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An open letter to Action buses rgarding their new network
Posted on 2008.05.20 at 16:41L'endroit: Not on a bus!
Humeur actuelle:
angry
Dear Action Buses,
I am a constant user of your bus services, I do not drive and so I buy weekly or monthly tickets and travel on your buses nearly 365 days a year, and as one who lives in the Inner North I usually have no problems with the timetables or bus services. However, after reading the new timetables for June 2008 I have to say I am beyond disappointed and a little confused. I live in Downer and travel every day to Deakin. I catch the 39 (which is always full and quite often has to refuse passengers entry due to this.) This bus alone is always late and now there will be only one service to Watson, meaning twice the custom on a service that nearly always has to cease picking up passengers.
I then catch the 30- or if I absolutely have to the 31- to Deakin. So it was to my surprise and consternation that I read the new timetables to see that not only had the 30 buses ceased from Civic to Woden, thereby excluding a faster service to Deakin, Curtin etc but essentially the bus route 2 is a combination of the 38 and the 31. The 38 is definitely an extraordinarily well used service (always full) particularly during peak hour, and the 31 is a slower service that passes through Yarralumla. The 30 was a more direct route that used main arterial roads for a DIRECT route (admittedly passing through Russell, but this was still faster then using the 31). So not only have you reduced the services available to anyone who works in Deakin, Russell, Curtin etc you have also dramatically increased our travel time.
If you have made these decisions based on the assumption that passengers only travel from Giralang to Civic and no further, or that there are a huge amount of passengers striving to get to Yarralumla you are sadly mistaken. Of the two buses-the 30 and the 31- the 30 has more passengers on the bus during peak hour and when it isn't a peak time the 31 is virtually deserted. So again I fail to understand the logic with which you have removed the fastest way from point A to point B to replace it with a bus journey that is slower and longer and ill timed. All the buses travelling in this direction now depart at the times of the previous 31, if not earlier. If someone is travelling from outer suburbs or the inner North to Civic and then to Deakin the buses now travel earlier, and with connection buses this now places an even longer wait between buses, or makes it near impossible to arrive at work on time.
Why was the 30 bus, a more direct and faster route removed to be replaced with a longer service that is not a direct route that is a very obvious combination of the current 38 which already has more passengers then they know what to do with, the much slower 31- a much less direct route. Are your timetables made by someone who actually catches the services or by one of the "no one catches the buses" crew that are found throughout Canberra. In my office alone 25% of us use public transport to get to work. This means that now with the new timetables and route 25% of the workplace will have the possibility of being late or unable to arrive to work at a prescribed time because the buses that have previously serviced the areas will be either stopped or travelling the "scenic route".
Speaking with other members of the public that use this bus service has shown me exactly how the new timetables are not going to work for the people that need them most. Are there any changes that are going to be made? Are the services going to be made more relevant for passengers? Or is the new timetable merely a mishmash of bus route mergers so that someone out there can show a bureaucrat behind a desk some where-who probably drives to work every day- the buses are being used more because the population using the buses has been made more concentrated?
I am very interested in your reply
Employee and vigilant bus user Downer-Deakin
I am a constant user of your bus services, I do not drive and so I buy weekly or monthly tickets and travel on your buses nearly 365 days a year, and as one who lives in the Inner North I usually have no problems with the timetables or bus services. However, after reading the new timetables for June 2008 I have to say I am beyond disappointed and a little confused. I live in Downer and travel every day to Deakin. I catch the 39 (which is always full and quite often has to refuse passengers entry due to this.) This bus alone is always late and now there will be only one service to Watson, meaning twice the custom on a service that nearly always has to cease picking up passengers.
I then catch the 30- or if I absolutely have to the 31- to Deakin. So it was to my surprise and consternation that I read the new timetables to see that not only had the 30 buses ceased from Civic to Woden, thereby excluding a faster service to Deakin, Curtin etc but essentially the bus route 2 is a combination of the 38 and the 31. The 38 is definitely an extraordinarily well used service (always full) particularly during peak hour, and the 31 is a slower service that passes through Yarralumla. The 30 was a more direct route that used main arterial roads for a DIRECT route (admittedly passing through Russell, but this was still faster then using the 31). So not only have you reduced the services available to anyone who works in Deakin, Russell, Curtin etc you have also dramatically increased our travel time.
If you have made these decisions based on the assumption that passengers only travel from Giralang to Civic and no further, or that there are a huge amount of passengers striving to get to Yarralumla you are sadly mistaken. Of the two buses-the 30 and the 31- the 30 has more passengers on the bus during peak hour and when it isn't a peak time the 31 is virtually deserted. So again I fail to understand the logic with which you have removed the fastest way from point A to point B to replace it with a bus journey that is slower and longer and ill timed. All the buses travelling in this direction now depart at the times of the previous 31, if not earlier. If someone is travelling from outer suburbs or the inner North to Civic and then to Deakin the buses now travel earlier, and with connection buses this now places an even longer wait between buses, or makes it near impossible to arrive at work on time.
Why was the 30 bus, a more direct and faster route removed to be replaced with a longer service that is not a direct route that is a very obvious combination of the current 38 which already has more passengers then they know what to do with, the much slower 31- a much less direct route. Are your timetables made by someone who actually catches the services or by one of the "no one catches the buses" crew that are found throughout Canberra. In my office alone 25% of us use public transport to get to work. This means that now with the new timetables and route 25% of the workplace will have the possibility of being late or unable to arrive to work at a prescribed time because the buses that have previously serviced the areas will be either stopped or travelling the "scenic route".
Speaking with other members of the public that use this bus service has shown me exactly how the new timetables are not going to work for the people that need them most. Are there any changes that are going to be made? Are the services going to be made more relevant for passengers? Or is the new timetable merely a mishmash of bus route mergers so that someone out there can show a bureaucrat behind a desk some where-who probably drives to work every day- the buses are being used more because the population using the buses has been made more concentrated?
I am very interested in your reply
Employee and vigilant bus user Downer-Deakin
happy
contemplative
creative
silly
sigh