Page 4064 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 30 November 2022
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To be clear, the 10 per cent increase that we recorded was measured by passenger journeys, not boardings. The opposition cannot argue that this increase is due to an increase in passengers transferring between services. It is obvious that light rail has been a major catalyst for more people choosing public transport.
If Mr Parton requires any more evidence, I would draw his attention to the last finding from the 2021 light rail survey, which identified that over 43 per cent of light rail passengers had not used public transport in the ACT before light rail commenced operations. That is a staggering number. Those statistics send a clear message on the positive impact that light rail has in attracting people to use public transport.
That is not even taking into consideration the significant urban regeneration of the corridor that has occurred as a result of the project. People want to live and work near light rail. They want to use light rail more than buses. Buses never delivered those benefits when we had the red rapid, and they will not deliver the same benefits on the south side, either.
Unlike the current rapid 4 and rapid 5 bus services, the future light rail route to Woden will have stops along Adelaide Avenue and Yarra Glen, and will provide nearly 20,000 adjacent residents with access to a rapid transport service into the city and to Woden—
Mr Parton: It’s 20 minutes slower.
MR STEEL: for those residents to access in places like Yarralumla, Deakin, Curtin and Hughes. It sounds like Mr Parton is proposing that we retain the current bus service following the introduction of light rail stage 2B. If that is the case, he obviously has not considered how residents living in those adjacent suburbs would access the new light rail stops without having a frequent and convenient bus connection.
The ACT government will continue to provide public transport users with direct bus services from the south side to the city. I am not disagreeing with that. I have always said that on the public record. We will look at the new network closer to the time of operation, but we do expect that there will still be direct services from the south side, just like we have the peak bus services from Lanyon—the 180, the 181 and the 182. I am sure that those will continue. I am sure that there will be direct bus services to the city from places like Weston Creek and Molonglo. But we will consider the integration of the new network once we are closer to the point of operation.
It is ridiculous to propose that the ACT government retains the exact same network as it operates currently, and not make any changes whatsoever or improvements to connect with other transport modes, including light rail, active travel and park and ride. There may be further developments in the city between now and the commencement of operations that will need to be considered in our new network and timetable going forward.
Mr Parton said that he stood up for some of our bus services from the south side. He mentioned a couple. But it was the Liberals who fought against the introduction of the R5 service, which runs all the way from Calwell through to the city, through places
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