12 January 2011

Stanhope on Nightrider

| johnboy
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Chief Minister Stanhope’s website has returned giving us insight into his thinking on the operation of the Nightrider bus service.

“While nobody could ever put a price on potentially saving someone’s life, it is clear that the service is being under-utilised and the Government will need to review how it operates in the future.

“While take-up was higher on New Year’s Eve with 678 customers (at an average cost of $24 for the route services and $21 for the loop service), the first three weekends only saw a combined 59 customers, 94 customers and 105 customers respectively using the service over the Friday and Saturday night.”

The contract for the three-month trial is has been awarded to the Deanes Tranasit Group and is worth more than $270,000. Revenue in the first month totalled $8,860.

Mr Stanhope said the three-month Nightrider trial is part of the reform of the Liquor Act, which recently received a significant overhaul to include several new laws designed to improve public safety. The Government agreed to trial the service for an extended period of three months.

“I urge people who are planning a night out and who intend to drink to make use of the Nightrider service which will get them home safely for a small flat fee. If people choose not to use it, though, the Government can simply not afford to subsidise it over such a long period of time.”

So use it or lose it people.

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Jesus! $10 for a bus home. Prices are at the nightrider site

For an extra $5 I could get to Sydney on the bus! Hell, I can fly from Melbourne to Canberra on Tiger for $19.95!

So, doing a rough calculation, the Government could of purchased 13,533 one way tickets for flights for Canberrans to go to Melbourne for the weekend instead of putting busses on.

I agree this is expensive …right now….but it needs to be an option for people to use, now and into the future. The problem is by the time that people realise that it is a good option it will be finished!! In Adelaide the nightrider service (bus and train) is FREE. No contest there.

georgesgenitals9:03 pm 12 Jan 11

Jamming it up the idiot Greens is probably one of Stanhope’s biggest achievements…

buzz819 said :

A few buses? I counted 4 buses in the interchange at any one time the other night. They do a run every 30 mins – 45 mins. 3 times a week, for 12 weeks. Deans has put A LOT of buses out there for this, and appear to be doing a good job, besides the fact that no one is catching them.

According to http://www.transport.act.gov.au/nightrider.html the buses run every 90 minutes, not every 30min. The 30min buses were doing the loop between civic/manuka. Theyre also only running 2 nights a week, not 3.

Also as others have pointed out, due to the heavy rains in December lots of pubs and clubs noticed a downturn during the period, and I doubt those who were going out, were thinking of catching a bus home in the rain at 3am.

On the other side of the coin, the last three weekends out a lot of the clubs have noticed that they aren’t exactly making a roaring trade. I mean the Taxi rank was empty at 3am on New Years, that never happens on a Saturday night….

karmacarrier5:44 pm 12 Jan 11

buzz819 said :

Sleaz274 said :

On the other side of the coin, the last three weekends out a lot of the clubs have noticed that they aren’t exactly making a roaring trade. I mean the Taxi rank was empty at 3am on New Years, that never happens on a Saturday night….

What, you mean there was no shortage of taxis on New Years?
Kinda makes JB’s OP about the Nightrider a little redundant.

Sleaz274 said :

$90,000 a month to run a few buses??? A know a lot of small towns or regional towns that have the local pubs and clubs run their own buses for customers and I’m sure it’s not costing them $90,000 a month. Who costed that?

It’s obvious the Government either wants a) noone to go out ever and therefore eliminate all those pesky people who have a good time or decide to be tools and start fights b) everyone to take drugs so they can then just drive themselves home, and at the moment it is cheaper to buy two pills ($50-$60) have a fantastic night, enjoy a breakfast at Gus’ and drive yourself home, which is a lesson for politicians who continue to apply more tax and strenuous standards on alcohol people will turn to cheaper alternatives, at the moment a decent night out is $100-$150 without paying another $30 each way for taxis c) everyone to bugger off interstate so we externalise all the costs associated with alcohol and enforcement.

The entirety of ACTION would be cheaper and more patronised if the buses ran for free but we keep smashing our head against a brick wall there so I can’t seeing this being any different. PS the weather is terrible and Canberrans are well known for hibernating during bad weather spells and not going out.

A few buses? I counted 4 buses in the interchange at any one time the other night. They do a run every 30 mins – 45 mins. 3 times a week, for 12 weeks. Deans has put A LOT of buses out there for this, and appear to be doing a good job, besides the fact that no one is catching them.

On the other side of the coin, the last three weekends out a lot of the clubs have noticed that they aren’t exactly making a roaring trade. I mean the Taxi rank was empty at 3am on New Years, that never happens on a Saturday night….

$90,000 a month to run a few buses??? A know a lot of small towns or regional towns that have the local pubs and clubs run their own buses for customers and I’m sure it’s not costing them $90,000 a month. Who costed that?

It’s obvious the Government either wants a) noone to go out ever and therefore eliminate all those pesky people who have a good time or decide to be tools and start fights b) everyone to take drugs so they can then just drive themselves home, and at the moment it is cheaper to buy two pills ($50-$60) have a fantastic night, enjoy a breakfast at Gus’ and drive yourself home, which is a lesson for politicians who continue to apply more tax and strenuous standards on alcohol people will turn to cheaper alternatives, at the moment a decent night out is $100-$150 without paying another $30 each way for taxis c) everyone to bugger off interstate so we externalise all the costs associated with alcohol and enforcement.

The entirety of ACTION would be cheaper and more patronised if the buses ran for free but we keep smashing our head against a brick wall there so I can’t seeing this being any different. PS the weather is terrible and Canberrans are well known for hibernating during bad weather spells and not going out.

But he doesn’t hesitate to send $100,000 to Pakistan Flood Appeal last year…….nor closer to home did he hesitate to increase the speed camera programme back in 2000 at a cost then of $300,000. Both the cameras and buses could be wholly or partly self funding so why his hypocrisy? Perhaps Deanes should have been allowed to keep all the fares they collect in return for a lower tender – we might have seen a difference in revenue declared then.

You cannot have them back, you’re welcome.

I want my old liquor laws back, thanks.

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