Desired Route Alterations

[Bus 400]

I am sure that we all have desired route alterations. Mine are as follows:

11/111-Renumbered 69/169
333-Tuggeranong to Belconnen Intertown via Woden,City & Gungahlin
300-Tuggeranong to Gungahlin via Woden, City, Belconnen (with future extension to Moncreiff Terminus once open)
12 to 17-Renumbered to match Belconnen number series
West Macgregor/Dunlop/Kambah to have better bus services.
Tharwa Bus Service
Cotter Corridor Bus Service
Most suburbs to get Xpresso service with peak period 100 & 200 series to be scrapped.

[Busnerd]

I would say only one of those things is a good idea.

That is better services to MacGregor, Dunlop and Kambah.

The 11/111 fits in the with other intertown numbers 11, - 19 are now taken. And their intertown equivalent.

The 333 if it is brought back should stay as everyone knew it, tuggeranong to belconnen.

300 Should not be moncrieff to woden. They need to reinstate the 50 as a gungahlin intertown, it should do belconnen to woden via gun and civic.

12 to 17 don't need to be renumbered, they are short workings of intertowns (excl. 16 and 17) which don't need to be changed, everyone knows the routes.

Tharwa bus service won't work, neither will the cotter.

Xpressos are needed along side peak hour extensions, its simpler having a normal route extended to the city than having another route with a different number, plus they cant keep putting on xpresso's in place of every single route.

[Bus 400]

The 11/111 fits in the with other intertown numbers 11, - 19 are now taken. And their intertown equivalent.

However the 111 only runs in peakhours in the flow of peakhour. Which is the same as the 160,161,162. It is also a Tuggeranong Valley feeder service.

12 to 17 don't need to be renumbered, they are short workings of intertowns (excl. 16 and 17) which don't need to be changed, everyone knows the routes.

However if my dream of the 300 & 333 came into effect. The 312-319 would be scrapped.

Xpressos are needed along side peak hour extensions, its simpler having a normal route extended to the city than having another route with a different number, plus they cant keep putting on xpresso's in place of every single route.

Also not every suburb would get Xpresso services as some services don't have the patronage.

[Busnerd]

Exactly - they are using the intertown numbers as it combined two old intertowns into one, so why not use 11?

Your intertown dream will never happen. The 333 may be back in the future, causing the 312 - 319 to only become the local ends 12 - 19

Xpresso's will stay, as will peak extensions.

[lukeo25]

Moncreiff? where is this???

[Snorzac]

New Route 706: Kippax-City via Floey, Page and Belconnen Way

[Bus 400]

Moncreiff? where is this???

At the end of Mirrabei Dr. Apparently the plan is to have a terminus hub at the intersection of Mirrabei Dr & Horse Park Dr.

[Barry Drive]

Apparently the plan is to have a terminus hub at the intersection of Mirrabei Dr & Horse Park Dr.

I will probably regret asking but "whose plan"? Name (or hint at) your source.

I can believe a terminus will one day be located near the corner of Horse Park Dr and Gungahlin Dr/Clarrie Hermes Dr, because that's where the Casey group centre will be located.

[Bus 400]

I will probably regret asking but "whose plan"? Name (or hint at) your source.

I can believe a terminus will one day be located near the corner of Horse Park Dr and Gungahlin Dr/Clarrie Hermes Dr, because that's where the Casey group centre will be located.

That was the terminus I meant, but I was close enough & that terminus proposal was somewhere on the ACT BUS website & in an ACT Government Transport Plan report.

[lukeo25]

i know a good idea for new xpresso

723 Torrens to City
Start: Basedow St
Left: Beasley St
Left: Hodgson Cr
Left: Mcfarland Cr
Left: Eggleston Cr
Right: Hindmarsh Dr
Right Launcaston St
Left Melrose Dr
Then as intertown to civic

don't blame me if there any mistakes in turns or spelling and road names

[Bus 400]

Wouldn't that be Left Hindmarsh, Right Launceston St?

[Buzz Killington]

]I will probably regret asking but "whose plan"? Name (or hint at) your source.

I'll see if i can find the PDF for you, Martin.

Moncreiff? where is this???

Oh my

[Snorzac]

-Cut Back 73/74 Frequency or use a Rosa, patronage is way to low.
-Run the 10 via the Airport Terminal and Front of Brand Depot rather than where they drop off now.
-Cut 705, 749 and 710 to limited stops. (ie. Pick up pax once at a certain point direct to interchange with no set downs)
-20min Frequency on 312/313/314/315 etc. should be extended (7:30am-9:00am and 4:00pm-6:00pm)
-Give more time for peak hour runs and less for ones in off-peak
-Extend all buses running into Belconnen Interchange to Page

[Busnerd]

I love that last one...the new page terminus to be built in macca's backyard.

[smitho]

Desired routes/services:

(1) An "ACTION Premium" service offering frequent, limited stop, peak hours buses on the Intertown route servicing only the 4 interchanges and two 'park and ride' stops at Mawson (Southlands) and College St, (Belconnen). Pre-paid fares only. No bikes or other 'free ride' passenger categories permitted in the interests of rapid passenger boarding and disembarkation.

(2) Upgrading the 732 Xpresso by restoring the 4th daily service (as the former 37 'Curtin Express' used to have) and extending its route south of Curtin via Launceston St, Left Hindmarsh Drive, then Chifley, Pearce and terminating in western Torrens. This would give it an improved catchment and give residents in south/west Woden Valley suburbs direct peak hour services to Civic comparable with the services East Woden Valley resident enjoy with the well patronised Farrer Xpresso (route 720 as I recall).

(3) Eliminate diversions of inbound Xpressos into the City West 'bus station' - a cause of considerable delay for passengers heading to the Civic Interchange or Electricity House, and hardly anyone uses it anyway. The stops on London Cirt near the Lakeside and opposite the Police Station plus the Alinga St stop provide very good alternative access points to City West offices, shops, uni residences and the ANU.

[Buzz Killington]

all great ideas smitho. Pre-pay only might be a good addition to your first idea too, with special liveried vehicles like in Sydney.

[Snorzac]

I love that last one...the new page terminus to be built in macca's backyard.

Or they could knock down the houses of Bogans opposite and turn my bus stop into a new terminus, then the 706 could be Page-City Direct. Sucked in Florey!

Not gonna happen, but the Belconnen bus station at the depot is a short walk away!

Offtopic: The word i*****d was just used in Eli Stone, (S***** will be enthused)

[belcodriver]

-Run the 10 via the Airport Terminal and Front of Brand Depot rather than where they drop off now.

The problem with ACTION going to the Airport is the lack of luggage space on the buses. I think that's why they cancelled the service to the airport which ran in 2001-2?

[Jack Bauer]

-Run the 10 via the Airport Terminal and Front of Brand Depot rather than where they drop off now.

The problem with ACTION going to the Airport is the lack of luggage space on the buses. I think that's why they cancelled the service to the airport which ran in 2001-2?

Probably yeah. And, I remember doing an 80 once during afternoon peak and we had nobody get on at the airport, and maybe one or two get off there. Taxis are the winners there..

[Irisbus Rider]

Oh, where is that 'dream' Xpresso map that wass floating around before? I still stand by that!

But, yeah, extending the 732 to Torrens terminus would be a champion idea too.
And 2 more xpressos for Weston Creek would be good, and yeah, I have already got an idea where they should go.

[Buzz Killington]

The problem with ACTION going to the Airport is the lack of luggage space on the buses.

That, and the fact that Mr Snow wanted to charge them some ridiculous amount for each bus that serviced the airport.

[Snorzac]

Adding to smithos idea, that premium service could be numbered 333 and operated by the new 14.5s

[Busnerd]

I think their plan is to bring back the 333 using the 14.5's

[Bus 400]

Most likely as I don't think that a 14.5 will be able to turn into Fraser West Terminus.

[Busnerd]

Um, yes it would be...

A rear steer 14.5 bus can go anywhere a standard length bus can....

The only problems it would have up there is with those stupidly narrow shicanes.

[Barry Drive]

I can believe a terminus will one day be located near the corner of Horse Park Dr and Gungahlin Dr/Clarrie Hermes Dr, because that's where the Casey group centre will be located.

That was the terminus I meant, but I was close enough & that terminus proposal was somewhere on the ACT BUS website & in an ACT Government Transport Plan report.

Moncrieff will, one day, have a group centre at the corner of Horse Park Dr and Mirrabei Dr. But it may not be for 5 - 10 years. I expect (although don't have any evidence to support it) that the first group centre to be developed in Gungahlin will be at Amaroo.

[Irisbus Rider]

The 14.5s are replacing the artics, and most likely will see identical work to what the artics are doing now, i.e. school work and odd Xpressos.
Which is frustrating, because those feral kiddies will rip apart those nice new 14.5s.

[Barry Drive]

The 14.5s are replacing the artics, and most likely will see identical work to what the artics are doing now, i.e. school work and odd Xpressos.

Perhaps, but you wouldn't buy new buses and leave them in the depot for most of the day. It is likely that they will be used like the artics used to be - doing intertowns for most of the day and being put on school runs or Xpressos where extra capacity is needed.

[Busnerd]

they should replace 27 mk1 rigids with the 14.5's and keep the artics for school buses and charters etc.

That way they still have the network capacity if needed, despite the fact they are getting on in age

[Buzz Killington]

You'd think they would need to keep at least some of the artics - otherwise they'd have to start splitting the artic school routes up into two seperate routes, and say there are 25 of those, thats another 25 buses that need to come from somewhere.

Who knows.. I think they should just ditch a handful of the worst performers and keep the rest.

[Irisbus Rider]

Yeah, sorry, the 27 14.5s will replace the 27 MkI Artics. But yeah, Martin, you raise an excellent point, they probably will use them to their full capability.

I was originally under the impression that the MkI Artics will stick around and do school work only, but I found this was incorrect.

[Buzz Killington]

well there's only really 26 Mk1's now.

26.5 if you count the front half of 703 that's sitting around somewhere.

[Snorzac]

I would like to see the 16 and 17 re-extended to Woden as the 116/117 or even to Tuggeranong as 316/317, Kippax is a major terminus point and should have an intertown service.

[Busnerd]

I agree, whilst no one really got it from woden to kippax, it was nice to have it extending to the city/woden for those residents, plus it provided a nice 'half way' service for the intertown.

[Bus 400]

What about an Intertown from Woden-City-Belconnen-Kippax-Macgregor West-Dunlop West-Fraser West Terminus?

[Busnerd]

no

[Snorzac]

What about an Intertown from Woden-City-Belconnen-Kippax-Macgregor West-Dunlop West-Fraser West Terminus?

They don't need it and if there was to be an intertown there I would have it terminating at Kippax rather than having another one serve Fraser

[Bus 400]

But this way Macgregor West & Dunlop West without affecting other services. Unless we this service do a loop from Macgregor West-Dunlop West-Return.

[Irisbus Rider]

A certain bus driver and I talk about ACTION when I catch up with him, and we both came to the conclusion that a good idea would be to operate some or all Intertowns to Kippax, and continue running weekend bus services, i.e. 905/904 during the week. Then you can get to Kippax coming from, say, Dunlop or Charnwood, transfer to an Intertown at Kippax and go straight to Belconnen. This idea then comes back to this peak/off peak network, the ideal solution to meet Canberras public transport demands.

[Bus 400]

So would this turn Kippax into a similar thing to what has been attempted at Erindale?

[Irisbus Rider]

Yes, but it would actually work if it were properly advertisied.

[The Love Guru]

Irisbus rider is on the right path with the off peak & peak network. Kippax as a prime example is an under utilised rescource for ACTION. With an extension of every 2nd intertown (during daytime ie: 10 mins, 15 mins in off peak) this would allow longer runs from Belconnen to Kippax, where they would connect with the Intertown, then continue into the outer suburbs (most loops) returning to Kippax to again connect with the intertown, then back to Belconnen once again.

This has many benefits, firstly it is better utilisation of the fleet, with the buses engaged for longer periods on the road. Secondly it allows more cross regional travel without the need to change buses (which generally have poor connections). This is key to the Kippax idea working, the correct timing and connection of services.

Another benefit is that passengers who live close to Kippax would be able to catch a bus to Belconne from either direction, as it would take a similar time to travel to Kippax/Intertown to Belconnen. This would effectively double the frequency of services for those who live 5-10 mins the Belconnen side of Kippax.

This idea would work well for the offpeak times, as well as some peak trips. The 2nd thing that would need to be addressed is the need for a great Xpresso network. These services would cater for the workers to the city/russell/barton just as is the case now, just with a greater coverage and frequency.

Gungahlin is an area where Xpresso services are greatly needed but not currently provided. Buses could operate from Ngunnawal and Nicholls, covering just the one suburb completely then travelling via Gungahlin Dr and GDE to the City via Barry Dr. With a little thought, when the GDE is duplicated making the left lane a T2 would help with maintaining acceptable travel times.

The above are just a small number of thoughts I have had about the Network, which if it was to be thought about seriously, would require a complete rebuild of the Network from scratch to be successful. The only problem with that is it can pollitically damaging in the short term as a lot of people are afraid of change. It would take someone with the balls to ride out the bad times and stick to the plan rigidly. When this is not done, Network '08 is the result.

[Bus 400]

Maybe an idea for this to to have own Intertwon go Belconnen-Gungahlin & then Belconnen-Kippax. But then something would have to be organized with the City-Gungahlin-Taylor intertown. But if this did go ahead you could then merge some routes together with Kippax being the halfway point. This could also be the case with Erindale. With some services going Woden-Erindale-Tuggeranong & Woden-Tuggeranong-Erindale.

Also with the Xpressos, I think that routes like 703 should be altered to go via Kingsford Smith Dr-William Slim-Parkes Way-City West-City-As per 703. The 704 should also go via Coulter Dr-William Slim Dr-Parkes Way-City West-As per 704.

[Bus 400]

This is my ideal Network '18 (Major changes only occur every 10 years). This has taken on what was suggested above & as also said above, there would be a few complaining as this would bigger change then Network '98. Parts of this work with with some Belconnen routes would be combined with passengers transfering at Kippax for travel via Intertown to Belconnen or futher. Some parts have been left blank as it can't be 100% confirmed.

00-09: Christmas/Sporting/Social Routes
10-19: Lanyon Valley
20-29: Tuggeranong Valley
30-39: Woden/Westen Creek
40-49: North/South Canberra
50-59: Molonglo
60-69-Belconnen
70-79: Gungahlin
80-89: Community Routes
90-99-Special Routes

LANYON VALLEY
10/710-Old 18/787
11/711-Old 19/785
12/712-Old 788
13-Tharwa

TUGGERANONG VALLEY
20/120-Old 11/111
21/221-Old 67/267
22-Old 66
23/223-Old 65/265
24/224-Old 63
25-Old 64
26/126-Old 61/161
27/127-Old 62/162
28/128-Old 60/160

WODEN/WESTON CREEK
30/230-Old 28
31/231-Old 25/225
32/232-Old 26/226
33/233-Old 27/227
34-Old 21
35-Old 22
36-Old 23
37-Old 24

NORTH/SOUTH CANBERRA
40-Old 2
41-Old 3
42-Old 5
43-Old 6
44-Old 4
45-Old 9
46-Old 8
47-Old 39
48-Old 7

BELCONNEN
60-Old 10
61-Old 17 then 13 from Florey Dr to Fraser West Terminus
62-Old 44 & then 43 through Macgregor, Charnwood & return
63-Old 13 from Belconnen to Kippax & then through Latham (Old 16) onto Old 14 to Fraser West
64-Old 16 through Florey to Kippax & then through Macgregor West & Dunlop West to Fraser West
65-via Florey Dr, connect with old 45 to then follow 15 through Spence to Spence Terminus. 66-Spence Terminus-Copland Dr-Alpen St-Connect with Old 15 in Melba to Belconnen
67-Old 12
68-Old 30
69-Lawson & Old 31

GUNGAHLIN
70-Old 56-Crace-Gungahlin
71-Franklin/Harrison (altered Old 58)
72-Bimberi Centre-Kenny-Throsby-Gungahlin
73-Gungahlin-Forde-Bonner-Casey
74-Gungahlin-Amaroo-Moncreiff-Casey
75-Gungahlin-Ngunnawal South-Nicholls South-Casey
76-Ngunnawal North-Casey-Nicholls North-Belconnen
77-Casey-Kinlyside-Hall
78-Casey-Taylor Loop

COMMUNITY ROUTES
80-City Loop
81-Belconnen Loop
82-Woden/Phillip Loop
83-Tuggeranong Loop
84-Old 76/77
85-Old 75
86-Old 71
87-Old 73
88-Old 74

SPECIAL ROUTES
90-Old 80
91-Old 10 East
92-Old 81
93-Parliamentry Triangle Loop
94-
95-Belconnen-Federation Square-Gungahlin
96-
97-Woden to Hume
98-Old 88
99-Old 82

INTERTOWN
300-Tuggeranong-Woden-City-Belconnen-Gungahlin
330-Tuggeranong-Woden-City-Gungahlin-Belconnen
340-Tuggeranong-Woden-City-Belconnen-Kippax
350-Tuggeranong-Woden-City-Gungahlin-Casey
360-Tuggeranong-Erindale-Woden-Molonglo-Belconnen

XPRESSO
700-Old 705
701-Old 749
702-Old 710
720-Old 786
721-Old 769
723-Old 768
724-Old 170
730-Old 729
735-Old 720
740-Old 732
745-Old 373
760-Old 701
761-Old 702
762-Old 703
764-Old 704
770-Old 757
771-Casey-Ngunnawal-Nicholls-City

[MrPC]

-Run the 10 via the Airport Terminal and Front of Brand Depot rather than where they drop off now.

Indeed.  It's absurd that at Bland Depot you have to walk to the shiny bus shelter at the front of the store evenings and weekends when the buses there are run by Deanes, and during weekdays inbetween the peaks you have to walk to the far side of the car park to an ACTION stop without even a seat let alone any shelter.

As for the Airport terminal, meh, skip it, even the Deanes buses to the Airport mostly only carry public servants to and from Brindabella Business Park.  Practically nobody uses those buses to get to or from the Airport terminal.

The problem with ACTION going to the Airport is the lack of luggage space on the buses. I think that's why they cancelled the service to the airport which ran in 2001-2?

Public servants and other airport precinct workers don't carry (much) luggage.  Nobody else is likely to catch a bus out to the Airport precinct whether the buses have to detour in and out of the terminal or not.  Public transport to airports is not meant to be about the actual air passengers that go there occasionally, it's about the folks who have to trudge there and back every day that make a point to look at the timetables, fares etc and decide after a while that they couldn't be bothered driving out there every day.

I'm one of them.  Those Deanes buses are useless when it comes to luggage capacity, but it doesn't matter, since nobody on those buses ever has much luggage.  The only time I've ever seen a bus driver on an airliner actually use one of the luggage bins was to load a pram when someone boarded with an infant going from Bland Depot to Civic.