Page 2743 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 16 August 2017
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Mr Coe: It is interesting that the minister should interject saying it is trips, yet she will also talk about the 16,000 “people” who are going to use light rail each day from Gungahlin to the city. That is actually trips also; the number of people is probably more likely to be 8,000 using light rail each day. She does not have a problem with using the terminology “people” when she is talking about light rail yet when we are talking about buses we cannot say “people” and we have to say “trips”.
What we are seeing is repeated expenditure on light rail and continued denial about the need to service the 95 per cent of Canberrans who do not live within walking distance of light rail. It is absolutely vital that we improve the transit times for all Canberrans and that we do not just blindly think that a spine network is going to serve all Canberrans. It is certainly going to be a big part of it, but it is not going to serve all Canberrans. We have to make sure that where we have forced transfers those transfers are smooth and efficient. People do not want to have to go backwards. Psychologically it is very important that we do not have a situation where people have to go back three or four kilometres to then go forward 12 kilometres, and that is one of the risks that exists with stage 1 of light rail for suburbs such as Crace or Palmerston but also potentially for some of the Belconnen suburbs as well. We have to make sure those transfers are as smooth as possible.
The government is moving ahead with stage 2 and we, like many Canberrans, eagerly await what they are going do with regard to the alignment. The government is in a tricky situation: is it an all-stops service or is it a commuter service? What is the purpose of this? If it is going to be about commuter rail and people feeding in and transferring on to the tram, it has to be a fast service. But if we are going to have a stopping-all-stops service, that is not commuter rail and it makes the idea of transferring on to it a little bit contradictory. The government has to make some significant decisions with stage 2 as to the number of stops and the alignment. Whatever they decide to go with will have a significant impact on how they should shape the bus services and whether you have non-stop bus services, for instance, going from Tuggeranong and Weston Creek to the city and not needing to transfer onto light rail or if it is going to be a fast commuter service with very few stops then you might be able to tolerate having buses transferring onto it.
It is an important decision that has to be made by the government and we eagerly await what the rationale will be. If it is going to have five or six or seven or 10 stops between Woden and the city, the benefit of getting a bus from Weston Creek to then hop onto a tram that is going to stop five or six or seven times between the Cotter Road and the city is going to be pretty marginal, especially if you have already gone 60 per cent or 70 per cent or 80 per cent of the journey on a bus. It is some strategic thinking that I hope the government is undertaking, but it is important all the same.
If they are going to do a stopping-all-stops service I would argue that the buses should run direct from Weston Creek to the city and buses should run direct from Tuggeranong to the city as well. However, if they can do a seriously fast service from Woden to the city maybe you can justify having buses feed in and having the forced transfers. But one way or another some important strategic decisions need to be made and at this stage the government has not really shed any light on which direction they are heading with that, especially with regard to the feed-in of bus services.
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