybe give everyone a taxi ride for the cost of a bus fare.

In relation to you getting from the unserviceable bit of Gundaroo Road to the City. May I suggest walking a 15 minute walk to Palmerston & catch the 956 (https://www.action.act.gov.au/routes/pdf/956.pdf) directly to the City.

In relation to weekend Red Rapids, when the two most direct City to Gungahlin services leave 5 minutes apart they are well patronised. Also the 980 from the City to DFO is also popular. If you put two things together that would suggest that the 200 would work on weekends.

How can we justify light rail to Gungahlin when we can’t justify a bus frequency that Tuggeranong to Belconnen get 7 days a week (every 5 minutes on weekdays & 15 on weekends). Hopefully we see a short version of the 201 on weekends in Network 14 with a 20 minute frequency. I’m sure Franklin/Harrison residents wouldn’t mind losing an hourly, windy bus route for a frequent direct service on weekends.

I always have a bit of a chuckle when people complain about bus services in Canberra. It just makes it blatantly obvious that they’ve never been a non-driver in a country town. In my home town, a regular bus service is the stuff of dreams, like unicorns and non-racist locals.