News & Discussion: O-Bahn

[dbl96]

The reason the oBahn works so well is because it serves a limited number of nodes (Klemzig, Paradise, TTP) with large distances between them, and buses can divert onto local routes through low density suburbs from any one of those nodes. The collection of many bus routes means services become frequent, making it more attractive as a PT option for those closer to the nodes.

The Inner west is vastly different. People are embarking and disembarking from buses along the Henley Beach Road and Sir Don Bradman Drive at regular stops, for schools, medical appointments, employment, and loads of other things. Removing buses from these routes and diverting them to an oBahn style track that might stop once or twice in the inner western suburbs before reaching the airport or heading to Glenelg / West Lakes just doesn't make any sense.

This is actually my biggest gripe with the current O-Bahn - we have a brilliant public transport right of way corridor through to the north-east, but it doesn’t actually serve most of the communities along the route, especially in the inner city sections. Important centres like Walkerville, Marden, Campbelltown and Dernancourt are bypassed, and don’t really benefit from close proximity to high quality public transport. People catching public transport in those places mostly end up on buses travelling along the traffic clogged Northeast and Payneham Roads. If the northeast corridor has been built as a railway as originally intended rather than an express busway, you can be sure that it would have had stations at these places.

Even if we keep the O-Bahn as a busway, we need to look at how we can better use the corridor to service and interconnect these bypassed suburbs. The wider Campbelltown district is one of the fastest growing areas of the established metro area, and has been densifying fast, as townhouses proliferate. There are real opportunities to orient these communities around transit, but as it is, most of the new residents just end up driving - turning Payneham road into a car park.

Are these areas served by O-Bahn buses that join/leave the corridor at the next downstream node? That would seem to be the way to use it well - no need for big park-and-ride, an efficient corridor for the express section and fanning out to provide acceptable single-vehicle travel from the end of your street.

Basically not. The main connecter services which link the suburbs in between are the W90 and the 281, both being circuitous and infrequent (30 min) services. Neither actually branch from the O-Bahn - they just interchange with it at Paradise and Klemzig.

There is the 530, which is a relitively frequent service which winds through various areas of Cambelltown, branching from the O-Bahn at Paradise interchange, but for the most part, the buses which run along the O-Bahn serve the outer suburbs. There are a few lines which head north from Paradise along Sudholtz Rd, headed for places like Para Hills. The rest of the buses come from the outer north-east and join the busway at Modbury.

My point is, the O-Bahn as it currently works provides a fast service for people in the outer-northeast beyond the corridor, but provides relatively poor service for people who actually live along the corridor, which mostly functions as an express link between the city and the outer north-east.

[1NEEDS2POST]

At the very least, buses from Hampstead Road or others that drive along North East Road should be using the O-Bahn tunnel and bus lanes along the ring route instead of driving through North Adelaide. That would save a considerable amount of time. Yes I know there aren't enough O-Bahn equipped buses for that, but fitting guide wheels isn't that expensive.

[MT269]

Not just a matter of guide wheels. The axles have to be modified as well. Also, I think radio contact in the tunnel works differently.

Permitting CNG buses in the tunnel is asking for trouble, due to them being notoriously unreliable. How many CNG buses would you modify for this, out of the 70 plus in service? Some are 24 and a half years old already.