13 July 2012

Your thoughts wanted on a better bus interchange

| johnboy
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The Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate is promising a consultation on the Civic Interchange and bus depot.

“The consultation is part of a study to improve the current Civic bus interchange to increase its capacity and efficiency to meet future needs for more public transport,” Mr Papps said.

“The current bus layover on Marcus Clarke Street will be developed as part of the ANU Exchange and therefore a new site is needed where buses can park between journeys and drivers can prepare for proceeding journeys.

“The bus layover will need to cater for the growing number of buses as the network increases as part of the ACT Government’s policy of encouraging people to use public transport.

“A short-list of potential bus layover sites has been identified and will be open for community consultation for six weeks from 24 July 2012.

“Essentially, the choice for a main bus layover site is between an existing temporary car park on Territory land in Turner, corner of Watson Street and Barry Drive, and the car park opposite the CIT Reid campus, which is Commonwealth designated land.

“There is also the potential to supplement the Turner bus layover with a smaller bus layover in Braddon, along Mort Street.

“Another option is to have a combination of two smaller bus layovers – one in Turner and one in Reid servicing the city from east and west.”

Mr Papps said the bus layover site or sites had to be located to minimise the distances travelled by out-of-service and maximise the service time to bus patrons. Extra out-of-service travels add costs to running the buses and lead to more traffic congestion and emissions. The site would also need to fit with the local bus network and be easy to access.

“The proposed design of the interchange will take into account interviews with local businesses, government agencies and other stakeholders as well as previous studies and the projected City to Gungahlin rapid transit corridor along Northbourne Avenue,” Mr Papps said.

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How_Canberran7:29 pm 27 Jul 12

Yes, what to do with the good ol’ bus interchanges? The wind-swept and sterile concrete monstrosities of the 70’s just don’t cut it anymore.

Where are the buskers and tree-hugging pan flute officianados of my recent youth?
How I do miss the Hare Krishna mantras of old lulling me into a soporific stupor.

C’mon Caroline Le Couteur, this is your opportunity to put your (green) brand upon the ACT!

Now, where are my car keys?

Kdowgg said :

This may be controversial – but would a clock somewhere in the interchange be useful?

There is one in the whole Civic interchange and none in either of the Belconnen interchanges/platforms/layovers or whatever they’re called…just a thought that something that is defined by times and schedules may see the value in it?

I think the clock should be a giant owl. Every hour, a little owl would pop out of an egg underneath its feet and hoot the number of hours.

It would certainly be hard to miss that.

Kdowgg said :

This may be controversial – but would a clock somewhere in the interchange be useful?

There is one in the whole Civic interchange and none in either of the Belconnen interchanges/platforms/layovers or whatever they’re called…just a thought that something that is defined by times and schedules may see the value in it?

The current clock in the Civic interchange isn’t a patch on the clock of old, which was an icon – or at least a point of reference. Ahh, the good old days of “meeting at the clock”!

Kdowgg said :

This may be controversial – but would a clock somewhere in the interchange be useful?

There is one in the whole Civic interchange and none in either of the Belconnen interchanges/platforms/layovers or whatever they’re called…just a thought that something that is defined by times and schedules may see the value in it?

Katy would just doctor the time so that the buses always ran on time.

This may be controversial – but would a clock somewhere in the interchange be useful?

There is one in the whole Civic interchange and none in either of the Belconnen interchanges/platforms/layovers or whatever they’re called…just a thought that something that is defined by times and schedules may see the value in it?

In relation to the City interchange: I’ll be letting them know that the security is appalling. It’s no real surprise that the majority of assaults occur within the City – and I’m really yet to see any sort of proactive police presence or anything at all to make the ACT commuting public feel safe. Would love to see some CCTV and a small Police beat at the interchange.

juice said :

I turned up to the “public consultation” show on Tuesday night, just to complain about bus drivers leaving their engines to idle for about an hour while they go shopping and dining in Dickson.
Lots of Indian public servants with name tags. I was treated like a leper. Public definitely not welcome.

Well done you. The invitation clearly stated that it was public consultation for improvements to the current Civic bus interchange and a site for the new inner-Canberra bus layover, so your random bitch about buses idling at Dickson was probably very helpful.

chilli said :

Why not just go back to the depot, like buses do everywhere else?

Because then we get endless whining about the amount of dead running.

The purpose of layovers (apart from a place for some bus-driver amenities) is supposed to be to reduce dead-running.
http://the-riotact.com/around-the-world-every-week-with-empty-action-buses/70447

However, it does seem that having a number of places would seem to work better than a single site

I’m not convinced that we need any ‘layover’ sites in the city at all. There weren’t any in London when I lived there, or Sydney, or any other big city I’ve been to. And Canberra is hardly a big city. Is it really worth tying up valuable real estate for a bus driver to have a lunchtime sandwich in a convenient location? Why not just go back to the depot, like buses do everywhere else?

Also, the places nominated for the new layover site are hardly ideal. Some green space in Turner on an almost blind corner of Barry Drive; Mort St Braddon, which will sacrifice a fair slice of already scarce parking (and in an area where a heap of new commercial and residential development is occurring); or a carpark near the Reid CIT campus, inconveniencing alot of students and workers who will lose access to parking.

As it is, the Marcus Clarke St layover is never used to capacity, and we are already running ACTION buses at a multi-multi million dollar loss. How much more should the car-driving, rate-paying Canberran be expected to pander to them? They don’t go where we want them to go or when we want them to go there, but we are expected to suffer more opportunity costs (and likely direct ones) so they can keep on running with maximum inefficiency.

Sadly, though, it appears that only the ridiculous bus layover area of Civic is part of this public consultation process. The idea of massive bus interchanges (again, unique to Canberra) seems unchallenged and will continue to poison Civic and what could be really fabulous area around the Sydney building.

I really hope more people get angry about this.

juice said :

I turned up to the “public consultation” show on Tuesday night, just to complain about bus drivers leaving their engines to idle for about an hour while they go shopping and dining in Dickson.
Lots of Indian public servants with name tags. I was treated like a leper. Public definitely not welcome.

Maybe they just don’t appreciate being harangued by busy-bodies who wander in off the street to complain about what are essentially non-issues? Extra points if you actually spent an hour watching a bus idling in the street.

buzz819 said :

jimbob87 said :

How about some police presence.

I don’t know, every time I go into the bus interchange, there is always Police there?

Are they following you?

I cannot see much of a layover for any buses given the new pressures of the bus monitoring technology to be implemented by the A.C.T. Government.

My viewpoint is to not spend any more money on Action, far too much capital has already been spent and wasted, the only positive being the ticketing system? and some extra shelters around tuggeranong.

Taxpayers and families are under enough pressure paying for high utilities, mortgages and rent with the full impact of the carbon tax down the track.

I turned up to the “public consultation” show on Tuesday night, just to complain about bus drivers leaving their engines to idle for about an hour while they go shopping and dining in Dickson.
Lots of Indian public servants with name tags. I was treated like a leper. Public definitely not welcome.

jimbob87 said :

How about some police presence.

I don’t know, every time I go into the bus interchange, there is always Police there?

How about some police presence.

damien haas said :

Consultation? LOL ROFLMAO

Belconnen went through this charade as well, and the only real winner was Westfield belconnen who gained valuable public land in exchange for two long carport roofs that serve as a bus station.

Let’s not forget the fact that the interchange is so short, that when you have a heap of buses heading in from the city in the afternoon (who always arrive in a pack, due to the lights on Benjamin Way at the previous stop) they often can’t all actually fit. Or that the supposed ‘waiting area’ inside the Westfield doesn’t even have a timetable available.

This is a ‘consultation’ that’s set up to fail. Again. How the hell is the average person supposed to discern what impact the movement of the bus layover is going to have on the interchange? How many people would have a clue where their (non-300 series) bus was before they got on it, and just what difference the movement of a bus layover may have?

God forbid consultation before decisions to scrap roundabouts at Florey Drive and Starke St, or whacking in 13 speed humps on Spofforth St…

This is stuff that shouldn’t be open to public consultation. If a layover needs to be moved, ACTION should be able to adjust things so that their timetable still works.

I don’t suppose they’d consider putting in shelters which provide shelter and seats that are comfortable? seems like the people who design those “shelters” never have to actually use them.

but thats just crazy, we wouldn’t want homeless people having somewhere to sleep.

Underground! FTW

Consultation? LOL ROFLMAO

Belconnen went through this charade as well, and the only real winner was Westfield belconnen who gained valuable public land in exchange for two long carport roofs that serve as a bus station.

Bulldoze the Woden one and make one thats not so seedy would be a nice start

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