Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Less Doomben Gloom, and more Busway Zoom

Less Doomben Gloom
In a huge and welcome surprise to long suffering Doomben Line commuters, an extra trial evening peak service will be added from 14/11/2011 leaving Roma Street at 07:01pm and arriving at Doomben at 07:26pm. This is more than an hour after the previous last train, and is sandwiched between two railbus services roughly 45 minutes apart. Hopefully this move bodes well for the phase 2 timetables where BrizCommuter hopes that Doomben will at least get a 30 mins peak fare period service (currently the peak service is rather erratic and infrequent). It is good to see an extra service being added to a low patronage line instead of attempts to kill it off. The extra service is not really obvious on TransLink's website, so lets hope that this extra service had been well publicised to Doomben Line users by way of posters at stations or leaflets. TransLink blurb here:
http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-updates/bulletin/1321245686

More Busway Zoom
The Northern Busway's Federation Street overpass also opened on 14/11/2011 as part of the combined Northern Busway and Airport Link construction. This bridge takes buses across Bowen Bridge Road and bypasses a set of traffic lights (BrizCommuter is not too sure where TransLink came out with the bypassing 4 sets of traffic lights claim). Early reports from commuters are that a few minutes have been shaved off inbound journey times and bus bunching along the inbound Inner Northern Busway is not quite as bad as before - less cases of no buses for ages then 3 arrive at once. Just a shame that these precious minutes shaved off the journey time pale into comparison to some commuters increased journey times as a result of Westfield Chermside's paid parking scheme. TransLink blurb here:
http://translink.com.au/about-translink/reporting-and-publications/media-releases/release/425

And finally, a Courier Mail website reader poll asking "Is Brisbane's public transport too expensive" currently has a "Yes" vote of 92.78% after more than 2,100 votes. No surprises there then! Article here.

3 comments:

  1. The buses to Chermside still queue for ages to get onto Lutwyche Road. Slow traffic lights!!!

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  2. Even when the Northen Busway is opened in 2012, northbound buses will still have to cross Lutwyche Road near Federation Street. Lets hope the traffic light cycles are sped up!

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  3. Hey great early xmas present re the new Doomben service! Now I can avoid the traffic bound, wildly winding 301/300 bus routes a little more often :-)

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