Actually it is more like Buses, Trains, Ferries, City Cats and Automobiles.
The last few days has seen Brisbane traffic in true gridlock. Accidents, train issues, road works – you name – we have seen it, and when you put it all together you get a day like today.
On Tuesday, Shadow Transport Minister Fiona Simpson made a media release on the ongoing problems faced by Queensland’s South East.
“…the legacy of 11 years of Beattie-Bligh Labor Governments was a city in gridlock with transport failures regularly shutting major city arterials and rail links for hours on end.”
A friend of mine who actually works in Uban Planning and Development spoke of the current plans offered by Anna Bligh’s government as “too little too late” and that Fiona Simpson was “right.”
It doesn’t take much for a run to work to become a nightmare.
I commuted from the Gold Coast to Brisbane for a little over two and a half years before relocating to Brisbane Central. In that time I saw trains reaching capacity – even the 6am train from Helensvale station was standing room only before we hit Beenleigh. At night, it was pointless even attempting to get on a train before 6.30pm unless you wanted to stand for at least half of your journey. Fold out camp chairs are still common sites in backpacks down Creek and Edward streets as the distance commuters make their way from Central Station. To vary it up, I would sometimes drive to Upper Mt Gravatt for Park and Ride – but I couldn’t obtain a park if I arrived after 6.50am. The buses were packed by then as well – and don’t even get me started on trying to do the drive every day. After moving to Brisbane Central, I became a walker and bus taker. If I caught a bus after 7.30am it would generally take a couple before one was not full.
These days I drive against the traffic to the far Western suburbs – against the traffic. However road works (which are important and had long been ignored) have turned a 25 minute journey to an average of 35mins – and blow outs to maximum of 55 minutes.
Curious about what the LNP’s position was on Transport/Infrastructure I checked out their policy. On the surface it certainly seems like some good ideas, even some are tack ons from Labour’s policies. $414m over four years is not something to be sneezed at – but unless I missed it I don’t remember anything about the River (eg. CityCats).
Only being a layperson, albeit one who is directly impacted on a daily basis, I asked another friend who is actually passionate about Transport Infrastructure and is currently undertaking a career change in Urban Planning and Development because of all the issues we face. He was less than enthusiastic about the LNP’s polices, suggesting that do nothing more than “exacerbate” the problems.
Certainly on the surface many of these sound pretty good, until you start thinking about it in the big picture. Between 6am-7am some of the trains are already packed (especially as they are reduced cars). The real problem isn’t those people living in Zone 1, but those in outlying zones working on getting into Zone 1 – CBD Fringe. Yes some feeder buses will help, but Park and Ride is a self fulfilling prophesy from congestion and failure. Not to mention the whole question of where the extra space is going to come from, if not up.
The Bligh Government has certainly made a mad dash to try and get things done. I don’t think there are many people out there who felt that no enough was done over the past 5+ years to keep pace, but at least something is happening – even if they are currently rather inconvenient. Unless things have changed with regards to the availability of CityCats and Buses, they are already going into use as fast as they can be made. I for one love the idea that the bus I travel on was assembled in the State where it is being utilised (even if they sometimes catch fire).
My major concern with this and all other LNP policies is that we are being asked to wait a “couple of weeks” for an explaination of where the money is coming from. A couple of weeks lands us right before the election.
Breaking News – Anna Bligh announced a $12M traffic congestion plan moments ago at the Gateway Duplication Project. Let’s just hope it isn’t “too little too late.”
{ 6 comments }
I agree that the current Labor policies are too little, too late.. State-initiated projects such as the State-led Inner-City Rail Capacity Study are valiant and deliverable attempts to increase rail capacity through the CBD, allowing greater capacity and decreased headways for suburban trains, with the flow-on being more services being able to be slotted in from outer suburbs – However, this project should have been built by now when you consider the reality of the strained SEQ suburban rail system: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25109379-3102,00.html.
Same point applies to the gateway bridge duplication and gateway arterial upgrade project, and the Ipswich Motorway upgrades.. All great projects in their own right, and certainly supporting the growth of the arterial network – however, consider the recent urban growth in the north, south and west of brisbane and adjacent LG’s (which has been long predicted and forecast), and yet these key pieces in the regional road network, which support commuters and more importantly inter-regional freight movements, should have been be started so that they were finished at least by last year to allow movement of what is currently choking our arterials.
Perhaps people should go back and read what was proposed in the 2007 Transport Vision for SEQ, which was a Queensland Transport document prepared in 2000 under the Beattie Govt.. It is interesting to see how much of what it proposed has and has not been delivered.
Will change for changes sake change this approach of ‘catch-up’ infrastructure investment. The lack of anything solid from the LNP means that I’m not sure. What are my other options again??
Thanks for the comment Shane. Some really great thoughts there. I followed the link regarding the problems for our Northern Brisbane and Sunshine Coast cousins and the comments there were rather harsh. I will take your advice and read the Transport Vision for SEQ.
Taezar
This is the guy – good luck getting an electronic copy elsewhere: http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn75522
The LNP’s policies are laughable and not in tune with the causes of stresses on our transportation infrastructure. Running 7-car trains for 6-car platforms isn’t just ludicrous for the obvious reasons – but also for some of the lesser known, and less apparent problems.
One of the key issues facing transport delays is dwell-times at stations – that is, the time taken to unload and load passengers before moving onto the next stop (ref: CM Online, 8/2/09). Quite simply, it takes too long to transfer passengers at stations out the two doors available on each platform. For many passengers it is difficult to access these doors from half way down the carriage, let alone forcing two entire carriages out a single pair of doors. It is unworkable!
As you mentioned, Taezar – battling parking around stations by implementing more park’n'ride is akin to battling obesity by punching more holes in the belt. It induces demand to drive to the station because of the availability of the spaces, rather than forcing people to seek alternatives due to the lack of spaces. A successful transport network is one where the respective modes do what they’re best at. Trains for high capacity, high-speed, clear-running trunk routes – busses for low distance, medium-capacity feeder routes to the trunks such as Busways or Railways. If busses did not have to traverse the congested arteries to the city where Busways don’t exist, they could spend their time providing a high-frequency local feeder service using the existing number of busses.
Of course, this would require a vast investment in increasing the frequencies of the rail network, an investment in the form of entire, self-powered trains which can provide additional services to cater for the increasing demand. The LNP’s policy of butchering our current orders to form these 7-car abominations will only further hamstring any chance of QR running decent frequencies on its lines – and if the frequencies are still laughable, the installation of ATP on the network will be a useless investment.
Thanks Kieran. So what is the solution? If the QLP doesn’t have it right now, and the LNP’s solution is not workable – do you think that the QLP’s policies are the way to go – or are both wrong?
Taezar
another well reasoned and presented blog! sorry i have nothing.
…except to reflect on the benefits of living in a remote area, the nearest thing i have to Public Transport is the buses my employer provide to convey us to work.
the lack of traffic, noise, pollution, public transport etc is one of the huge benefits of remote living – and the resultant lack of stress is often overlooked as a tangible benefit.
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