Page 5147 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (10.36): The ACT Greens see the commencement of the new Redex bus service as a positive initiative towards modernising ACT public transport. I have to say that I find Mr Coe’s motion quite extraordinary in that it is criticising the success of a service before it has even had time to run. In fact, Mr Coe was out criticising the service before it had even started. Mr Coe’s entire commentary on this issue has lacked any forward thinking. It shows the Liberals’ true colours on public transport. Later I will be moving amendments which we believe reflect the needs of the community and a genuine understanding of the current transport issues in Canberra. Our amendments reflect the need for long-term planning, not short-term spitefulness. We would call upon the Canberra Liberals, as we always have, to engage with us and to join in providing effective solutions and new ideas. We would welcome their support. However, given their track record and their lack of understanding of public transport, we are not optimistic.
The Redex service is the type of service that has been proposed by Jarrett Walker, who has been engaged by the ACT government to undertake work on the sustainable transport plan. The types of services along the lines of Redex are envisaged to start building in rapid transit routes and corridors that not only become permanent parts of the transport network but also are built into the planning process for our city, so that transport becomes an essential part of that process. I will add that Mr Walker has been involved in transport planning for the city of Brisbane, which has become one of the best examples of transport planning in the country. I have to say that I would take Mr Walker’s advice over Mr Coe’s.
This new service is part of the Greens’ push for greater bus frequency as part of the Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement. Providing a fast, regular and reliable alternative to cars is a cornerstone of the Greens’ transport policy. We have pushed hard to get the Redex service up and, if successful, we will look to get more projects of this kind established on a permanent basis. If the Redex trial is a success we would like to see the government expand the Redex service to include other routes in the 2010-11 budget from Belconnen and Tuggeranong. I have already heard the view expressed by the department that they would expect to see Redex become a permanent part of the transport network and expanded to other areas. This is a very positive sign.
On frequency, paragraphs (1) to (6) show that Mr Coe has missed the point entirely of Redex. All of these paragraphs talk about how long it takes to catch a bus from Gungahlin to Civic, essentially. The point of Redex is not how long it takes to catch a bus but how often the buses come. Redex comes every 15 minutes from 7 am to 7 pm, whereas those existing bus routes Mr Coe was talking about only come about once every hour during off-peak times. The point of frequency is what it takes to get people out of their cars and onto buses. If there is a reliable service that comes often, people will trust that they will not encounter problems with delays or waiting around.
This is a trial that is trying to establish evidence for frequent and central services. Transport studies consistently show that the key issue in encouraging people to use public transport is frequency. It is also about, as I have noted already, building these permanent routes into the network so that people know that service will be there and will be reliable. The issue around how long a service takes is one the Greens have
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