News & Discussion: O-Bahn

[HeapsGood]

http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/inf ... ss_project

Project Overview
The O-Bahn is the most highly patronised public transport corridor in the Adelaide metropolitan area, carrying more than 8 million customers per year.

Given the speed, efficiency and innovation of the O-Bahn guided track, it makes sense to clear the way for buses to travel efficiently to and from the city centre on road once the track ends at Hackney Road.



Grenfell Street Concept Image (for illustrative puposes only)


A range of options to deliver faster and more reliable access to the city has been investigated by a dedicated project team. The team has been working hard to find a balance between providing on-road bus priority that will operate in the future with the increase in services, whilst minimising impacts on access to local roads, vehicular traffic and the environment and, in particular, the parklands and Botanic Gardens.

The O-Bahn Upgrade project aims to ensure the O-Bahn remains an efficient, integrated and sustainable service that further encourages public transport usage along the O-Bahn corridor and into the city.

It will cater for the expansion of O-Bahn services and reinforce Currie and Grenfell Streets as one of Adelaide’s major bus precincts, further encouraging public transport use and associated urban renewal.

The project aims to reduce peak hour delays experienced by O-Bahn bus services as a result of traffic congestion in the inner-city and will deliver a number of improvements including:

dedicated ‘bus only’ lanes marked with red asphalt surfacing.
bus priority at selected traffic signals.
improved bus operations in the city by allowing unimpeded pull in / pull out to bus stops by clear separation from loading & parking zones
improved loading and unloading operations at bus stops; including pre-paid ‘gated stations’ where feasible.
improved pedestrian access to and from bus services in the CBD
improved passenger information by provision of real time information regarding bus movements.
The O-Bahn Upgrade project will achieve:

1. improved bus priority to the Central Business District of Adelaide.

The project will provide targeted bus priority along the O-Bahn routes from the dedicated busway to Grenfell/Currie Street while minimising impacts on parklands, parking, vegetation and existing traffic flows.
The bus priority measures will ultimately provide, on average, an eight minute peak journey time saving by 2021 for customers travelling in the peak direction between the CBD and Tea Tree Plaza, Paradise and Klemzig.
2. streamlined access for buses and passengers to one of the City’s major public transport precincts – Currie and Grenfell Streets.

The project will consolidate the large number of bus stops presently scattered along Currie and Grenfell Street into a series of Bus Transit Zones. The zones will cater for O-Bahn services, Hills services and the East-West services in a more user-friendly and simplified layout that will operate consistently throughout the day.
Bus stops will be upgraded based on their function with “Pick up” stops providing a greater level of amenity and information, while “Set down” stops will be designed to quickly disperse passengers.
Buses represent 12% of vehicles using Currie and Grenfell Streets but carry 75% of the people using these streets.
The project has been broken up into three stages to provide priority access for services:

Stage 1: Hackney Link - transition from guided track to Botanic Road along Hackney Road
Stage 2: Eastern City Access - taking bus services into the CBD using existing roads through the east parklands
Stage 3: City Precinct – operating buses in the CBD and addressing peak hour bus operations along Grenfell and Currie Streets.
Download the project plan here

1. Hackney link (Hackney Road)

A central, one-way, dedicated inbound “Bus only” lane will be installed from near Richmond Street to join the existing bus lane that provides bus priority to the intersection of Hackney Road and North Terrace. This will increase the bus priority into the CBD.

This will enable buses to move past queued cars.. Modifications will also be made to the traffic lights at the North Terrace/Hackney Road intersection to further allow buses to move through with priority.

Detailed planning works have shown minimal travel time saving benefit with the provision of an outbound bus priority lane. This minor time saving does not justify the cost of road widening, a new bridge, vegetation removal, earthworks and the impact on the Adelaide Parklands.



Hackney Road Concept Image (for illustrative puposes only)

2. Eastern City Access (East End and Parklands)

The Eastern City Access works will include dedicated on-road bus priority measures including sections of new bus lanes and the extension of existing bus lanes adjacent to the parklands on the existing roads.

In developing the preferred solution, consideration has been given to minimising the impact on the parklands, heritage properties and structures, car parking and access for local business. It also aims to maintain a consistent traffic flow and enhanced safety for general traffic, cyclists and pedestrians.

Download map of the Eastern City Access

3. City Precinct (Currie & Grenfell Streets)

The project will streamline and coordinate the large number of bus stops presently scattered along Currie and Grenfell Street into a series of “Bus Transit Zones”.

Grenfell and Currie Streets will be reinforced as one of Adelaide’s major bus precinct focussed on people and bus movements in balance with the needs of taxis, cars, cyclists and retail/commercial parking and access.

The precinct will be divided into Eastern, Western and Central Transit Zones and each will serve O-Bahn, East-West and Hills bus services.

Bus Transit Zones will complement the introduction of Adelaide’s brand new smartcard ticketing system currently under development.

Timeframes

Community Engagement December 2010 – February 2011
Finalise design February 2011
Start work on Eastern City Access and Hackney Link April 2011
Work completed on Eastern City Access and Hackney Link November 2011
Commence operation of City Precinct January 2012
Project Completion May – June 2012

[fabricator]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout ... 5990644699

A "SMALL number" of trees may be cut down as part of the O-Bahn upgrade, the State Government says.

.Earlier reports said 1756 plants would be cut down on the fringe of Hackney Rd, Rymill and Rundle parks.

However, the Government now says "a small number of significant trees may need to be removed or pruned near Rundle Rd only".

A spokesman for the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure said the project team ``worked hard to find a balance between on-road bus priority for customers and minimising impacts on access and the environment''.

"Particular consideration has been given to minimising any impact on the park lands and Botanic Gardens,'' he said.

"It should be noted that the gardens themselves will not be impacted - rather land immediately adjacent to the roadside.

"A small number of significant trees may need to be removed or pruned along the proposed alignment near Rundle Road only and separate approvals will be sought as design develops.

"The detailed design will aim to minimise the impact on the park lands and retain as many trees as possible.''

The Government expects to begin widespread public communications soon, with construction to start from the middle of the year.

One step closer to actually building it.

[AtD]

I swear there's been more written about the trees than about the busway itself.

[Wayno]

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.

[fabricator]

I don't get the ACC's attitude, they don't really care about the trees, in the same way they don't care that certain parts of the CBD are polluted, ugly and devoid of any form of shade. Besides which they never noticed the entire tree that varnished from the eastern parklands after an event.

[crawf]

I don't really care about the busway, I just want the Council and State Government to seriously hurry up and fix up the dodgy Grenfell/Currie St footpath.

Large part of the footpath has grass growing on the edges of the tiles, outside some of our most important Government offices. Not to mention the amount of times I've nearly tripped over...

[Xaragmata]

The project has been "scrapped" as part of the flood package, according to 891's 4pm news.

[Isiskii]

Thank God.

Now we can get back to the idea of changing the O-Bahn's use as a heavy rail corridor than a busway.

[Xaragmata]

And from Adelaide Now:

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout ... 5995596755

ADELAIDE'S $61 million O-Bahn extension will be shelved after the Federal Government announced it would withdraw funding for part of its Queensland recovery bill.

[AtD]

Very disappointing. Whatever happened to "Buses represent 12% of vehicles using Currie and Grenfell Streets but carry 75% of the people using these streets."?

[Waewick]

f'ing floods are really starting to piss me off

[Aidan]

f'ing floods are really starting to piss me off

What's pissing me off about it most is that abysmally planned Noarlunga Line upgrade (involving an extended closure) hasn't been shelved.

[metro]

as usual Adelaide gets screwed over by the eastern states, how about they cancel/scale back the Gold Coast light rail

[Will]

Before getting angry, I'd like to know if the pain is going to be shared by all states and territories. Has the federal government scrapped projects in other states too?

[Vee]

as usual Adelaide gets screwed over by the eastern states, how about they cancel/scale back the Gold Coast light rail

Certainly looks like it!
Could have been one of the easier projects from which to withdraw federal funding due to the amount of actual progress / implementation beyond the drawing board???

I will be interested to see what other-specific (interstate) projects get canned!