News & Discussion: Public Transport Contracts, Service & Policy

[claybro]

What about people like me whose only way out is Currie/Grenfell street and decide to drive?

Only way out of Adelaide CBD is Currie/Grenfell????

[HeapsGood]

Cross town journeys? build this http://www.sensational-adelaide.com/for ... =17&t=2932

[mattwinter]

Busses are pretty quick along grenfell / currie already, making it public transport only is hardly necessary.

Rather than having busses running through the city (which they already have), we should look at more loop busses like the 100 bus route.

[ml69]

Cross town journeys? build this http://www.sensational-adelaide.com/for ... =17&t=2932

East-west tram unlikely to ever happen if the east-west bus corridor gets implemented.

http://www.news.com.au/national-news/so ... 6675675454

[HeapsGood]

To me, the tram seems like the better option.

[buildit83]

I'd agree a tram line would be a much better option for an east-west transit corridor. in saying that we need to focus on finishing the electrification of the Gawler Central Line, the Outer Harbour/Grange lines and the grade separation of the Torrens Junction before this proposal. considering the Government announced the electrification of the rail network back 2008 or 2009 its a joke that by 2014 we will only have one line electrified!

[[Shuz]]

Hear, hear, buildit83.

[Ben]

Tram is the way to go. Buses are not utilised, they are not a nice or convenient form of transport IMO

Adelaide needs to move past this add more buses and everythign will be fixed.

What form of transport is used in cities of the world that are considered to have reliable, efficient transport systems. I'd bet my life its not buses.

[bay transit]

London has over 7000 buses in service-pretty good example of utilising buses to move miilions of people daily!

[Ben]

Are you saying they are more efficient and patronized than the tube?

[PeFe]

London buses are fine.......if you have a spare hour to travel somewhere. They are cheaper....but oh so slow in that awful daytime London traffic. Anyway back on topic - Why can't Grenfell/Currie have a tram line and a bus corridor? Surely its wide enough if you take out the parking and stop your Average Joe and Raelene from driving down there....

[monotonehell]

It would take a lot more than one tram line to service all the people more than 10 minutes' walk from that tram line.

Bus routes can fan out and provide door to door on street services AND can be funnelled down high capacity busways.

Light rail is a dumb idea for most applications, it falls into a very narrow band of use between bus and heavy rail.

If only there was a system that allowed buses to be guided along high speed busways to shortcut heavy traffic, but still allowed them to leave the busway and traverse suburbia...

[buildit83]

London has over 7000 buses in service-pretty good example of utilising buses to move miilions of people daily!

Buses in London are primarily a feeder system into the tube and rail network. buses are great for local services, but the way the bus system in Adelaide is designed is the total opposite. Adelaide's primary public transit mode here is buses and we have it all wrong, mainly due to the fact that Adelaide ripped up 17 tram lines and a number other heavy rail services which was one of the dumbest things the State Government did as far as infrastructure issues go in the this city in the past 60 years!

In suburbs around the rail network we need to have buses feed into the rail network much more than it currently does and have less buses going into the CBD. The bus system here also needs to have more inter-suburb services so you don't need to go from one suburb, to the city, to another suburb. In Adelaide's CBD its clogged up by buses due to this really poor designed network not having an adequate rail network. If the State Government had the funds I'd like to see an underground rail loop in the CBD connecting the North-South lines and an East-West lines together rather than terminating and turning back at Adelaide Railway Station. this system would be much more efficient and have far greater capabilities to have a high-frequency rail system. a bus feeder system can only be successful if the rail network is high-frequency.

[Patrick_27]

Buses should NOT be the primary PT in a city of 1.2 million and growing (slowly but surely). Unfortunately they are, and we've let them become that way by costing these low budget project like the O'Bahn as a quick means to a big problem; now whilst the O'Bahn is nifty when the buses are travelling along it, they only cause issues when they're not travelling on it.

I've heard conservatives raise ideas as stupid as closing all rail in Adelaide and replacing the Gawler and Seaford lines with guided bus ways.

We should be trying to re-adapt the concept that Melbourne has and that we've let slip over the years.

Light rail - servicing the rail component for inner suburbia and CBD.
Heavy rail - servicing the outer suburbia.
Buses - feeding both networks with the use of interchanges and such.

It's efficient and would be a quality investment, along with all these visioned freeways/expressway etc.

IMO - when we've electrified our entire rail network and completed a city tram loop. We should look at the standardisation of all lines, the potential of a underground loop, further extensions to Seaford line, extension of the Tonsley line to FMC, electrification and extension of the Belair line out to Murray Bridge (potentially further), and a Golden Grove or Athelstone rail-line which could run either along the O'Bahn route or spur off the Gawler line. Then gradually introduce light rail to the obvious places; Prospect/Enfield, Norwood/Kensington, Burnside/Beaumont, Mitcham/Unley, and the airport (note: particular focus on the Eastern Suburbs as it is under-serviced by any form of rail).

Thoughts?

[claybro]

Adelaide uses busses like other cities use trains. Express services all the way from the outer suburbs and through the city to the other side. Adelaide then uses its trains like busses, with most trains stopping all stations, and serving only the areas immediately adjacent to the stations. We even have a bus on "rails". All these busses are clogging the CBD. But the single seat journey Adelaide phenomenon has been discussed here previously and will be a hard nut to crack. Adelaide commuters it seems would rather sit on a bus all the way into the city, than get off their arse, and change to a train. Problem is, with poorly co-ordinated express train services, why would they bother.