Jase H said:
Peter I commend you on your ACTION bus timetable research Peter, however, I live in Canberra and some things you have stated are simply not true.
Jase, I stand by everything I've written.
I've lived in Perth, Canberra (1995-1998) and Melbourne and have used public transport extensively in all three. My bus use involved travel at all hours, seven days a week, totalling nearly 1000 trips over 3 years.
Hence my observations are likely to be more balanced than one who is either (a) lucky enough to live near several routes or (b) has a M-F 9-5 job and only travels at these times.
I am also lucky enough to have a historical perspective, having timetables going back to the early 1990s. These show a steady decline in service levels, interrupted by an improvement in 1998.
Most suburbs circa 1992 had buses (i) every 15-20 peak, (ii) every 30 min off-peak, (iii) every 60 min evening/weekend. Now they're more like (i) every 20-30 peak, (ii) every 60 min off-peak, (iii) every 60 or 120 min evening/weekend.
There were big service cuts (approx 50%) in 1996 under Kate Carnell. This caused a patronage collapse, no doubt also due to industrial disputation and service cancellations. ACTION got in a new CEO who improved reliability immediately. Also following a public backlash and a round of public meetings, many of the cut services were restored in 1998 with some further improvements (eg the same routes running 7 days a week and an improved zonal fare system). Patronage rose strongly and ACTION was a much better system than it was in 1996.
The Stanhope government abolished zones to cut fares but soon after decided it had no money so cut services about 50%. The current timetables are a rehash of the 1996 cuts and are likely to result in patronage (and fare revenue) falls.
In contrast, cities such as Adelaide, Melbourne and (especially) Perth and Brisbane can point to slow but steady improvements to services in this period.
Such a perspective is useful when making long-term decisions, eg property purchases. In Canberra do not buy anything on the strength of a 'good bus service' because it might not be so good in a year or five.
1. While it is true that Stanhope has cut bus services significantly recently it is a1/2 truth at best to say that buses every 1-2 hours on most routes is the "norm". Perhaps every hour during weekends and off peak weekday services would be fair to say.
On some routes, yes. But look at genuine outer suburbs (eg Gordon), where 2 hours is the norm on weekends and evenings. The number of routes with services better than every hour off-peak is a small proportion.
This compares to the situation before 1996 and after Network 98 when off-peak services of every 30 minutes were common thoughout Canberra, even in outer suburbs such as Banks & Gordon.
My summary of 1-2 hour running is therefore very fair for most of the day, most of the week for most of the routes.
My wife and I live 12 kms from the CBD (hardly close in canberra terms) and both catch ACTION buses to and from work everyday. I catch the route 30 bus which comes every 20 minutes during peak time
Which is less than what it was in the early 1990s, when the Giralang/Kaleen service had peak hour services to the city on route 439 (every 10 min) and an all-day service on route 438 (every 20 min am peak dropping to every 40 min off-peak).
However, you're still luckier than people in genuine outer suburbs, who (i) don't have a direct full-time service to the city (ii) therefore must transfer somewhere and (iii) have fewer peak services than you do.
and 40 minutes during off peak time. In the middle of the day and after 6pm it is replaced by the route 32 bus which comes every 40-60 minutes (off peak and same for weekends)
More 60 than 40 min.
http://www.action.act.gov.au/2006NewRoutes/Route_32.cfm
And isn't that route number change awkward (one of the major advances of Network 98 which the recent changes undid).
Let's just hope you didn't leave anything at home and/or forgot to bring your timetable with you!
2. Canberra buses are not slow due to Canberra not suffering from the sort of traffic congestion that Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and perhaps even Perth do. For example my 12 km trip via car is about 15 minutes in light traffic and 20 minutes in peak where as the bus is 20 minutes in light traffic and 25 minutes in heavier traffic. The buses in Canberra are generally clean and safe and the newer one are air conditioned.
Agreed about clean and safe. And that your particular trip is not slow.
But the trips that many others make are slow, though through no fault of ACTION.
Rather, this is due to Canberra's terrible street layout, which makes the planning of fast, direct, efficient bus routes harder there than in most other Australian cities. Buses must either negotiate loop streets (slowing passengers already on board) or leave whole areas unserved.
The other thing is that the post December 2006 introduced different routes on weekends and evenings to those that operate on weekdays. Some inter-suburban trips that previously required one bus now take 2 or even 3. And with 60-120 minutes between buses, normally short trips could take hours. And with the ticket running out half-way through the trip, you may need to pay an additional fare as well.
3. My wife and I own one car between us which we normally only use on weekends. So, your theory that Canberra households MUST budget for 1 car per adult due to our poor public transport does not stack up. We live 12 kms from the CBD which is considered the outer suburbs in canberra and we are well serviced by reliable, clean, safe and cheap ACTION buses, quite unlike many of the outer suburbs of Sydney (I don't know Melbourne well enough to comment) such the northern beaches area.
There is little difference between many outer suburbs of Melbourne and the situation described above for most of Canberra.
Much of Melbourne's bus system closes down at 7pm and doesn't run on Sundays, though moves are afoot to introduce hourly services to 9pm 7 days a week (some already operating). Unlike Canberra there is an extensive rail network and still pockets of affordable housing near some stations. Also our middle suburbs have direct streets that assist inter-suburban buses.
5. Phillip's daughter is going to move to the Avenue, Turner being one of the most highly serviced bus routes of any way in canberra and also being walking distance to the city. The Avenue is on Northbourne avenue which has bus services every few minutes in peak times and at least every 15 minutes at other times.
A wise choice. Those who are going to uses buses extensively for anything other than M-F 9-5 travel, should either live there or in one of the small pockets of housing within walking distance of one of the town centres (Tuggeranong, Woden and Belconnen).
Moving elsewhere puts you at too much at the mercy of a territory government that has no idea about public transport. They cut fares then destroyed the good bus network painstakingly developed in 1998. In a generally affluent city, the priority should have been reversed; not cut (or even increased) fares and targeted full-fare payers with a quality service.
Phillip, Your daughter is very lucky with the 34. Apart from being my old route, this is just about the only one that kept its 30 minute off-peak weekday service when most others were cut to 60min in Dec 06.
Peter
