Page 663 - Week 03 - Thursday, 15 March 2007
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Yet another constituent, from Narrabundah, contacted me to complain about the route cuts. He now finds it very difficult to do his shopping, as the easy access bus service to Narrabundah now only operates on Saturdays. He was also concerned that there were not enough easy access buses servicing Canberra’s hospitals. When I made representations to the government on my constituent’s behalf, I was given the same line about the changes to suburban routes coming about as the result of low patronage demand and that the government understood that these changes were frustrating for commuters. Just as when the Griffith library was closed last year, I do not think there has been an appreciation of the individual difficulties this is creating for many of our citizens.
Another constituent, in Garran, contacted me about this issue as well, explaining that the bus route cuts have completely discouraged Canberrans from using public transport. She has a valid point. How can the government expect more Canberrans to use public transport when they are cutting services and making it harder for residents to use public transport? The less appealing we make it for people to be on public transport, the more they will rely on motor vehicles and the more there will be the pressure on the infrastructure and the difficulties we are presently seeing in parts of Canberra.
The government has lost the trust of existing bus users who have had their services cut across the board and has driven away potential bus commuters who might have considered using the service for financial, environmental or any other reasons. However, it is not just the cutting of services that is frustrating for members of the Canberra community; there is also the fact that in many cases ACTION has not provided adequate reasons for individual bus route cuts. A constituent from Kingston had great difficulty in receiving a reason from ACTION for the cutting of bus route No 84. This was an essential service for many sections of the community, including schoolchildren and senior citizens.
I have used the examples of these individual constituents’ concerns to try to personalise the problems experienced by thousands and thousands of Canberrans as a result of these bus route cuts. There are many more examples of lives of ordinary Canberrans being put out by these cuts, but I have used a few select examples to try to get through to the government that this new timetable was a mistake and needs to be reversed.
The motion originally put forward explained that the introduction of the new ACTION timetable in December 2006 significantly reduced bus routes, and I am hoping that the willingness on the part of the minister to inquire further into these issues along the lines that have been proposed in the amendment will ultimately result in a situation where we see a better standard of service in the ACT for bus commuters.
People have all sorts of ideas on how to make public transport more popular. I know that one of the notions that have been advanced in some quarters—and I heard it mentioned this morning at a seminar—was: why not make it free? Work in other countries does not support the view that that is how you get people on buses.
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