Redex plans

[smitho]

Interesting comments to Assembly budget committee on planning progress on the Redex servicers:

MR COE: I have got some questions on the Redex service. Firstly, have you actually
decided where the routes will go?
Mr Elliott: We know broadly where we would prefer them to go. We are doing the
modelling now to see if we can actually take them there and what effect there will be
on the standard bus service. One of the issues we face with this trial is, in a sense, it
being very successful. Because it is only a pilot, if we move a whole mass of
passengers off some standard routes and onto these services, the issue for us will be
how to move them back again if we decide not to proceed. It is a pilot. Managing our
customers through the pilot is going to be quite an art, I have to say. We are having a
good, hard look at where we have got overlaps on intertown services, for example,
and what we are trying to achieve out of the Redex service before we lock in. But
notionally, the idea of moving people much more regularly with rapid transit around
the corridors that we spoke about is very sound in principle. What we are intending to
do is to augment our existings and see how we go from there.
MR COE: Route No 710 currently goes Belconnen, City, Russell, Barton. How is the
Redex service from west Belconnen to Barton going to make savings in time?
Mr Elliott: How will it make savings in time?
MR COE: Yes.
Mr Elliott: It will probably run more regularly than the current one.
MR COE: But more regularly does not make it faster.
Mr Elliott: It depends on frequency.
Mr Swift: The way the Redex or rapid transit works is that you have limited stops;
you do not stop at all stops. That reduces your time.
MR COE: Is it pretty much going to be going on the same roads, or very similar
roads, as the existing service?
Mr Swift: As I say, we are still in the planning process. We are not sure exactly
where it is going to go at the moment.
MR COE: For it to be attractive—it is going to be the same price as the other bus
service, so it has got to be attractive on time.
Mr Swift: Yes.
MR COE: I am just curious as to how you are going to get the savings in time from
west Belconnen to Barton that make it significantly better and—
Mr Elliott: As Tim suggests, you would probably stop less, and the issue is which
roads you go on.
MR COE: That is right, yes.
Mr Elliott: If you are stopping less, you will try and avoid congestion areas. I guess
that is where you will pick up your speed.
MR COE: Will the actual buses be clearly marked as being Redex buses—other than
just the number?
Mr Elliott: Probably on the display, but we probably would not brand the buses,
because we would probably want to use them for different things at different times.
We have talked about branding stops so that people are more aware. We picked Redex
because we think that red might be a good colour. We could go down that path. We
need to be very careful how we market this. We need to manage people's expectations
about what it is and what it is not—test it, trial it, make sure we evaluate it well and
then make some adjustments.
As I see it coming together at this point in time, I think we will be doing the majority
of our design or implementation through October to Christmas, so in term 4 this
calendar year. If we think we are going to be successful, and even if we want to adjust
and adapt, we will be needing to go back to government in the 2010 budget and ask
them for some money to continue. It is a trial for one year. We really have only that
term 4 to get the service up and running, test it, evaluate it and make some decisions
or recommendations to government about what they would like to do.
However, having said that, because we have got quite a considerable amount of
money to do the trial, we may adapt something that we have tried in October to
December and try something a little different in January 2010, say in term 1, simply
because we find it does not work well or our customer feedback says, "Not useful to
me; I would rather do whatever I am doing." If it does not work for people, we need
to adjust and adapt.
MR COE: The $1 million that has been allocated—have you already got a budget for
how that is going to be spent?
Mr Elliott: That is what we are working to. It is an allocation and we are not to
exceed it.
MR COE: Have you got a breakdown of that?
Mr Elliott: No, because it is about how frequently we run it. For example, you could
look at a service from Gungahlin down through Civic and maybe out to Kingston and
then down to Tuggeranong, or you could take it out to the airport or somewhere else.
If you modelled that—you can model it—the cost will be in how frequently you run it.
If you did it at 30 minutes all day, it will cost X; if you did it at 15 minutes all day it
will be X plus Y; if you did it at 15 minutes in the peak and 30 minutes in the middle
of the day it will be X plus Y minus Z. It is about modelling and then seeing what we
can afford to do and what is the best value for money.
MR COE: But that $1 million is going towards actual bus drivers and actual
on-the-ground testing?
Mr Elliott: Yes, real services.

[Bus 400]

Really the 710 (if not all Xpresso) could become a limited stop service, but going by this the 710 Xpresso would be scrapped. But I can't see a Redex going from Airport to Tuggeranong, considering (what I've been told) that the 786 Xpresso barely gets anyone.

But they might want to start getting the new drivers considering the whole process can take 5-9 months & quite a few times this week drivers have been asked to do overtime due to drivers being ill.

Although if this all works out, maybe the intertown service could be replaced with this Redex thing & Kippax could become a transfer station.

[Buzz Killington]

All the Xpresso services should be limited stops..

[Irisbus Rider]

A few to nitpick on;
[quote'"Assmebly comments"]We know broadly where we would prefer them to go. We are doing the
modelling now to see if we can actually take them there and what effect there will be
on the standard bus service.[/quote]
It is expected that the bus will not go through Erindale, as buses can't make the turn.

MR COE: Route No 710 currently goes Belconnen, City, Russell, Barton. How is the Redex service from west Belconnen to Barton going to make savings in time?
Mr Elliott: How will it make savings in time?
MR COE: Yes.
Mr Elliott: It will probably run more regularly than the current one.
MR COE: But more regularly does not make it faster.
Mr Elliott: It depends on frequency.

It depends on Frequency? WTF? Ok, and this is for Coe too, Redex is a Limited Stops service, and will be quicker than the 710, but again, depends on direction of travel, if the Redex Service goes via Eastern Valley Way or College St. Eastern Valley way would be best.

MR COE: Is it pretty much going to be going on the same roads, or very similar
roads, as the existing service?
Mr Swift: As I say, we are still in the planning process. We are not sure exactly
where it is going to go at the moment.

A decent question but a half arsed answer.

MR COE: For it to be attractive—it is going to be the same price as the other bus
service, so it has got to be attractive on time.
Mr Swift: Yes.

Damn right!

The rest is actually quite a logical structured argument, and sounds like Tom Elliott knows what he's talking about too.

[Buzz Killington]

Coe's a moron.

[Barry Drive]

Coe's a moron.

Although if this all works out, maybe the intertown service could be replaced with this Redex thing & Kippax could become a transfer station.

Clearly Coe's not the only moron.

Ok, and this is for Coe too, Redex is a Limited Stops service, and will be quicker than the 710, but again, depends on direction of travel, if the Redex Service goes via Eastern Valley Way or College St. Eastern Valley way would be best.

710 already travels via Eastern Valley Way. So the only way a 'Redex' service would be quicker is to not stop at Eastern Valley Way or Barry Drive, but that won't make it much quicker.

The best way to deliver a quick bus service between Belconnen and City is to build a bus lane along Barry Drive.

[Irisbus Rider]

I agree with all of your comments there, Martin.

True, but IMO, the only way the service would be worthwhile is if the service ran the same way the 710 currently goes. Then UC/Radford/CiT/Calvary Hospital would still have it's current 5 min Intertown frequency.
But if RedEx ran via the current Intertown route, 'it would slow the service down a lot, especially on weekdays on College St (40km/h).

[Snorzac]

I have been told by a driver that the Redex trail has being scrapped due to the way they were asking the drivers to sign up for it. This called for a driver to resign from ACTION to do this and go to Redex, if the plans were to fail they would get a job at ACTION however they would have no seniority at all.

THIS IS JUST A RUMOUR

[Barry Drive]

As much as I would like to believe it, I doubt that they would scrap the whole RedEx concept just because of problems with driver recruitment. What they (TAMS?) wanted to do was have a separate driver pool for the RedEx services - this could be due to it only being temporary and also because the money to run the service came from a distinct funding allocation. More likely they will re-think how to staff the service using current drivers without affecting the seniority list.

[smitho]

Noticed today that the two former Redex route proposals were still alive and well in the desto of my bus today,  namely R1-Tuggeranong-City-Kippax and R2-Tuggeranong-City-Gungahlin.....both being located under Route 333.