Sensational-Adelaide.com

Turns out the Adelaide City Council weren't too hot on it, so they built pedestrian safety traffic islands up Grenfell Street on the intended route (part of their ongoing development feud with SA government?).

capitalist wrote:I wonder what happens to the funds allotcated to the job? can the state move it elsewhere?

muzzamo wrote:TBH i would be very surprised if the State Government let themselves be pushed around by the parklands mob and council on this one.

SRW wrote:Weren't these built before the funding was announced? And hasn't the Council been publicly supportive of the the extension?

A multi million dollar State Government commitment to extend the O-Bahn bus service into the City Centre and replace its ageing fleet has been delayed.
Just 2 of the 97 new O-Bahn buses-promised in May 2009 in a $118 million four year replacement program-have been built and are yet to enter service because they are still undergoing safety testing.
At the current rate of 3 a year,the full fleet of 97 buses would take until 2040 to join the Tea Tree Gully to City route.The Government meanwhile has revealed its planned $61 million O-Bahn extension into the City Centre will be delayed by at least 6 months, until mid-2012 because the project still does not have Federal funding.
The Federal Government announced last May it would fund the O-Bahn extension,with the State Government claiming dedicated bus lanes between Hackney Road and the City would cut 10 minutes off travel times.
Transport Minister Patrick Conlon's media adviser Sam Ion said on Friday that construction on the busway would finish in mid-2012 coinciding with the "allocation of funds from the Commonwealth Government".
He said the Transport Department was still developing concept plans for the busway and preparing traffic modelling "with a view to a presentation being made to the incoming Government early in its term".
The O-Bahn is Adelaides busiest route carrying more than 7000000 passengers a year from Adelaide's north-eastern suburbs.
Opposition transport spokeman David Ridgway said the delays showed Government had"no idea" how it was going to extend the track."Clearly it was one of those projects that they have plucked out from the air",he said."They don't know where they are going to take it and it goes back to the lack of leadership from the minister".
"The community has been misled.This was something they just dreamed up one day,thinking it would sound sexy,without actually working out how to do it".
The Government has signed deals with transport company Scania Australia and Royal Park bus builder Custom Coaches to construct 200 buses for the Adelaide Metro system including 120 articulated buses.
Mr Ion said 97 articulated buses would be used on the O-bahn,replaceing its ageing Mercedes-Benz models,which were not accessible to the disabled and had no air-conditioning and were nearly 25 years old.
Under the Passenger Transport Act,buses must be retired after 25 years in service,unless otherwise approved by the Transport Minister.
Mr. Ion confirmed 2 O-Bahn buses only had been constructed;1 is nearing completion and "approximately 33" were in various stages of production.

Nort wrote:I'm detecting a bit of bias in that article. So the government ordered the new buses ten months ago, and only 2 have been completed to date? Does the author of this article not understand that it takes time to get mass production going and that once the lines are rolling properly, and the new buses have been fully tested things will obviously go faster?

Prince George wrote:

Nort wrote:I'm detecting a bit of bias in that article. So the government ordered the new buses ten months ago, and only 2 have been completed to date? Does the author of this article not understand that it takes time to get mass production going and that once the lines are rolling properly, and the new buses have been fully tested things will obviously go faster?

I imagine that they think that in "world cities" like New York, if they got news like this Mayor Bloomberg would pick up the phone and with a couple of calls, a secret handshake, and a twitch of his magical nose have a fleet of buses ready to roll by morning.