The 2012 bus network

Is this report on so called improvemnts to bus service in 2012 actually serious ? Who wrote it, wonder what grounds can possibly be used to justify the continued marked imbalance of bus services provided to the north of the lake by the taxpayer. In 2006 Weston Creek lost over 60% of of bus services, as well as a few schools, college and CIT. There has been no improvement since, not even one single bus run & for us there is only one destination, as all Weston Creek commuters have no choice but to go to Woden , then wait , change , wait etc it is beyond frustrating,The timetabling is an example of lunacy I am amazed, nearly speechless but wholly sickened at the extraordinary imbalance and to me this is effective misuse of taxpayers money, or maybe our rates etc will be radically reduced to reflect the lack of services south of the lake. And by the way ANU has few buses trundle by down Barry Drive already, isnt every10 mins through out day enough? Surely Action made another mistake, & meant to address the lack of bus services to Reid CIT, which is near nonexistant, only two changes for most southern students.I thought the skills shortage was real and that ACT Gopvernment understood and valued education, although sadly it seems, Action seems to show that students are valued only if they go to ANU and live North of Lake?

pete09 said :

thehutch said :

Gungahlin Al said :

Interesting to see a new route for Gungahlin/Forde/Bonner only. Is this one of the first times they’ve had an exclusively local suburb route? I strongly believe and have been lobbying that most routes should be like this, with separate express routes between the satellite city centres and Civic, therby making the interchanges actually that – get off the local collector route and onto the express route. Thereby avoiding the conga line of buses down already clogged roads like Northbourne because every route goes into Civic at some stage.

Also pleased to see Simon Corbell carried through on his promise to fix the wiggle through Franklin that was only there while other roads hadn’t yet been built – seems Action forgot to change it when Franklin was finished a few years back.

Also pleased about more Flemington Road routes – those of us in the southern end of Gungahlin might actually get a seat once in a while. Residents of Crace and Casey will appreciate the route changes into their suburbs too.

And more peak services to Majura are badly needed so will help.

Whilst you do some great things for Gungahlin, you are off the mark with this one. People who choose to use public transport (ie have cars but would prefer not to use them to get to work) do not want to swap buses.

Whilst not every bus can be a thru-bus to the city (some loop services will be needed), the need to connect should be reduced as much as possible.

I suspect many people would prefer the shortest possible travel times, which the system that Al proposes achieves.

I suspect you are right!!! Many (if not all) people would prefer the shortest travel times… however Al’s system does NOT achieve that!

For example, under Al’s system route 51 which goes through Ngunnawal would always terminate at Gungahlin Town Centre, Passengers would alight, line up and hope onto a 200 Red Rapid. Assuming a Red Rapid is waiting for you, it will be a 2-3 minute transition during peak. If there is not one, it’ll be 10mins.

Under the current system, route 51 also goes through Ngunnawal to the Gungahlin town centre. However during peak hour it then continues along the same route the Red Rapid takes from Gungahlin into the city.

During peak hour the Red Rapid and the 51 take the same amount of time between the Gungahlin town centre and the City.

So I would love you to explain how terminating the 51 at Gungahlin and transferring those customers saves time?

So glad they are extending some blue rapid services to Kippax. There are 5 different buses I can catch from Belconnen to where I live around the Kippax area – yet they ALL depart with 10 minutes to the hour and 10 minutes after the hour from Belconnen. I hope they look at the timings of buses too.

As much as I’m grateful to be able to catch an ‘expresso’ bus to work and avoid the Belconnen interchange, having all the routes extend past the interchange to the CIT side of the city or through to Barton would be beneficial. Or maybe 1 or 2 extra services.. I’m convinced it can’t be safe having 30+ people standing in the aisles. (on a ‘bendy’ bus)

Keijidosha said :

The only thing that will improve bus travel times for Gungahlin residents is a dedicated bus lane on Northbourne Avenue. Splitting services into local routes with intertown express buses would increase travel times due to interchange layovers.

If they properly planned the networks and timetables, they could achieve connecting bus services with less than a few minutes layover. But I’m expecting to be able to ride flying pigs before that happens.

Having said that, Northbourne does need a bus lane but not at the expense of an exising lane. It also needs some of the bus stops removed so buses don’t need to stop every 100 metres and for better synchronized traffic lights. The latter may also come with flying pigs.

The only thing that will improve bus travel times for Gungahlin residents is a dedicated bus lane on Northbourne Avenue. Splitting services into local routes with intertown express buses would increase travel times due to interchange layovers.

thehutch said :

Gungahlin Al said :

Interesting to see a new route for Gungahlin/Forde/Bonner only. Is this one of the first times they’ve had an exclusively local suburb route? I strongly believe and have been lobbying that most routes should be like this, with separate express routes between the satellite city centres and Civic, therby making the interchanges actually that – get off the local collector route and onto the express route. Thereby avoiding the conga line of buses down already clogged roads like Northbourne because every route goes into Civic at some stage.

Also pleased to see Simon Corbell carried through on his promise to fix the wiggle through Franklin that was only there while other roads hadn’t yet been built – seems Action forgot to change it when Franklin was finished a few years back.

Also pleased about more Flemington Road routes – those of us in the southern end of Gungahlin might actually get a seat once in a while. Residents of Crace and Casey will appreciate the route changes into their suburbs too.

And more peak services to Majura are badly needed so will help.

Whilst you do some great things for Gungahlin, you are off the mark with this one. People who choose to use public transport (ie have cars but would prefer not to use them to get to work) do not want to swap buses.

Whilst not every bus can be a thru-bus to the city (some loop services will be needed), the need to connect should be reduced as much as possible.

I suspect many people would prefer the shortest possible travel times, which the system that Al proposes achieves.

Gungahlin Al said :

Interesting to see a new route for Gungahlin/Forde/Bonner only. Is this one of the first times they’ve had an exclusively local suburb route? I strongly believe and have been lobbying that most routes should be like this, with separate express routes between the satellite city centres and Civic, therby making the interchanges actually that – get off the local collector route and onto the express route. Thereby avoiding the conga line of buses down already clogged roads like Northbourne because every route goes into Civic at some stage.

Also pleased to see Simon Corbell carried through on his promise to fix the wiggle through Franklin that was only there while other roads hadn’t yet been built – seems Action forgot to change it when Franklin was finished a few years back.

Also pleased about more Flemington Road routes – those of us in the southern end of Gungahlin might actually get a seat once in a while. Residents of Crace and Casey will appreciate the route changes into their suburbs too.

And more peak services to Majura are badly needed so will help.

Whilst you do some great things for Gungahlin, you are off the mark with this one. People who choose to use public transport (ie have cars but would prefer not to use them to get to work) do not want to swap buses.

Whilst not every bus can be a thru-bus to the city (some loop services will be needed), the need to connect should be reduced as much as possible.

Will it be 1, 2 or 3 years before they update Google Transit with the new/changed routes?

@JessP there already is a bus to the airport from the city its the airport express and it costs about $10 one way Which compared to other services in the country is ok.

Gungahlin Al said :

Interesting to see a new route for Gungahlin/Forde/Bonner only. Is this one of the first times they’ve had an exclusively local suburb route? I strongly believe and have been lobbying that most routes should be like this, with separate express routes between the satellite city centres and Civic, therby making the interchanges actually that – get off the local collector route and onto the express route. Thereby avoiding the conga line of buses down already clogged roads like Northbourne because every route goes into Civic at some stage.

I believe the switch from interchange (333) routes to the ‘Rapid’ series was made based on feedback suggesting commuters didn’t like having to change buses. Either option requires the same number of buses on trunk routes to maintain acceptable intervals – especially now the articulated buses are being phased out.

Personally I prefer the current system as it all but eliminates the possibility of missing a local/suburban connection and being stranded at an interchange waiting for the next bus.

I wonder what state the guys came from this time to change the timetable, last time it was Adelaide and they removed all the Gunghalin buses (well almost).

They seem to like changing the route 2 a lot, I don’t know why. Last time it added 15 minutes travel time from the interchange. So this doesn’t appear to be too bad.

Another network with a few small improvements but still fundamentally flawed and in general, just crap.

Until ACTION pulls their head out of their asses and stops trying to serve every square inch of the city will we get a decent network. Even their new routes have been designed to take unnecessary detours to go a long way to gain coverage instead of going to a central location where most people can walk 300m to a stop. You only have to look at the Belconnen map for the 318/319 to see how rediculous the coverage and close overlap is. This network would be a lot more efficient if they removed the unnecessary stops and coverage.

Rip it up and start again.

Interesting to see a new route for Gungahlin/Forde/Bonner only. Is this one of the first times they’ve had an exclusively local suburb route? I strongly believe and have been lobbying that most routes should be like this, with separate express routes between the satellite city centres and Civic, therby making the interchanges actually that – get off the local collector route and onto the express route. Thereby avoiding the conga line of buses down already clogged roads like Northbourne because every route goes into Civic at some stage.

Also pleased to see Simon Corbell carried through on his promise to fix the wiggle through Franklin that was only there while other roads hadn’t yet been built – seems Action forgot to change it when Franklin was finished a few years back.

Also pleased about more Flemington Road routes – those of us in the southern end of Gungahlin might actually get a seat once in a while. Residents of Crace and Casey will appreciate the route changes into their suburbs too.

And more peak services to Majura are badly needed so will help.

How about a bus to the Airport – not just Brindebella Park? A regular bus?? From the city??

Extending the 318/319 routes to Kippax is a very good idea. The current routes that service this area are fairly indirect.