Bus network under review, again

Ex Warrior said :

If they choose to work that far away from where they reside and do not have a vehicle pls dont put the burdon on the taxpayer.
Isnt it time ACTION stop running services to meet the needs of a very few who may work shift work and not have a vehicle.

I wanted to tear this post apart, but then I saw all the spelling and punctuation errors and realised if we weren’t pouring so much money into ACTION we might have been able to get you a decent education.

Interesting choice of bus in the picture.

It confuses me at to why route 39 runs every 10ish mins between 430-6pm each day. Some days you’ll have 2 rock up at the same time as one is late and one had arrived early to sit at the interchange for a few extra mins.

Esp just after 5pm when there is a 39 at 5.06pm 5.12pm and 5.21pm. Just my gripe. Platform 8 is cramped enough. Quite often in peak hour there is 4 buses there at once.

Oh and there should be a Northbourne Ave loop in peak hour, maybe via Dickson. All those buses from platform 8 get quite cramped in the afternoon and stop at every point along Northbourne letting people off. Seems pointless having half a dozen buses leaving within minutes of each other and because of the choice of each rider have to stop at each stop along the way.

eatthatfrog said :

miz said :

Stats are all very well but they can’t be gathered from services that don’t exist – in other words, they can’t tell if they SHOULD put on another bus service in an area not yet covered by the network, so they are of limited use I would think.
Eg, I reckon they would get pretty good patronage on a couple of extra expresso services during the middle of the day and not just during peak (eg 768), because otherwise it’s quite a trek into Civic on route buses and you have to change buses once and sometimes twice. But MyWay stats wouldn’t tell you that.

Excellent point! They also can’t tell you if more people would catch a service if it was more direct or came at a better time.

For instance, if you are a retail worker living in West Belconnen (Fraser, Charnwood, Dunlop) and you work in Fyshwick (ie DFO) you cannot get to work on Sundays morning in time to start your shift at 10 am.

Single adults working in retail will not always have access to finance to buy a car, and they do not have a lot of affordable housing options.

My pattern recognition skills tell me that people in similar situations are going to end up worse off again.

If they choose to work that far away from where they reside and do not have a vehicle pls dont put the burdon on the taxpayer.
Isnt it time ACTION stop running services to meet the needs of a very few who may work shift work and not have a vehicle.

bundah said :

Evil_Kitten said :

Very Busy said :

Bad luck Kitten. ACTION have a target of only 99.5% of their scheduled services turning up. Your bus must have been in the other .5 %.

I don’t get it. What is wrong with having a target of 100%. Part of the .5% is due to insufficient buses being available. Yet, as new buses have been added to the fleet over the last year or so the old ones have been sold off for just $4,000 each. Surely the cost of keeping a few of the old buses would be insignificant when taking the damage to the brand into account when buses don’t turn up.

I have to come back in here with my kitten tail between my legs – seems I stuffed up. There are two routes that list the school near me as the first “landmark” in the timetable, but it seems the route of one has changed and it doesn’t go via my street anymore. Oops.

Sorry ACTION!

Well that’ll be a first,someone apologising to ACTION.

Yeah, I still blame them, and it didn’t even happen to me. It’d be nice to be able to catch a bus on a Saturday, but sadly my suburb isn’t serviced on weekends.

miz said :

Stats are all very well but they can’t be gathered from services that don’t exist – in other words, they can’t tell if they SHOULD put on another bus service in an area not yet covered by the network, so they are of limited use I would think.
Eg, I reckon they would get pretty good patronage on a couple of extra expresso services during the middle of the day and not just during peak (eg 768), because otherwise it’s quite a trek into Civic on route buses and you have to change buses once and sometimes twice. But MyWay stats wouldn’t tell you that.

Excellent point! They also can’t tell you if more people would catch a service if it was more direct or came at a better time.

For instance, if you are a retail worker living in West Belconnen (Fraser, Charnwood, Dunlop) and you work in Fyshwick (ie DFO) you cannot get to work on Sundays morning in time to start your shift at 10 am.

Single adults working in retail will not always have access to finance to buy a car, and they do not have a lot of affordable housing options.

My pattern recognition skills tell me that people in similar situations are going to end up worse off again.

Evil_Kitten said :

Very Busy said :

Bad luck Kitten. ACTION have a target of only 99.5% of their scheduled services turning up. Your bus must have been in the other .5 %.

I don’t get it. What is wrong with having a target of 100%. Part of the .5% is due to insufficient buses being available. Yet, as new buses have been added to the fleet over the last year or so the old ones have been sold off for just $4,000 each. Surely the cost of keeping a few of the old buses would be insignificant when taking the damage to the brand into account when buses don’t turn up.

I have to come back in here with my kitten tail between my legs – seems I stuffed up. There are two routes that list the school near me as the first “landmark” in the timetable, but it seems the route of one has changed and it doesn’t go via my street anymore. Oops.

Sorry ACTION!

Well that’ll be a first,someone apologising to ACTION.

Stats are all very well but they can’t be gathered from services that don’t exist – in other words, they can’t tell if they SHOULD put on another bus service in an area not yet covered by the network, so they are of limited use I would think.
Eg, I reckon they would get pretty good patronage on a couple of extra expresso services during the middle of the day and not just during peak (eg 768), because otherwise it’s quite a trek into Civic on route buses and you have to change buses once and sometimes twice. But MyWay stats wouldn’t tell you that.

Very Busy said :

Bad luck Kitten. ACTION have a target of only 99.5% of their scheduled services turning up. Your bus must have been in the other .5 %.

I don’t get it. What is wrong with having a target of 100%. Part of the .5% is due to insufficient buses being available. Yet, as new buses have been added to the fleet over the last year or so the old ones have been sold off for just $4,000 each. Surely the cost of keeping a few of the old buses would be insignificant when taking the damage to the brand into account when buses don’t turn up.

I have to come back in here with my kitten tail between my legs – seems I stuffed up. There are two routes that list the school near me as the first “landmark” in the timetable, but it seems the route of one has changed and it doesn’t go via my street anymore. Oops.

Sorry ACTION!

Evil_Kitten said :

I went to catch the bus on Saturday (I only do this about twice a year) and it didn’t show up. I was there early and I waited a good 20 mins after. That’s what I get for trying to be a tightarse. I went back home and called a cab. Never again ACTION!

Bad luck Kitten. ACTION have a target of only 99.5% of their scheduled services turning up. Your bus must have been in the other .5 %.

I don’t get it. What is wrong with having a target of 100%. Part of the .5% is due to insufficient buses being available. Yet, as new buses have been added to the fleet over the last year or so the old ones have been sold off for just $4,000 each. Surely the cost of keeping a few of the old buses would be insignificant when taking the damage to the brand into account when buses don’t turn up.

I’ve been catching the bus 3 days a week of late whilst I take a break from cycling (getting over some long term injuries).

My bus is consistantly 5-6 minutes late, maybe they could make the timetable a little more realistic to the actual running time of the route.