Is ACTION trying to do too much?

Maya123 said :

bj_ACT said :

Thanks gbates for those weird and wonderful ACTION bus routes. I now know why my sister in law complains about her daughters bus to school in Phillip from her place at Monash. According to Google maps 10 mins by car and 10km, taking Bus number 65 is 27km and 38 minutes. Given the walk to the bus stop and giving yourself 5 minute leeway for timing it’s no wonder she complained so much.

Here’s the complex route and number of stops from the transit app. I am going to vote this bus route of the Year! Does a commuter jumping on at Beasley st Torrrens know what has just preceded them?
http://transittimesapp.com/canberra/action-buses-bus-65-tuggeranong-woden.html

There are closer schools to Monash than Phillip. Monash Primary School, Caroline Chisholm School and Erindale College. If the student went to them they could cycle or walk to school. I find it strange when people ignore the provided local school and then complain about the bus access and bus travel times to one further away. ACTION shouldn’t be expected to provide a service ferrying children around Canberra when there is a provided local school, which the parents are choosing to ignore. We are so spoiled in Canberra with so many nearby provided schools. For some reality; how about children needing to catch the bus at 7am from over 50kms away to get to school, as some of my fellow class mates did. It took so long, because it wasn’t a direct 50kms; the schools buses wound in and out of minor roads and lanes to collect the students from farms and small settlements. That sort of puts the complaints about buses here into perspective; which is often a personal choice if the local school is ignored.

I’d only embarrass you if I explained why she went to school in Phillip. Let’s just say you can’t always attend your nearest school for a variety of reasons.

Anyway this is not the real issue, let’s change the story to a young person who catches the 65 bus to their job at David Jones Woden. Surely people think that bus 65 is a pretty winding bus route with a lot of stops.

dungfungus said :

KentFitch said :

JC said :

Raging Tempest said :

Apart from the lack of availability of buses at night, the magical mystery tour routes are a disincentive to use the service. Using my routes as examples, it is 30 minutes from my bus stop to Tuggeranong on the 65 or 66 – 5km and we aren’t the first suburb it goes through. Its 40 minutes on the 67. It takes 45 minutes to walk it. Of course I’ll drive the 5km.
The whole system needs an overhaul to make it user friendly again.

Not much can be done about the mystery tour routings. The buses need to do these routes to find sufficient passengers to carry. Only way around it is to bulldoze the suburbs and start again with a far greater density.

Bulldozing the suburbs would be very expensive. It is very expensive to make buses meet the mobility needs that a decent society should be providing to all its citizens, regardless of income, age and capabilities. Unless you are willing to bet against the auto-makers, the largest engineering schools, transport researchers, a growing number of governments, a large assortment of bankers, think-tanks and consultants, there will soon (4-8 years, a blink of the eye in urban/transport planning terms) be a viable alternative for Canberra, which already has an extensive and high quality road network, and that is a shared fleet of autonomous electric vehicles.

I understand that for many people, this requires a reversal of the “cars are bad” reflex they will never make. But technology changes things, often dramatically. If the goal is not to cling to ideology, but rather to sincerely address the challenge of providing universal mobility and helping to restore dignity and independence to the most vulnerable in society, please think about this and help drive the process whereby the adaption of the technology is driven by the community rather than multinationals: http://www.projectcomputing.com/resources/cacs/#motivation

I have two questions about autonomous electric cars.
Assuming 100 people on a bus decide to commute with the new mode, won’t this increase vehicle congestion? If there were 2 people per car this would mean 50 cars would replace one bus.
Also, any vehicle totally dependant (and hybrids too) on battery power has only half its maximum range in cold weather (reduced power retention and higher drain for passenger heating) so the new autonomous cars are going to spend more time at a charging station than on the road in our wintere months.
As the tram passengers will find out in Canberra when the drivers have to use the super capacitors in the designated wire free zones, there will be no heating or cooling.
That’s “progress”.

Thanks for the questions. If 100 bus passengers had the same origin and destination (all going from A to B) and journey start time, and the autonomous car had 4 seats, there would be 4 passengers per autonomous car. But 25 cars, even when “platooning” takes up MUCH more road capacity than 1 bus (road capacity used depends on distance and travel speed and road area occupied, including inter-vehicle gap). Passenger comfort also needs to be considered. But even assuming all bus passengers are seated and autonomous cars are platooned and cars have an average journey speed of 20% higher than the bus, and routes are 10% shorter, then autonomous cars occupy roughly 4 times more road capacity than the bus. Now, if the bus isn’t full, things aren’t as dramatic: if the 100 seat bus is on average 25% full, autonomous cars will occupy about the same road capacity as the bus. But this isnt a “fair” comparison for the bus, because the bus is not as likely to be not full in peak travel times when road capacity occupied is most important. That is, who cares if the big bus isnt full at 11am when the road isnt full either (at least from a road capacity point of view).

So, on a near full capacity road route serviced efficiently only or mainly by buses, moving passengers to autonomous cars won’t work: they require 4 times the road space, even allowing for platooning. For heavy rail vehicles (faster!) and double-decker buses, the figures are even WORSE for autonomous cars: autonomous cars ARE NOT an alternative to mass transit where tens of thousands of people need to get from A to B, at least with the current technology being commercialised.

So, what are they good for? Routes such as Northbourne have a practical (realistic, happy) capacity of around 1000-1500 vehicles per hour per lane (3000 – 4500 for the three lanes). The Capital Metro EIS modelling assumes that in 2021 with the greater population density coming with light rail, around 2500 cars will be using Northbourne in the AM peak hour, and up to 2000 passengers on the light-rail (all trams full). There will be no buses. So, assuming 1.2 people per car, that’s say, 5,000 people travelling down Northbourne. If they were all in normal cars (1.2 people per car), that’s 4200 cars, which is at or over the practical capacity: delays will be great and escalate with bad weather, accidents, anything going wrong.

But if those 5,000 people are instead travelling in autonomous cars with an average 2 people per car, only 2500 cars are needed. Even without the traffic flow optimisations which will come with autonomous cars (platooning, optimum use of signals, possibly higher speeds), the existing road capacity is more than adequate. With those flow optimisations, conservative analyses of traffic flow indicate a doubling of per-lane capacity (ie, from 1000-1500 to 2000-3000 cars per lane per hour).

As traveller numbers increase, the number of passengers with common (or on-route) sources and destinations increases even faster, and the average car occupancy will increase above 2.0, so required car numbers increase much more slowly than passenger numbers until the ceiling of 4 is reached (at over double the current travel-demand levels).

Canberra is blessed (or cursed, depending on your view) with an excellent road infrastructure, so using a shared fleet of autonomous cars as the primary transport system can work here, but won’t work in New York or London or Singapore peak periods (but nonetheless, is being looked at in all those places as providing “last mile” to and from the mass-transit hubs, and a way of improving mobility for those unable to use mass-transit).

Now, those cars travelling down Northbourne have to return, at least in the early parts of peak hour, back to pick up more commuters from (in this example) Gungahlin. There will be some “counter-flow” travellers to use some of these cars, but not many (as you can see by looking at the Northbourne northbound at 8am – it is fairly empty, as are the returning buses..). But note, these (often empty) return flow cars do not contribute to congestion – they are occupying otherwise unused road space.

Re battery/range, YES, range is less in cold weather because the batteries dont operate as efficiently, and some of their capacity is used for cabin heating. In hot/humid weather, some capacity is used for cooling. However, existing EV battery capacities are already adequate to operate a shared fleet with four default conservative assumptions of a 240km theoretical range, only charging the battery to 80%, recharging when it falls to 25% capacity, and recharging power of 75kW. The announced GM “Bolt” pure EV on sale at the end of the year in the USA) will have a theoretical range of 320km; Telsa superchargers operate at 120kW.

A common experience of Tesla EV owners is that in extreme cold (-25C), heaters use 10% of the battery and range falls by 30%. Canberra is fairly mild by comparison. BTW, you can change the assumptions of range and recharge power in the simulation: http://www.projectcomputing.com/resources/cacs/sim.html
and the parameters are described here: http://www.projectcomputing.com/resources/cacs/model.html

bj_ACT said :

Thanks gbates for those weird and wonderful ACTION bus routes. I now know why my sister in law complains about her daughters bus to school in Phillip from her place at Monash. According to Google maps 10 mins by car and 10km, taking Bus number 65 is 27km and 38 minutes. Given the walk to the bus stop and giving yourself 5 minute leeway for timing it’s no wonder she complained so much.

Here’s the complex route and number of stops from the transit app. I am going to vote this bus route of the Year! Does a commuter jumping on at Beasley st Torrrens know what has just preceded them?
http://transittimesapp.com/canberra/action-buses-bus-65-tuggeranong-woden.html

There are closer schools to Monash than Phillip. Monash Primary School, Caroline Chisholm School and Erindale College. If the student went to them they could cycle or walk to school. I find it strange when people ignore the provided local school and then complain about the bus access and bus travel times to one further away. ACTION shouldn’t be expected to provide a service ferrying children around Canberra when there is a provided local school, which the parents are choosing to ignore. We are so spoiled in Canberra with so many nearby provided schools. For some reality; how about children needing to catch the bus at 7am from over 50kms away to get to school, as some of my fellow class mates did. It took so long, because it wasn’t a direct 50kms; the schools buses wound in and out of minor roads and lanes to collect the students from farms and small settlements. That sort of puts the complaints about buses here into perspective; which is often a personal choice if the local school is ignored.

Thanks gbates for those weird and wonderful ACTION bus routes. I now know why my sister in law complains about her daughters bus to school in Phillip from her place at Monash. According to Google maps 10 mins by car and 10km, taking Bus number 65 is 27km and 38 minutes. Given the walk to the bus stop and giving yourself 5 minute leeway for timing it’s no wonder she complained so much.

Here’s the complex route and number of stops from the transit app. I am going to vote this bus route of the Year! Does a commuter jumping on at Beasley st Torrrens know what has just preceded them?
http://transittimesapp.com/canberra/action-buses-bus-65-tuggeranong-woden.html

JC said :

Raging Tempest said :

Apart from the lack of availability of buses at night, the magical mystery tour routes are a disincentive to use the service. Using my routes as examples, it is 30 minutes from my bus stop to Tuggeranong on the 65 or 66 – 5km and we aren’t the first suburb it goes through. Its 40 minutes on the 67. It takes 45 minutes to walk it. Of course I’ll drive the 5km.
The whole system needs an overhaul to make it user friendly again.

Not much can be done about the mystery tour routings. The buses need to do these routes to find sufficient passengers to carry. Only way around it is to bulldoze the suburbs and start again with a far greater density.

Back in the days of yore (80s/90s) the routes were shorter through these same suburbs and it was around 30 minutes interchange to interchange. It can and has been done, and while I get the issue of rider numbers, the whole thing needs a complete revamp. An hour between interchanges is far too long and is a disincentive to use the service which then perpetuates the cycle.

rubaiyat said :

The best way to reduce travel times is to shorten the distances travelled or eliminate the journeys all together.

Well said, rubaiyat!
We wouldn’t have such a need for better public transport if a the planners did a better job.

KentFitch said :

JC said :

Raging Tempest said :

Apart from the lack of availability of buses at night, the magical mystery tour routes are a disincentive to use the service. Using my routes as examples, it is 30 minutes from my bus stop to Tuggeranong on the 65 or 66 – 5km and we aren’t the first suburb it goes through. Its 40 minutes on the 67. It takes 45 minutes to walk it. Of course I’ll drive the 5km.
The whole system needs an overhaul to make it user friendly again.

Not much can be done about the mystery tour routings. The buses need to do these routes to find sufficient passengers to carry. Only way around it is to bulldoze the suburbs and start again with a far greater density.

Bulldozing the suburbs would be very expensive. It is very expensive to make buses meet the mobility needs that a decent society should be providing to all its citizens, regardless of income, age and capabilities. Unless you are willing to bet against the auto-makers, the largest engineering schools, transport researchers, a growing number of governments, a large assortment of bankers, think-tanks and consultants, there will soon (4-8 years, a blink of the eye in urban/transport planning terms) be a viable alternative for Canberra, which already has an extensive and high quality road network, and that is a shared fleet of autonomous electric vehicles.

I understand that for many people, this requires a reversal of the “cars are bad” reflex they will never make. But technology changes things, often dramatically. If the goal is not to cling to ideology, but rather to sincerely address the challenge of providing universal mobility and helping to restore dignity and independence to the most vulnerable in society, please think about this and help drive the process whereby the adaption of the technology is driven by the community rather than multinationals: http://www.projectcomputing.com/resources/cacs/#motivation

I have two questions about autonomous electric cars.
Assuming 100 people on a bus decide to commute with the new mode, won’t this increase vehicle congestion? If there were 2 people per car this would mean 50 cars would replace one bus.
Also, any vehicle totally dependant (and hybrids too) on battery power has only half its maximum range in cold weather (reduced power retention and higher drain for passenger heating) so the new autonomous cars are going to spend more time at a charging station than on the road in our wintere months.
As the tram passengers will find out in Canberra when the drivers have to use the super capacitors in the designated wire free zones, there will be no heating or cooling.
That’s “progress”.

We actually have great transport corridors in Canberra. They are called ‘main roads.’
The Xpresso bus routes work really well by using these corridors (for example, picking up at group centres like Calwell and Chisholm then going on the Monaro Highway to Barton, Russell and Civic, instead of the route bus which winds through several suburbs and two obligatory interchanges, including getting off one bus and onto another, if they are lucky enough to connect). Unfortunately, Xpressos only operate during peak times on weekdays.

I think adding just a couple of Xpresso runs during the day and on weekends would make a huge difference to patronage, given those are the times when buses are most infrequent and inconvenient.

ACTION could deliver a much better service for the same price if it was run by smarter people. Every day I witness truly world-leading inefficiency stemming from the ridiculous timetables and bizarre meandering routes.

For example, according to the timetables, the 300 series buses all take exactly the same amount of time to get from Tuggeranong to the city, regardless of whether it’s peak hour or late in the evening. The morning drivers are all in Summernats mode trying (with futility) to stay on time while the evening drivers trundle along the single lanes of Athllon drive at 50 so they don’t get too far ahead. The unfortunate drivers stuck behind the bus get to share in the inefficiency. On this same route the empty buses travel in groups of three between Woden and Tuggeranong while it’s sardines between Woden and the city. If ACTION had anyone, anyone at all, with only half a 2W LED eco light bulb in their head, they would have some of the buses turn around in Woden to more effectively balance the passenger load.

Next up is the poor use of resources. A new bus costs ~500k, which is a lot for something where the windows don’t even open, so you’d want to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your (our) buck. I’m told that each single bus is assigned to a single driver which would explain why there are always idle buses sitting around at all hours of the day, including the busy times, while the drivers take their meal breaks. I wonder if this fact also goes some of the way to explaining the high number of buses lying around the ACTION yards at all times of the day, even when it’s busy or why the concertina buses often seem to be servicing really unpopular routes. Now ACTION wants even more buses to implement the increase to break time in the new enterprise agreement by increasing the number of parked buses.

Finally the routes. Oh the routes. I’d guess the number one reason why bus patronage is so low is because you can’t just go to your town centre without going all the way around it first. It also goes part of the way to explaining why it takes forty days and forty nights to get from one bit of Canberra to another. I think ACTION’s own maps make my point for me here. There’s this tribute to Disney’s Pluto: https://www.action.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/708264/network14_83-783.pdf
or maybe the Oxley Scenic tour is more your thing: https://www.action.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/708248/network14_61-161.pdf
Finally this one which doesn’t look like anything but when your three year old tells you it’s a horse you just tell him he’s done a good job with his new crayons:
https://www.action.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/708254/network14_65-765.pdf
Well it’s time for ACTION to get some new crayons, and some new personnel. These bad apples are being thrown in with the light rail to make Transport Canberra. I shudder at the thought of the new and imaginative maladministration these people can inflict upon this marginally promising project.

JC said :

Raging Tempest said :

Apart from the lack of availability of buses at night, the magical mystery tour routes are a disincentive to use the service. Using my routes as examples, it is 30 minutes from my bus stop to Tuggeranong on the 65 or 66 – 5km and we aren’t the first suburb it goes through. Its 40 minutes on the 67. It takes 45 minutes to walk it. Of course I’ll drive the 5km.
The whole system needs an overhaul to make it user friendly again.

Not much can be done about the mystery tour routings. The buses need to do these routes to find sufficient passengers to carry. Only way around it is to bulldoze the suburbs and start again with a far greater density.

Bulldozing the suburbs would be very expensive. It is very expensive to make buses meet the mobility needs that a decent society should be providing to all its citizens, regardless of income, age and capabilities. Unless you are willing to bet against the auto-makers, the largest engineering schools, transport researchers, a growing number of governments, a large assortment of bankers, think-tanks and consultants, there will soon (4-8 years, a blink of the eye in urban/transport planning terms) be a viable alternative for Canberra, which already has an extensive and high quality road network, and that is a shared fleet of autonomous electric vehicles.

I understand that for many people, this requires a reversal of the “cars are bad” reflex they will never make. But technology changes things, often dramatically. If the goal is not to cling to ideology, but rather to sincerely address the challenge of providing universal mobility and helping to restore dignity and independence to the most vulnerable in society, please think about this and help drive the process whereby the adaption of the technology is driven by the community rather than multinationals: http://www.projectcomputing.com/resources/cacs/#motivation

JC said :

miz said :

ACTION recently tried to increase services to make it more efficient where needed, but the improved timetable could not be implemented because they simply do not have enough buses. It is clear that ACTION is being hamstrung by this govt because they are funnelling as much PT money as possible to the stupid non-existent tram (which, even if implemented, will serve few Canberrans).
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/action-doesnt-have-enough-buses-to-introduce-new-weekday-bus-timetable-20150916-gjohjf.html
PT is definitely one of those things we pay our rates and taxes for – private buses lines etc are not interested in the public good, only in making a profit, which means the people who need PT most are served more poorly (which is, of course, counterintuitive to the whole point of PT).

All well and good to say that, but the facts speak differently. Action is getting additional money and it is getting additional buses too. Though the story is correct they didn’t have sufficient buses to run the proposed timetable.

As for private buses, just need to look to QBN to see what happens when a private operator runs routes. The fare from QBN to CBR for example is extortion. You could of course follow the contract model, but then the government is still subsidising PT. No easy answer really.

There is also the problem of getting enough drivers, with virtually every government in Australia and around the world failing to bite the bullet on public transport and planning, just patching it all with the clearly unsatisfactory and unpopular buses.

If you live in some 3rd world nation wracked with poverty and want to be short listed as an Australian citizen, get a heavy vehicle licence.

Leon said :

ACTION is actually doing too little. After it carried 7.8% of work commuters in 2011, the Government made an election commitment to increase that share to 10.5% by 2016. But by 2014, instead of increasing, the mode share had actually fallen to 7.1%.

Part of the reason is the lack of strategic transit lanes.

The Transport Demand Elasticities Study found that the best way to get bums on bus seats is to reduce travel times. The Government could boost bus patronage, without negative impacts on general traffic, by converting strategic sections of Northbourne Avenue to T3 lanes. These would cut about 5 minutes from peak bus travel times.

The best way to reduce travel times is to shorten the distances travelled or eliminate the journeys all together.

Unfortunately it is quite obvious that ACT Planning continues to do exactly the opposite. Increasing sprawl and providing no transport corridors, or planning and leaves it to everyone to try and clean up the mess afterwards.

miz said :

ACTION recently tried to increase services to make it more efficient where needed, but the improved timetable could not be implemented because they simply do not have enough buses. It is clear that ACTION is being hamstrung by this govt because they are funnelling as much PT money as possible to the stupid non-existent tram (which, even if implemented, will serve few Canberrans).
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/action-doesnt-have-enough-buses-to-introduce-new-weekday-bus-timetable-20150916-gjohjf.html
PT is definitely one of those things we pay our rates and taxes for – private buses lines etc are not interested in the public good, only in making a profit, which means the people who need PT most are served more poorly (which is, of course, counterintuitive to the whole point of PT).

All well and good to say that, but the facts speak differently. Action is getting additional money and it is getting additional buses too. Though the story is correct they didn’t have sufficient buses to run the proposed timetable.

As for private buses, just need to look to QBN to see what happens when a private operator runs routes. The fare from QBN to CBR for example is extortion. You could of course follow the contract model, but then the government is still subsidising PT. No easy answer really.

Raging Tempest said :

Apart from the lack of availability of buses at night, the magical mystery tour routes are a disincentive to use the service. Using my routes as examples, it is 30 minutes from my bus stop to Tuggeranong on the 65 or 66 – 5km and we aren’t the first suburb it goes through. Its 40 minutes on the 67. It takes 45 minutes to walk it. Of course I’ll drive the 5km.
The whole system needs an overhaul to make it user friendly again.

Not much can be done about the mystery tour routings. The buses need to do these routes to find sufficient passengers to carry. Only way around it is to bulldoze the suburbs and start again with a far greater density.

miz said :

ACTION recently tried to increase services to make it more efficient where needed, but the improved timetable could not be implemented because they simply do not have enough buses. It is clear that ACTION is being hamstrung by this govt because they are funnelling as much PT money as possible to the stupid non-existent tram (which, even if implemented, will serve few Canberrans).
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/action-doesnt-have-enough-buses-to-introduce-new-weekday-bus-timetable-20150916-gjohjf.html
PT is definitely one of those things we pay our rates and taxes for – private buses lines etc are not interested in the public good, only in making a profit, which means the people who need PT most are served more poorly (which is, of course, counterintuitive to the whole point of PT).

You have misread that story. The issue was not that there were insufficient buses. The problem was when the software for network redesign was used, they did not pair up a driver on a 10 minute rest break with a bus that was with the driver. So the network design overestimated the number of available buses, and used that overestimate to come up with route frequencies etc, which then meant there were not enough buses to service the incorrect network design. That’s why they had to go back into the design process again.

This is not to say more buses wouldn’t be good for ACTION to have, but that was not the point of the article.

Leon said :

The Transport Demand Elasticities Study found that the best way to get bums on bus seats is to reduce travel times.

I wonder how much this bit of state the bloody obvious cost?

ACTION recently tried to increase services to make it more efficient where needed, but the improved timetable could not be implemented because they simply do not have enough buses. It is clear that ACTION is being hamstrung by this govt because they are funnelling as much PT money as possible to the stupid non-existent tram (which, even if implemented, will serve few Canberrans).
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/action-doesnt-have-enough-buses-to-introduce-new-weekday-bus-timetable-20150916-gjohjf.html
PT is definitely one of those things we pay our rates and taxes for – private buses lines etc are not interested in the public good, only in making a profit, which means the people who need PT most are served more poorly (which is, of course, counterintuitive to the whole point of PT).

Action is a pathetic joke. Our experience with them this school year has been the dedicated school bus running late and getting the kids to school late.

And then in the afternoon because there isn’t an afternoon school bus to our area, our daughter has to catch two buses, and the first one was late meaning she missed the connection and would have had to wait another hour for the next (we drove to Cooleman Court and collected her instead of making her wait).

Hopefully the service will improve as things settle down over the next couple of weeks, but so far I completely understand why people don’t use the bus service.

government shouldn’t be runing busses. I lived here for nearly 30 years and every year the gov say we are improving the buses. But it never happens, we just get cut backs and more costs blow outs.

Apart from the lack of availability of buses at night, the magical mystery tour routes are a disincentive to use the service. Using my routes as examples, it is 30 minutes from my bus stop to Tuggeranong on the 65 or 66 – 5km and we aren’t the first suburb it goes through. Its 40 minutes on the 67. It takes 45 minutes to walk it. Of course I’ll drive the 5km.
The whole system needs an overhaul to make it user friendly again.

ACTION is actually doing too little. After it carried 7.8% of work commuters in 2011, the Government made an election commitment to increase that share to 10.5% by 2016. But by 2014, instead of increasing, the mode share had actually fallen to 7.1%.

Part of the reason is the lack of strategic transit lanes.

The Transport Demand Elasticities Study found that the best way to get bums on bus seats is to reduce travel times. The Government could boost bus patronage, without negative impacts on general traffic, by converting strategic sections of Northbourne Avenue to T3 lanes. These would cut about 5 minutes from peak bus travel times.

Tempest jnr has the same issue as eatthatfrog mentioned – getting in and out of Fyshwick for retail staff. The last bus out of Fyshwick leaves before the store closes; he can walk to Narrabundah on a weeknight, but not a weekend or public holiday, for buses to woden interchange and hoof it home from there. Hardly ideal. There goes the penalty rates in cabs for late shifts.

Sorry, the not getting to Belconnen situation is Sundays. Which includes every public holiday, and every Saturday for three weeks over the modified timetable in Christmas.

eatthatfrog said :

* No-one can get into Belconnen from Charnwood by 10 am. The first bus arrives at 10.04. No store manager will allow workers to be late consistently. $25 a week is a lot to ask on small wage (and more if they cut penalty rates)

Sorry. This situation exists on Sundays and public holidays. And many days that are not public holidays – every single Saturday for a three week period over Christmas this year as well. When a public holiday and Saturdays run to a Sunday timetable – this added $100 in cab fares in 1 week for a few mates of mine who live Northside but work at DFO/COO.

Hi Greg

Thank you for your comments. I understand the comments, but ask you to keep in mind adjustments are harder to make for those who work full time in occupations with little flexibility.

Mainly hospitality, factory and retail workers fit into this category. Many people working in sales are over 25 and have little opportunity to change their circumstances to get greater skills. Given the accommodation situation in Canberra, I know many who have given up cars in order to stay close to their work situations.

With the timetable changes in the past few years, the following has occurred:
* A retail worker wanting to get to their Fyshwick job on buses by 9 am on a Saturday has to leave at 6.30 to catch a bus from Fraser
* No-one can get into Belconnen from Charnwood by 10 am. The first bus arrives at 10.04. No store manager will allow workers to be late consistently. $25 a week is a lot to ask on small wage (and more if they cut penalty rates)
* The latest you can leave Civic to get to Fraser/Charnwood/Dunlop on a Saturday is 9.20 pm. Until October last year, this was an hour later. Many younger Northside hospitality workers have to rely on lifts to get home.

As these people work, they are ineligible for concessions. And until 3 – 4 years ago, public transport was an option. Now, cheap and unreliable cars with associated registration costs in a high cost city is becoming the only reliable transport mode (before you consider the fact parking costs have to be figured in as well).

Changes to the network are more and more geared to service the mass of passengers, but have forgotten to service the lower paid occupations – assuming concessions where none exist.

young families have not the money nor enjoy the hassle, and students are equally impecunious.

You seem to assume that people would only go out at night to spend money. When I didn’t own a car, my key regret about the bus system was that it kept me from accepting invitations to visit friends and family in their homes unless someone there could drive me back afterwards.