Naomi Bicheno of Websinthe‘s girl fame wrote an opinion piece on the state of public transport in Brisbane. I decided to blog a reply, because I’m an opinionated bastard and need to keep my quota of scathing rebuttals up.
To start thing off, I think late buses in Brisbane are to be expected. Sure, it’s a pain in the butt when your ride doesn’t show up, but there’s a massive shortage of both vehicles and drivers. Traffic is also subject to fluctuation, and I know how difficult it is to anticipate when the roads will clog up.
I guess when the new busways are completed, we can expect a higher standard of travel, but at the moment the system’s stretched just a bit too thin.
On the flip side, Brisbane Translink prices are definitely getting painful. As one of the elite few who (mostly) gave up his car for more eco-friendly modus operandi, I can say I’m definitely feeling the squeeze. Working from home, and travelling in sporadic bursts as I do isn’t too bad, but I’m finding myself having to top up my credit altogether a lot more than I’d prefer to.
Now ticket prices have risen again, a Go Card (RFID touch-card) is looking more and more necessary. A ten dollar up-front fee will give you discounted prices other incentives for regular commuters, but for the average joe it’s a fine line between value for money and a massive rip off. The convenience is brilliant, but the amount of time I’ve stood around waiting for a bus driver wrangle with the sign-off system, or hanging on the phone with an operator because of broken hardware is disappointing.
I suppose Brisbane’s just creaking under the weight of its own growth. It’s the fastest growing city in Australia, and there’s bound to be some kinks in that business model. While our current government’s drive to build more roads instead of mass transportation is disappointing, I’m confident that time will make things better for those of us who actually believe in conserving the environment. For now however, complaining about fares and quality of service is probably a little bit unfair.
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2 Comments
Naomi
January 23, 2009 0:07
I was complaining about fares and service levels at the same time because I saw them as linked – I pay for a service. I wouldn’t resent the cost so much if they didn’t cancel services without warning, come more than ten minutes late, etc.
The buses off the top of my head that would come anywhere from 15-45 mins late (not joking) with no warning about their lateness were the 475 and 220. If the 475 was any more than 10 minutes late, I was going to be late to work, and I would say that 2 out of every 5 days it was about 20 minutes late. I ended up having to get a bus half an hour earlier than that and then sit at work bored for 40 mins because I couldn’t trust the translink schedule.
Kieran also did comics about other translink experiences we’ve had, for example http://websinthe.blogspot.com/2008/11/nocharcom-dealing-with-translink-v1.html
Ash
January 23, 2009 1:27
It’s totally fair to grumble about the quality of the public transport system, I was probably more playing devil’s advocate than anything else.
It used to bug me no end when services wouldn’t show up at Highgate Hill. Now I’m living near Moggil Road I can catch a bus to the city nearly every five minutes, so I’m a bit spoiled.