Cheaper Bus fares! Would that be a plus?

Actually Morgan it would cot me more to get a monthly pass then it does to get a 10 ride beacuse i need to drive at least one day aweek beacuse i have to stay back till around 2 in the morning at least one night a week.

Just wonder – how many posters actually used bus, because if you’re not lazy enough to get to nearest news agency on the way for you ritual morning coffee you’ll be able to buy 10-trip ticket for $22, that’s $2.20 one way, even less with other tickets.

I actually catch the bus and i don’t drink coffee. Also it is a little difficult to go past a newsagency when you catch a bus.

Dain the purpose of the long routes is to best use the bus without it sitting around at interchanges idle etc. There are some exceptions but in most cases they are not designed for people to sit on them end to end, hence why they all go through an interchange at some point.

If you go back 10-15 years ago when 90% of the routes were interchange to suburbia you would have a bus sitting for about 15 minutes between routes. With the current system some of the buses come from suburbia then continue through, cutting the idle time. It also has the advantage you don’t need bus layover bays or complex interchanges. Just look at the new interchange planned for Belco, it isn’t much more than a few stops outside Westfield.

The 3 (ex 34) is an oddity though as it is designed as a hospital link and also hence why it was a 100% low floor route. Weather it is needed west of civic anymore is debatable as all the intertown buses stop at Calvary anyway, something which in the past they didn’t do.

Gungahlin Al said :

Would a 333 service only be half as much hell as a 666 service?

no, it would take double the time to travel, creating a 666 service after all.

Would a 333 service only be half as much hell as a 666 service?

The obvious problem here, and everyone is missing it, is that the buses are painted the wrong colour.

why don’t they just bring back the 333 service?

makes more sense…

Let’s take a “new renamed” route 3 – Woden – Belconnen via Garran, Hughes, Deakin, Forrest and so on. If I want get from Garran to Belconnen it’ll take me almost an hour. But if I want get Belco twice faster I’ll catch bus going Woden and then Intertown to Belconnen. So where’s point running such long route at all ? Just run the same or smaller bus around Garran, Hughes, Deakin which will deliver people from suburbs to nearest Interchange fast and Bingo! problem almost solved.

Just wonder – how many posters actually used bus, because if you’re not lazy enough to get to nearest news agency on the way for you ritual morning coffee you’ll be able to buy 10-trip ticket for $22, that’s $2.20 one way, even less with other tickets.

Honestly, the only problem with current bus system is “one a hour” bus around outer suburbs, Intertown route 3XX connects Tugger with Belco via City and goes every 10 minutes or so. But most intersuburb routes usually carry one to five passengers and obviously there’s not much sence to put more buses on such routes. So it’s not a rocket science to run instead one big Man once an hour four shuttle buses which will go in circles let’s say every 15 minutes around two or three suburbs and interchange in peak hour and every half hour other time.

blueberry said :

are you in Queanbeyan? Because I can’t see how someone spends $6 a day to catch the bus on ACTION

Um at around $3 each way? Yup that adds up to $6.

The parking near my work is 3.60 for the whole day or 3.00 if you get in early and get a spot in the cheep car park.

Yes but if you are catching the bus every day you are buying prepaid tickets and getting a discount $80/month is $4 a day isn’t it?

oops (double post)

though I suggested cutting down the trees and building a multi storey carpark on the lyneham ovals….

Thumper said :

Monorail that starts from Northbourne Avenue at Wakefield Avenue, down to Limestone, down Anzac Parade, left onto Parkes way, across the lake on Kings Avenue up to Capital Hill, cut back down Commonwealth Avenue, round City Hill and back to the start.

I am sure that this was mentioned before….

Monorail that starts from Northbourne Avenue at Wakefield Avenue, down to Limestone, down Anzac Parade, left onto Parkes way, across the lake on Kings Avenue up to Capital Hill, cut back down Commonwealth Avenue, round City Hill and back to the start.

For our light rail fans replace the arterial busway with trams.

Well said Al.

Canberra due to its “built around the car suburban layout” needs a unique solution. Some hi-tech rechargable driverless thingy that constantly circles a suburb, which connects with high frequency – every 5 mins or so – feeder bus or simliar along all the main inter suburban roads which then link into a Adelaide style busway on the main/arterial roads. Take 1+ lanes off the roads and make them bus only, on all three lane roads make only 1 lane for vehicles with 1 occupant, the other a T2. Once people face a choice of slower than a bus single occupant car – they will either car pool or use public transport.

With all the high-tech speed camera’s no reason not to make a slower speed limit for single occupant cars. Make smart cars or anything less than 999cc exempt from needing 2 people to use a T2.

That would radically change Canberra’s traffic.

Those who discuss the cost of public service operation in isolation just don’t get it.
Governments should not be scared of the cost of running a bus service (or light rail). They should look at the entire equation.
How much does it save them in roadworks deferred or forgone altogether?
How much more do they get in rates along a dedicated public transport route?
In ACT, how much more would they get in land sale prices if there was a guaranteed service?
How much do you save in health costs?
How much greenhouse emissions are avoided?
How much air pollution is avoided (admittedly not much of an issue in ACT)?
How much long-term landfill cost is avoided when families only require one car?
etc etc
Some of this is small but it adds up. Some of it is huge. Think of how much interest the loan to upgrade the Majura Road will cost. $150M at say 5% = $7.5M pa.

Hey Roland, how about a chairlift network? Rather than hauling people up mountains we could deploy them laterally along major trunk routes. Then all people need to do is hop on and hop off. With the ever decreasing snow season we can probably pick up a few from the snowies at a bargain price.
You know it makes sense.

Surely it is about seamless rapid transit.

The biggest issue is always going to be convenience. For many people it needs to be to and from their front door. On top of park and ride (plus cycle and ride.. if that makes sense) we need to link a comprehensive taxi service (if only we had one!) into a fast transport mainframe. Other transport solutions, such as pooled vehicles in multi unit developments, would be part of the solution.

PS: and ACTION needs more drivers before it can add to the services it is providing.

It would also be an administrative nightmare.

besides that, it’s simply unfair. Lower wage earner cannot afford to live close to city centres, whereas high wage earners can, so you would simply be penalising those who could least afford it.

How about the govt dropping the fuel excise as they did in qld?

they would save money for ACTION buses as well, diesel is not cheap….

AG Canberra said :

Set up the rego system that is more user pays – the more kays you do the more you pay. A further incentive to take public transport.

AG, thats not going to work. Not all KM’s travelled neatly parallel public transport availability