Page 185 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 2018
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(c) a significant number of commuters who rely on these services are older and mobility impaired Canberrans who are no longer able to, or cannot, drive; and
(d) the new routes service fewer areas and leave many commuters forced to:
(i) walk longer distances to a bus stop; or
(ii) travel on a service that is less frequent; or
(iii) travel on a service that is slower; or
(iv) change buses and take two or more bus routes to get to major town centres and hubs like Civic, Woden, Tuggeranong, Gungahlin and Barton; and
(2) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) apologise to Canberra residents for failing to consult with them about what changes should and were being made;
(b) review the effectiveness of the new timetable to assess its patronage and efficiency and report to the Assembly by the last sitting day in March 2018; and
(c) restore bus routes altered in the October 2017 changes subject to the findings of the review of the new routes.
Public transport is a key component of local government. It is, in many ways, the lifeblood which keeps the organs of a city functioning. And as a city grows and matures, a good transport network will also need to grow and mature to meet the needs of its people.
My newest colleague, fellow member for Kurrajong and shadow minister for transport, Miss Burch, will go into a bit more detail on our city’s needs for transport more generally, while some of my other colleagues will address shortcomings in their own electorates. What I want to focus on, however, in this motion are the 2017 timetable changes to the ACTION bus network and the impacts these changes have made and are making to my constituents in Kurrajong. These changes have highlighted this government’s attitude that it knows better than the people of Canberra who use public transport every day. This government has made a key failing in changing bus routes with no or poor consultation with the Canberrans who use the services and, by doing so, has left Canberrans stranded, isolated and baffled at how and why these changes were brought about.
In the inner south, two popular bus routes, the No 4 and the No 5, have been combined into one, monstrous, Frankensteinian route. Under several different route names, the No 5 route has serviced the residents of the inner south for decades. In particular, the residents of what is affectionately known as old Narrabundah have relied on this bus to take them to the city, Russell, Canberra Hospital or the Woden town centre. Similarly, the No 4 route, which connected residents of Red Hill, Narrabundah and Griffith with Woden and the city, was a popular route that many residents of the inner south had come to rely on.
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