Monday, February 28, 2011

Inner Northern Busway - can it get any worse?

Today marks the first day of a university semester, and thus the route 66 should have been back to running every 5 minutes in the peaks, solving all of the Inner Northern Busway's congestion woes. Unfortunately this was not the case!

BrizCommuter travelled home via the Inner Northern Busway from RCH Herston to Normanby this afternoon (28/02/2011) on a 330 bus. The bus filled up to capacity at RCH, and could only take on 4 passengers at QUT Kelvin Grove. At least 100 (and possibly even 120) passengers were waiting at QUT Kelvin Grove, and were left behind by this bus at 4:12pm. As buses only have capacities of between 50-80 passengers, it is likely that many of the passengers waiting had been unable to board previous buses, and many would not be able to board the following 2 buses either. What a way for TransLink to welcome students on their first day of university!

With the 330 bus being packed full, the driver then nearly departed the next stop, Normanby before alighting passengers were able to get to the exit door of the overcrowded bus. BrizCommuter also did not hear the driver reporting the full bus to control.

TransLink need to urgently increase the frequency of the route 66 during the peaks (this could be done via running  extra "sweeper" bendy-bus at known times of congestion), and/or make use of the buses that currently travel along the Inner Northern Busway out of service. Given that Brisbane's bus fares are far more than London, this situation is totally unacceptable!

Update 04/03/2011

BrizCommuter was travelling on a route 66 from Roma Street to RBWH on 04/03/2011 at around 12:30pm. Even at this off-peak time, the route 66 bus still filled up to capacity, leaving students trying to get to QUT waiting on the platform at Roma Street.

Update 07/03/2011

BrizCommuter was travelling from RBWH to Roma Street on 07/03/2011. This time, more than 60 students were left behind at QUT Kelvin Grove by a route 66 bus just after 4pm. This ongoing overcrowding situation is an absolute disgrace TransLink!

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