Proposed sites for new Erindale bus station

[Buzz Killington]

Community input is being sought on the location of a new $3 million bus station in Erindale, Chief Minister and Minister for Transport, Jon Stanhope, said today.

"The ACT Government has identified Erindale as a key location for a major bus station to improve sustainable transport options for people travelling to and from Tuggeranong," Mr Stanhope said.

"This bus station will include new bus services such as the Blue Rapid service and sustainable transport options such as the co-location of bike>park>ride facilities."

Erindale is currently serviced by four bus routes, three of which run through the Comrie Street bus stops in the Erindale town centre and a fourth which stops on Sternberg Crescent.

The ACT Government is seeking community feedback on two possible sites for the proposed Erindale bus station, both on McBryde Crescent.

One possible location is opposite the shopping centre and would involve closing the eastern end of Ricardo Street. The second is on a site west of the first option which would involve reconfiguring access to the shopping centre car park.

The Erindale Bus Station feasibility study has been closely integrated with the ACT Planning and Land Authority's planning project for the Tuggeranong and Erindale Centres which aims to establish how they can continue to develop to meet the needs of the community.

As part of this, a consultation session will be held at 7.30pm tonight during the Tuggeranong Community Council meeting. A second session will be held from 4pm to 7pm tomorrow at Erindale Shopping Centre.

Mr Stanhope said the Erindale bus station feasibility study was an important project in the ACT Government's $97 million Transport for Canberra program.

"Transport for Canberra will increase the reliability and sustainability of the Territory's public transport system, reduce traffic congestion and improve safety on our roads," Mr Stanhope said. "The new Erindale bus station will be a major part of this."

The Erindale Bus Station feasibility study is due to be completed mid-2011

[Bus 400]

What is wrong with fixing up some intersections & using the current set up of 3 bus bays each side of the road? The intersection of Sternberg Crescent & Comrie Street could have traffic lights installed to make it easier/safer for buses to use during busy periods. The intersection of McBryde Crescent & Comrie Street just needs a roundabout that a steertag can use & it would work fine. The finale intersection needing work would be McBryde Crescent & Ashley Drive, which would work with traffic lights.

I can't see how many more bus bays are to be created in either of these locations anyway & the old Erindale Terminus worked fine before Tuggeranong Interchange, so why not now? Anyway at least 2 or 3 intersections are going to need work done if buses are regularly coming & going.

[Sir Pompously]

I would like to see a massive re-development of the entire Erindale shopping centre area at Comrie street and Denigan street. From where the Harris Scarfe building is to the current Interchange, it should be knocked down and re-built into a decent, two level shopping centre. Where the pedestrian walkway is between the current centre and Oriental Terrace is where the Interchange/Station should be, with a transit lane running between Comrie/Sternberg and McBryde. However seeing they won't do that as it costs money, I think a re-design of Comrie Street is in order digging up the current bus bays and re-laying them with new shelters and numbered platforms, aswell as better lighting and security cameras.

Ricardo Street is a bad choice, it gets packed out especially during an event at the Vikings Club. I have had to double park many times to enter McDonalds because the parking is terrible in Erindale.

I Still think a redevelopment is the way to go, but failing that Comrie Street is the next best thing. Erindale is so run down, they are doing minor works to the look of the centre at the moment but it is nothing more than a new paint job.

[Buzz Killington]

The only possible way I could see Ricardo street working is if they extended it through to Erindale Drive.

Frankly, the whole area is one big nightmare:
- Parking, particularly on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
- Intersections of McBryde/Ashley and McBryde/Gartside are rather dangerous, particularly for those daring to turn right out of Gartside Street.
- Buses cannot make a left turn out of Comrie St into McBryde Crescent without crossing into another lane on either street.
- The old 'The Garden' site should not have been sold. The whole section should have been converted into a carpark, including at least half of Gartside St, with the intersection at McBryde removed and Ricardo extended to Erindale Dr with a "left in/left out only" situation in place.

I don't think Comrie Street is the answer either.
- Existing bus stops are too far from the entrances to the centre
- Trucks queuing to deliver to Woolies frequently park in the bus bays.
- At least six carpark entries along that street make for a risky pedestrian environment.
- The aforementioned intersection is not wide enough for buses.

[Buzz Killington]

Transport for Canberra has some artist impressions:

Option 1



Option 2



http://www.transport.act.gov.au/studies_projects/erindale_study.html

[The Love Guru]

Love the artists impressions. Only fault i can see is that there are passengers in the picture 

[Busnerd]

It shouldn't really be an interchange because then people will expect more services to go there, it should just be more of a major timing point, like City West, Manuka, Barton sort of thing, perhaps with some morning peak services finishing and starting there etc. with room for 2 or 3 buses to sit there. The proposed area seems ok but the road needs to be widened, it is too narrow in that location.

[Sir Pompously]

Hey look, smartbus style next bus information. Wonder if that dream will end up like the internal screens which now do nothing?

I like the idea that it is a through station, not a terminus station, and the location being on McBryde Cres. However, traffic lights in places along McBryde Cres will need to be installed, especially at Ashley Drive, with any redevelopment of the area. By the looks of things they will provide traffic lights at Ricardo Street, and it looks as though they will hopefully widen the road. Hopefully if they do use McBryde they use Ashley Drive instead of Comrie, as it is a main aterial road that is more suited to the turning of larger vehicles.

[CNG]

na i reckon keep erindale the way it is, dosn't need it. Why fix when it ain't broke.

[Sir Pompously]

Have you ever had to use Erindale? It is my local group centre and it is in dire need of re-development. The way traffic flows into and out of the group centre is horrible, the parking is attrocious, the bus stop arrangement is woeful, and don't get me started on the condition of the shopping centre there. The bus stops are a long way from the strip of restaurants, shops and club facilities and would be much better if these facilities were to be found on McBryde Cres. The current set of stops is in need of a fix up with cracked concrete, low lighting, one shelter each side of which the aluminium one is so damaged they might aswell just remove the damn thing, and as Buzz has said trucks use the bus bays here as there is no where for them to wait for dock access. Simply put it is broke and it needs fixing. By all means feel free to reply and tell me how well Erindale is going.

A redevelopment of the centre as a whole, including the addition of a bus station closer to the clubs, restaurants and the current centre is a blessing for the area, and hopefully it will be done right. I did not overly understand where the stations would be until Buzz put up the map, and it makes sense and was quite an obvious choice I overlooked.

[Buzz Killington]

Would there be any merit in closing Comrie St from The Woolies-Dock carpark down to McBryde? Woolies are keen to extend and could go out across where the current bus stops are.

na i reckon keep erindale the way it is, dosn't need it. Why fix when it ain't broke.

Care to explain why it "ain't broke" ?

[Buzz Killington]

Some interesting ideas from ACTPLA: http://www.actpla.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/22640/Erindale-Ideas-web.pdf

[Bus 400]

The idea of the new Erindale Bus Station has just gone weird. Why have the Rapid stop out on Ashley Drive & local so far away on McBryde Crescent? That is unless your wish is for more people to drive to Erindale then catch local buses.

But by the looks of it, the Erindale Rapid is not for a few years yet.

[Sir Pompously]

Ok, so looking at the proposal I am trying to work out exactly where the car parks will be for the shopping centre. All of the space currently allocated to the car parks are taken up by buildings. So, at a wild guess they would have to knock down the current building and build car parking underground. That is the main problem I am seeing, the position of the bus station, minor changes in road way, more urban infill, a decent amount of public space (Including a new skate park) and the signalising of Ashley/Erindale are all great!

[Irisbus Rider]

Why has the definition of bus station been reduced to glorified bus shelters on a bay within a general traffic road is beyond me. This is simply 'our magnificent leader Jon Stanhoper' trying to justify his existance by opening a bus stop. However, if such a big deal is being made about it, well, it'd better bloody be done right!

[Bus 400]

The report into the Erindale Bus Station has been completed & can be found at http://transport.act.gov.au/Erindale%20Bus%20Station%20Feasibility%20Study%20-%20Draft%20Report.pdf

A big point to notice is that 1/3 of weekday Blue Rapids will serve Erindale in Network 2012.

[Busnerd]

But everyone hates Erindale, it is a hole

[Irisbus Rider]

But everyone hates Erindale, it is a hole

Oh how I wish we could *like* posts on the forum.

[Barry Drive]

The Blue Rapid serves Erindale at all times. Initially, one third of Blue Rapid services between Woden and Tuggeranong would operate via Erindale, yielding a frequency of 15 minutes all day and slightly better during the peak.

In which case, if some serve Erindale and some don't, they can't both be called "Blue Rapid". If this is to be done, then different departure platforms at Woden and Tuggeranong will need to be used.

[the survey] showed that while there are a relatively high number of bus services, there is not a significant passenger demand.

But they'll do it anyway.

Essentially the plan is to terminate East Tuggeranong services at Erindale making passengers change buses to continue on to Woden (and possibly City Xpressos during the peak). Which will save money by not running multiple routes to Woden - but it won't improve passenger travel time.

[Irisbus Rider]

Essentially the plan is to terminate East Tuggeranong services at Erindale making passengers change buses to continue on to Woden (and possibly City Xpressos during the peak). Which will save money by not running multiple routes to Woden - but it won't improve passenger travel time.

Hmmm, that proposal sounds very familiar....
I've looked at this on a map and attempted to guess exactly where these routes wiill go, to no avail, so I'll be very curious to see the rollout of this.

[Buzz Killington]

I've looked at this on a map and attempted to guess exactly where these routes wiill go, to no avail

The diagrams in the link Bus 400 provided didn't help?

[Barry Drive]

I've looked at this on a map and attempted to guess exactly where these routes will go, to no avail, so I'll be very curious to see the rollout of this.

My guess would be routes 65, 66 & 67 to terminate/commence at Erindale rather than Woden. They might then have to adjust some Wanniassa routes to cover route 65: best way to do this is to run 11 through Longmore Cres.

Even though I think it's a bad idea, my preference would be to run the Rapid route along Erindale / Yamba Drives to Woden rather than Athllon / Sulwood.

I can't see how such a change will benefit anyone: what you save by not running routes to Woden, you lose by diverting the Rapid service, passengers will have a longer journey to Woden and beyond and Rapid services to Tuggeranong Bus Station will no longer be as frequent or as 'Rapid'.

[smitho]

I need to be convinced about the wisdom of an Erindale interchange on McBryde; why throw buses in amidst all the cars going to and from the Group Centre's carparks? And why drag passengers out into the weather in order to reach the interchange?

If a more spacious site is needed, I'd suggest constructing a short bus only road off Comrie across to an interchange on the old police station site, with a new traffic signalled intersection at Sternberg.

But current site seems hard to beat; just needs a major upgrade of shelters combined with overhead weather protection for passengers walking to/from the shops (eg. overhead canopy type structure similar to that provided at the eastern end of the Jamison Centre).

[Irisbus Rider]

The diagrams in the link Bus 400 provided didn't help?

I missed that, thanks for pointing it out.....

But current site seems hard to beat; just needs a major upgrade of shelters combined with overhead weather protection for passengers walking to/from the shops (eg. overhead canopy type structure similar to that provided at the eastern end of the Jamison Centre).

That's a very good point, the proposed interchange locations are quite a trek (esp. in inclement weather) to the shops.