Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Is Brisbane the village idiot of the western world?


42 reasons why Brisbane & SE Queensland is the village idiot of the western world (and these are just related to transport in the last 8 years).
  1. Building multiple new towns in the middle of nowhere (Flagstone, Yarrabilba, Ripley, Aura) with only imaginary "planned" high frequency public transport. 
  2. Not building a station box for Cross River Rail as part of the Queen's Wharf casino development. 
  3. Toll road tunnels that are so expensive that drivers avoid them, and thus the tunnel operators end up in debt. 
  4. Failure to build the connections between Legacy Way tunnel and the Inner Northern Busway.
  5. Extending the Inner Northern Busway to RBWH, but not extending the route 66 to RBWH for 7 months - resulting in up to 55 minute waits to board a bus that isn't already full. 
  6. Brisbane City Council running what is quite possibly the world's most inefficient, illogical, and confusing to use bus network. 
  7. Vast swathes of Brisbane with no high frequency public transport (e.g Centenary Suburbs, Old Northern Road corridor, Bulimba).
  8. Complete lack of half-decent rail feeder bus services. 
  9. Brisbane City Council being highly obstructive to TransLink's attempts to resolve 6, 7, and 8. 
  10. Brisbane City Council continuing to be in denial about the state of the bus network.
  11. Failing to construct Cross River Rail - now in the planning stage for the 3rd time (yawn)! 
  12. The ridiculous BaT tunnel design bypassing a key interchange at Park Road.
  13. Lord Mayor Graham Quirk trying to spruik the BaT tunnel to federal government - after it was axed by the state government. 
  14. The ridiculous Cleveland Solution suggested by Council of Mayors (SEQ).
  15. The completely unnecessary City2Suburbs tunnel suggested by Council of Mayors (SEQ). 
  16. Go card readers and fare gates that fail, a lot.
  17. Lack of daily fare options in Brisbane - resulting in annoyed tourists. 
  18. The rortable "9 then free" weekly go card cap, that completely ignores the zones used. 
  19. Fares so high that they discourage public transport use. 
  20. Fare structure that favour environmentally unsustainable long distance commuting over environmentally sustainable short distance commuting. 
  21. Not enough trains to run the peak timetable - resulting in Ferny Grove and Cleveland trains leaving behind passengers.
  22. Charging peak fares for off-peak services on Ekka (Wednesday) public holiday.
  23. Running no buses in routes Redlands on Ekka (Monday) public holiday despite it not being a public holiday in Brisbane where people would like to get to work and university. 
  24. Failure to Extremely last minute funding and construction the Gold Coast Light Rail (G:link) from Gold Coast University Hospital to Helensvale (to connect with the train line), and even then via a sub-optimal route. 
  25. Full buses, more full buses, and even more full buses. 
  26. Purchasing new trains (Next Generation Rollingstock) with insufficient doors for high frequency suburban use. 
  27. Designing trains with a lack of sensible advertising space inside. 
  28. The Northern Busway having so many traffic lights it slows down buses compared to when they used Lutwych Road. 
  29. Building "gold plated, over engineered" busways at similar costs to railway lines.  
  30. Duplicating the Ferny Grove Line, but not introducing timetable improvements for another 2 years.
  31. Failure to extend the Doomben Line to Northshore Hamilton development. 
  32. Frequent misleading use of the terms "World Class" and "New World City".
  33. Triplicating the Beenleigh Line between Salisbury and Kuraby instead of quadrupling it - thus preventing 15 minute counter-peak and off-peak services to Beenleigh and Gold Coast. 
  34. Not electrifying the 4th track between Corinda and Darra. 
  35. Not duplicating Coomera to Helensvale along with the rest of the Gold Coast Line duplication (which should have never have been built single track in the first place).
  36. Failure to extend the Gold Coast Line further or build CAMCOS to Sunshine Coast - despite the large population bases. 
  37. Brisbane City Council persisting on the pointless widening of Kingsford Smith Drive - wasn't an overpriced toll road tunnel just built to the airport Mr Quirk?
  38. Airtrain having an infrequent and overpriced monopoly to Brisbane Airport. 
  39. 30 minute frequency off-peak services on weekends - as opposed to 15 minutes in Perth and 10 minutes in Melbourne! 
  40. 30 minutes daytime off-peak service on new train lines to Springfield, and probably Kippa-Ring. 
  41. Lack of public consultation on trains services to Kippa-Ring (Moreton Bay Rail Link), and feeder bus services.
  42. Lack of transparency related to patronage figures - what happened to the QR Passenger Load Survey???
It seems that Queensland breeds incompetence of the highest order when it comes to transport planning, and sadly there are no signs of improvement. 

1 comment:

  1. Makes me happy I drive around Brisbane to be honest. But I'd have to agree. Short of razing everything to the ground and starting again from scratch, I doubt any solution will help our current situation much.

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