Festive Season 'Nightriders' 2011-12

[smitho]

ACTION Drivers are being invited to express interest in operating Nightriders over the coming Festive Season.

[belcodriver]

That's awfully early or do you mean 2011-12?

[smitho]

Yes, Dec 11 and Jan 12....at this stage, not definite that ACTION will get the go ahead to run these services.

[route56]

Any more news on 2011/12 Nightrider services yet ?

I would have thought that they would start advertising it soon, considering last years debacle.

[Barry Drive]

Breaking news: ACTION to provide Nightrider in December. Fares reduced to $5.

Media release now available on ACT Bus website

[route56]

Any sign of advertising ?

i note the service is drastically reduced. i hope no drunk bogans write themselves and others off in an alcohol caused car crash (not accident) as a result.

[smitho]

It may be a less frequent service than Deane's offered but I think its comparable with ACTION Nightrider frequency in 2009, 08, 07...

[Kramden]

There's an article in this morning's CT singing the praises of "Nightrider".  One line had me choking on my Weet Bix.  It states: "Each service will have CCTV facilities to ensure passenger safety".

What...do the lenses double as tranquiliser guns?  Imagine some asshole, with a tendency towards violent outbursts when off his chops, running amok and in the confines of a bus.  As if a camera is going so make him think twice in that condition.   I also wonder if the lads in the re-fueling bay will get bonus pay for each 'defoulment' they have to deal with.

Great idea though: overtime for night owl drivers, cheap as chips for the punters and keeps the drunks off the roads.  Win win.   Err, maybe not if you're a cabbie.

[Barry Drive]

Any sign of advertising ?

i note the service is drastically reduced.

Just the Media Release at this stage. Despite it saying more information can be found at Transport for Canberra, there's nothing there yet.

But it looks like they will be run EXACTLY the same way as when ACTION last did them - 8 fixed service areas at fixed departure times with 90 minutes between each service. A much better way would have been to combine the service areas so that there are only 4 routes with 45 minutes between each service (as Deane's did in January).

[Buzz Killington]

Just the Media Release at this stage. Despite it saying more information can be found at Transport for Canberra, there's nothing there yet.

There was a route listing, timetable and fares when I looked a few hours ago

[belcodriver]

There's an article in this morning's CT singing the praises of "Nightrider".  One line had me choking on my Weet Bix.  It states: "Each service will have CCTV facilities to ensure passenger safety".

What...do the lenses double as tranquiliser guns?  Imagine some asshole, with a tendency towards violent outbursts when off his chops, running amok and in the confines of a bus.  As if a camera is going so make him think twice in that condition.   I also wonder if the lads in the re-fueling bay will get bonus pay for each 'defoulment' they have to deal with.

Great idea though: overtime for night owl drivers, cheap as chips for the punters and keeps the drunks off the roads.  Win win.   Err, maybe not if you're a cabbie.

Seeing as they will be using the MANs for the nightriders what they have for safety is the wheelchair ramp hook and a fire extinguisher.

[Bus 400]

....I think its comparable with ACTION Nightrider frequency in 2009, 08, 07...

The only change I can see is we lost the Kingston-Manuka-City Loop service.

[route56]

Does anyone have a photo of a bus with Nightrider advertising on it ? Perhaps an AOA ? I'd like to do a blog post and use the photos if it exists.

[Buzz Killington]

Hasn't been an AOA for Nightrider but I'll dig up a photo of an advert for you.

[smitho]

There used to be a fairly larger placard advert for Nightrider services in the Belconnen starters office - don't know if it is still there.

I've several years worth of ACTION Nighrider all-system timetables...the little credit card sized fold-out variety, most recently issued in ACTION green & yellow corporate scheme.

[Bus 400]

An advertisement was shown on WIN TV tonight during the news for Nightrider. Features an animated young lady going to Platform 7 on the City & boarding a bus to the nearest place to home.

[Urbos Rider]

I saw that ad, and the last frame intrigued me, as it *appeared* to me that the bus used in this final frame had a striking resemblance to the Transit Graphics model of 371. I'm not 100%, but that's what it looked like to me.....

Other than that, good to see an advertising campaign for Nightrider. Better late than never, I suppose.

[Kramden]

An advertisement was shown on WIN TV tonight during the news for Nightrider. Features an animated young lady going to Platform 7 on the City & boarding a bus to the nearest place to home.

I love that description 400: 'animated young lady'.  Is that code for some wasted skank making a scene while staggering from ICBM to Platform 7?

Sorry, but you have to make allowances for my warped sense of humour.  Just recently - while laying over on Platform 10 - I witnessed two young ladies of Asian appearance getting into the spirit of Australian night life.  Probably too much spirit truth be known.  Both were barfing on the footpath.  Fantastic I thought.  Were they taking lessons in 'being bogans' when not studying hard at uni to impress the folks back home I pondered.

Roll on Nightrider and best wishes to the drivers.  I'll be taking a rain check on those shifts thanks.

[The Love Guru]

Good call Kramden. However if you want to see true class, i believe the New Years Eve nightrider shifts are the ones to go for.

I, like you, will not be participating in Nightride this year. There are enough bogans out on a Saturday night just heading into town, there is no way i want to be taking them back home.

[Barry Drive]

I love that description 400: 'animated young lady'.  Is that code for some wasted skank making a scene while staggering from ICBM to Platform 7?

No, he meant it literally.

So, what have we learnt from last year's Nightrider?

Fares too high - fixed
Insufficient TV and radio advertising - fixed
Lack of signage at City Bus Station - fixed



Promotion of service on buses - some buses have ads on back, but more can be done
Pre-purchased or MyWay fares - no change: cash fares only
More flexible route structure / more frequent departures - no change: most suburbs only have services every 90 minutes

New Years Eve services: departures prior to 1am have been abolished - no idea why, but I suspect they were not well patronised.

Also, I found a flyer-sized timetable at the City MyWay office. These should be put into the brochure holders on all buses. The Nightrider posters appearing around the City should be placed inside every bus and also put up at the other bus stations.

Their social media promotion is also severly lacking. The official @ACTIONbuses twitter account has, to date, made ZERO tweets about Nightrider - despite it starting tomorrow. There have been some tweets from @KatyGMLA and @actgovernment and occasional mentions from other Canberra based tweeters. I've yet to see a Facebook ad, but perhaps I am not in the target demographic.

[Kramden]

No, he meant it literally.

I've not seen the TV ad.  So, the lady in question is a cartoon?

[Bus 400]

I've not seen the TV ad.  So, the lady in question is a cartoon?

Yeah she is.


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[Kramden]

Yeah she is.
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Glad we've cleared that up.  In keeping with the flavour of the commercial, i.e. what is actually being advertised, I assume our animated starlet of Night Rider fame is not too frumpy or plain like say, Meg Griffin.

[Bus 400]

I hope the link works, but a bit like this http://www.google.com.au/m/search?site=images&source=mog&hl=en&gl=au&client=safari&q=revlon%20girl&sa=N#i=21

[Bus 400]

Caught the Nightrider home last night for the first time. But also waited around before my bus turned up, from my observations most buses left with 5-10 people. It was good to see that one of the Transport Officers (TO's) had a loud voice who would yell out where each bus was going to not only those waiting on Platform 7, but to those waiting in the taxi line on Platform 4. I think the taxi line was affected as before the taxi line would take a 20 minutes wait, but suddenly shortened once Nightriders started & the TO started advising the public where each bus went.

While I was waiting I only saw 2 people who were a little too drunk, but the Police walked over & had a word with them & at the time the drunks were happy to leave. Unfortunately they didn't want to pay the $5 bus fare & with 2 TO's & 4 Police they were refused entry & were stuck in Civic.

Now my ride home was on the 976 to Kambah, we had 4 people for Kambah, 1 for Wanniassa & 1 for Bonython. With everything working well as 2 wanted Marconi Crescent, 1 for Summerland Circuit, 1 for Livingston Avenue, 1 for Fincham Street & 1 for Barr Smith Avenue. So one simple bus route could be made following that line & no double backing was needed.

But also from me overhearing things, this morning was the best patronage for Nightrider ever. So it looks like Transport for Canberra did a great job advertising this year. Hopefully this keeps up for every weekend this year.


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[Buzz Killington]

Was catching up on some TV I had recorded during the week this morning and happened to catch the Nightrider Ad. Will post it up soon.

[Buzz Killington]

[route56]

I taped the nightrider news report on WIN the other night:

[Bus 400]

Here is the brochure being handed out by the ACTION Transport Officers:



The ticket I was issued, I wonder what shift numbers Belconnen uses?

[Barry Drive]

Media Release from ACTCM states that 548 passengers took Nightrider buses over the weekend. 207 passengers on Saturday morning, 341 on Sunday morning (based on info posted to twitter).

From my observations though, the City Bus Station taxi queue was still busy, so what more can be done to increase Nightrider patronage? Better targetted routes? (More routes to where passengers want to go, fewer to where they don't?) Better timetabling? (Services to each Town Centre depart within 15 minutes of each other, then nothing for 75 minutes - why not adjust the timetable and share the load - even if it results in passengers taxiing from a Town Centre instead of the City)

[Bus 400]

Could an option be to join the area routes together & having buses leave every hour?

So the routes would be:
970-Gungahlin
971-Belconnen
972-Molonglo (not required at the moment)
973-Woden/Weston Creek
974-Tuggeranong
975-North/South Canberra

Of course there may be area's that wouldn't need this amount of frequency, but there could be times when the frequency is required. But if you do expand the area & the frequency, I suspect drivers could make it back in an hour.

I do say this as 2 people didn't like that the Charnwood bus didn't leave until 01:45, so they went for a walk.



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[Buzz Killington]

548 is still a great number. I doubt we're ever going to see buses packed to capacity but that's 137 taxis worth (assuming four pax per taxi) who got a bus, and whilst I'm sure it's a low percentage, there's probably a few people who got on a bus instead of risking driving themselves home.

[belcodriver]

I've usually driven one or two nightriders every year and back when each service was once an hour I did a couple of runs that had pretty much every seat full.  One packed run I did through the southern half of Belconnen got me back to the city half an hour late so doubling the area covered is not a good idea.

I guess the problem with dropping off at taxi ranks near the other interchanges would be the lack of security. I don't imagine the cops or the cabbies would fancy a busload of drunks being dropped off in spots with no other people around.

[Buzz Killington]

A new poll has been added to the homepage at actbus.net - do you think Nightrider should run through January?

And an article from a few days ago in the CT: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/revellers-warm-to-nightrider-services/2405644.aspx

[Bus 400]

On a side note for Facebook users, I am wondering if any of you noticed a little advertisement on your home page for ACTION's Christmas Timetable? I only noticed it today & it looked a little something like this:

[Snorzac]

I saw that yesterday, would never have expected to see that from ACTION!

[particleman]

I took the NightRider home a few weeks ago (last time I went out  ), and I'm pretty pleased about the service. However, I was disappointed that it's not year-round - I'm sure there are quite a few people (particularly uni students) who would make use of the service after their piss-ups.

[Kramden]

A new poll has been added to the homepage at actbus.net - do you think Nightrider should run through January?

And an article from a few days ago in the CT: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/revellers-warm-to-nightrider-services/2405644.aspx

Good of the Canberra Times to run a pro-ACTION item without their usual snide remarks and negative spin.

[smitho]

I took the NightRider home a few weeks ago (last time I went out  ), and I'm pretty pleased about the service. However, I was disappointed that it's not year-round - I'm sure there are quite a few people (particularly uni students) who would make use of the service after their piss-ups.

AdMet in SA (Adelaide) has year round NightRider type services; they are FREE around Christmas/New Year. However they don't attempt to drop people off close to their homes in the way ACTION does. The Trans Adelaide trains also run through the night on selected nights such as New Year's Day.