28 January 2009

More bus routes?

| johnboy
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[First filed: January 17, 2009 @ 11:06]

His Chiefliness, Mr John Stanhope, is touting the wonders of consultation and how it has lead to new bus routes for Canberra’s long suffering public transport users.

    The improvements and refinements to the weekday bus services will start on Monday 2 February.

    “In response to feedback from bus users, new community routes will operate from Belconnen to Kaleen and Giralang, and from Woden to Curtin, Garran and Hughes,” Mr Stanhope said.

    “A new express bus from Kippax to the City and Russell – Route 704 – will be another popular addition to ACTION’s improved services, giving Belconnen residents an alternative to the already popular 703 Expresso service.

    “Workers at the Fyshwick DFO complex – and shoppers – will be able to take advantage of a weekday bus from Woden and the City – Route 80.

    “Route 4 will be split into three routes, to deliver greater clarity and convenience. Route 4 will travel from Geoscience Australia in Symonston to the City, connecting to Routes 56 and 58, servicing west and east Gungahlin respectively.

    “Route 8 – an extremely long route – will be split into two, reducing potential delays that can be experienced on long routes at peak times. Route 8 will travel between Dickson and the City, connecting with Route 80, which will travel from the city to Woden via Fyshwick.

    “School bus services will also be enhanced, including new routes to the Kingsford Smith School in Holt.”

One does wonder how these new services are being paid for?

UPDATED: The full list of “improvements” is now on the ACTION website.

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Instant Mash12:20 am 03 Feb 09

I have no problems with the services, apart from the dreadful weekend ones.

They need to actually leave the nightrider going for long enough for people to get used to using it.

Most people don’t consult the bus timetable before very outing, in case there is suddenly a suitable bus, where there never was before.

When night rider was run before christmas it did not get much support.

Nambucco Deliria1:27 am 29 Jan 09

miz said :

If only they would reinstate the previous weekend timetable. I have it on good authority that they have enough drivers, but don’t want to spend the money doing the second stage they promised. How dumb is it that you can’t get to a major shopping centre to start work at 9am on a Saturday?

How dumb is it you can’t see a band in Civic any night of the week and get a bus home afterwards?

If only they would reinstate the previous weekend timetable. I have it on good authority that they have enough drivers, but don’t want to spend the money doing the second stage they promised. How dumb is it that you can’t get to a major shopping centre to start work at 9am on a Saturday?

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy2:20 pm 18 Jan 09

Wrong thread WMC, I think this belongs with the ‘ghostly face in the window’ story…;)

Woody Mann-Caruso11:44 am 18 Jan 09

They can’t even entertain the notion that they may have been the slightest bit responsible for the 2003 fires

Spooky. It’s like you were channeling JB for a second there. Also, my phone just rang and it was my dead twin who I was just thinking about.

I think continually rejigging the timetables is part of their problem. As well as continually putting the prices up.

Every time I try to catch the bus the route has changed, the number has changed and the price has changed. It is like they are trying to make it all too hard for anyone to try catching a bus.

Why doesn’t the ACT government spend a bit of cash and get someone who knows how to organise a bit more than a pissup in a brewery to manage ACTION routes, timetables, etc. Can’t they admit they’ve messed it up and begin to fix it??

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy10:03 pm 17 Jan 09

They’d be better off calling it ‘bus roots’.

Nickamc said :

Canberra public transport blows donkeys.

I second that. It’s hard to forget being totally screwed by a snap strike, with no-one knowing when they were likely to start returning to service. I’ve not used an ACTION bus since I finally got my licence to drive.

Canberra public transport blows donkeys.

Sorry, that was poorly phrased. I meant to point out that the Expressos can and do run with old buses, and can probably continue to do so until those older buses fall apart, since people who work 9-5 are probably able bodied enough to climb the 2-3 stairs on entering the bus.

As more accessible buses get added to the fleet, chances are they will end up on normal routes where you’re not nearly as likely to have 100% able bodied passengers.

Sigh. No extra buses for me in the mornings in Gungahlin, even though the buses are packed to the brim. I have to catch two buses to get to work, and sometimes the first is so packed I can’t even get off to change buses. Not to mention this makes them run so late I never catch the connecting bus on time.

As far as expressos getting the old buses, try getting anywhere from Gungahlin. I catch the bus every workday and I’ve never been on an air conditioned one.

A shame that there’s still not enough drivers to ditch the ridiculous weekend services.

There’s a bit of an article about it on the ACT Bus website… http://www.actbus.net/blog

Most of these are not new services per se, thus there should be little or no additional cost (aside from printing different maps and timetables, which they’d eventually have needed to do anyway). They are simply existing services that are being split up to be a little less absurd. Route 4 is effectively three routes already (note the 4E and 4W in the timetable for the northside part of the route).

The expressos should cost nothing, since they are mostly run with near-life-expired buses that are normally only used for school services. This will become more apparent as even more new buses arrive in the coming years to work ordinary services, leaving heaps of surplus buses for spare parts for those that are sound enough to keep hauling able bodied school kids and able bodied expresso patrons. These expressos carry lots of full-fare passengers, and thus should easily earn enough revenue to cover the marginal cost of the extra few hours wages for the school run bus driver and the extra diesel.

It would be nice if they could fix the weekend absurdities when the new timetable comes in though. Take the bus route in Watson bus route. It’s bad enough that bus users in Watson have to detour through the back streets of Dickson and Braddon on a weekend, but the really absurd bit is the route around Watson itself. Buses in Watson do a big loop around the main roads circling the suburb. On weekdays the loop runs anticlockwise. On weekends the route runs clockwise. The stops are not in the same location in each direction, and are sometimes a hundred metres apart.

What possible reason could there be for trying to confuse occasional passengers like that, except perhaps if their goal is turning occasional bus users into permanent car drivers?

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