More of Brisbane City Council's "not broken" bus network

In the last blog post, BrizCommuter took a look a high level issues with Brisbane's bus network after decades of poor network design by Brisbane City Council and TransLink. In this post, BrizCommuter continues to look at Brisbane City Council's calamitous bus network which Lord Mayor Graham Quirk is quoted as saying "isn't broken".  Poor network design includes:

• Different CBD bus stops for routes heading in the same direction
• Routes that duplicate other bus and/or train routes
• Routes that duplicate each other with minor variations
• (Almost) every bus route to the CBD network

Below are more reasons why Brisbane's bus network is well and truly broken.

Route 161

Route 161 - epitome of waste!

This route is the epitome of poor network design and waste:

• It serves a small residential area of approx 1km x 0.5km in size, but then runs express along the congested busway to the CBD (Mon-Fri) - a waste of bus and driver resources, and unnecessarily adds to congestion along the SE Busway.  
• Appears to only run inbound in the am peak, so are empty out of service buses running in the other direction? Further waste of a bus and driver resources. 

There are plenty of other examples of low patronage buses that add to SE Busway congestion, when they should just act as feeder services, such as the 183. 

This route needs to become a feeder service, terminating where it meets the busway at Garden City. Ideally, as it takes a bus only 10 minutes to drive this route, it should become part of another feeder bus route that passes through the area (as per TransLink's canned network review). 

Route 195

The route 195 (light grey) - for lazy people

This peak only route serves New Farm and Merthyr, all within 1 block away from the high frequency route 196. Why on earth does it justify it's own route?

This route should be cut (as per TransLink's canned network review), and its passengers can get a bit of exercise. Even The Biggest Looser contestants can manage a 300m walk! 

The Great Circle Line

Who seriously thought it was a good idea to have a bus service running in a huge circle around Brisbane? This bus takes 3 and half hours for a full revolution, and not surprisingly is often observed running late.  Oh, and don't try to use it on a Sunday, or you will be waiting until Monday. So much for Sunday shopping at Chermside!

This routes needs to split up into multiple routes (as per TransLink's canned network review), which can serve each area with a more appropriate timetable and routing.

P343, P344, 345

More duplication, apart from in the CBD

These buses run between Aspley and the CBD. The 345 is notorious for being full on the inner part of the route along Enoggera and Kelvin Grove Road. The P343 could help with this congestion, but runs express past the overcrowded sections of the 345 route, usually with spare seats available - much to the annoyance of passengers left behind by full 345 services! The P344 almost runs on the same route as the 345 and P344, but with a short variation along Webster Road. Just to add insult to injury, all three routes stop at different locations in the CBD, so you cannot wait for all 3 services from the same CBD location. There are plenty of other examples in Brisbane of multiple bus routes serving the same corridor (until they reach the CBD), when they should just be merged into single routes - e.g. P129, P133, and P137 duplicating the 130, and P141 duplicating the 140, P157 duplicating the 156, P179 and P189 duplicating the 180, the list goes on and on!

The P343 services should be turned into extra 345 services (as per TransLink's canned network review) - this would also result in consistent CBD stop locations. Multiple routes serving the same corridors need to be merged into one route. At the most any transport corridor should not have any more than 2 stopping patterns (e.g. all stops and express stops). 

Route 450, 453, 454, P455, P456, P457, P458, P459 (again)

8 routes, but no frequent off-peak service

These 8 routes all serve the Centenary Suburbs. Yet, only one stop in Centenary Suburbs (Mt Ommaney Shopping Centre) is served by what could be classed as a "high frequency" service during the off-peak, resulting in this suburb being a huge public transport black-hole. The via Indooropilly routes do not interchange with train services (which may be faster than bus in the peak). As mentioned in the previous blog post, these 8 routes confusingly have 4 variations of CBD bus routings. In the future buses could have used BCC's Legacy Way road tunnel to access the CBD quickly via the Northern Busway - Campbell Newman was once quoted as saying 2000 express buses per day would use the tunnel. Unfortunately, the connection between the road tunnel and the Northern Busway has not been built due to political stupidity. 

These 8 routes should be consolidated into 2, with one being a high frequency route running out to Riverhills (as per TransLink's canned network review). Consolidated routes should share CBD stop locations. Consideration should also be given for a frequent bus route linking Centenary Suburbs with the frequent Ipswich Rail Line at Darra or Oxley (as per TransLink's canned network review).  Legacy Way tunnel should ideally be linked to the Inner Northern Busway.

These examples only scratch the surface of the inefficiency, duplication, and poor design of Brisbane's bus network. Brisbane needs a bus network "revolution", as was planned by TransLink. There is not much point with Brisbane City Council's planned bus network "evolution" if your bus network is a like a sloth in the first place (no offence to sloths!). Most of these issues would have been fixed by TransLink's plans. What will Brisbane City Council do?

Previous blog post:
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/brisbane-city-council.html
Brisbane = public transport Hicksville?
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/brisbane-public-transport-hicksville.html