Inner Northern Busway misery continues...

Why does the 393 terminate here?

You would have thought that after last years Inner Northern Busway overcrowding caused by running the 66 at half frequency during university holidays, that TransLink would learn by not reducing the frequency?  Sadly, this does not appear to be the case. In the last few days, the number of route 66 buses appears to have halved again. On Wednesday 30th November, just after 4pm, BrizCommuter had to wait 23 minutes to board a bus at RCH Herston to Roma Street. During this period when last week three route 66 buses would have passed, just one route 66 bus turned up. This bus filled up to capacity at RBWH (the first stop), and could only take on a handful of passengers at RCH Herston. The crowd of passengers left behind then had to wait an additional 10 minutes for the next route 66 and 333 which turned up at the same time. During this period "Brisbane's most useless bus" route 393 passed through with just one passenger, as well as two "out of service" buses passing through empty.

Passengers were also not able to board at QUT Kelvin Grove. Unfortunately many of these passengers appeared to be international students on a course at summer course at QUT. What a bad impression of Brisbane these students will be getting! BrizCommuter has also heard reports of Sunshine Coast commuters missing their connections at Roma Street despite allowing 30 minutes to get from RCH Herston to Roma Street.

This scenario highlights many issues:

• The 66 at half frequency cannot cope with patronage.
• The 393 needs to be extended to Roma Street or King George Square to make it more useful. 
• Empty counter-peak buses should be run in service between RBWH and the CBD. 
• TransLink and the Queensland Government are still not addressing overcrowding issues.