Page 1662 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019
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know why I keep trying,” she said. Three others were arranging an Uber. A school student explained that losing his school bus had added 30 minutes to his travel time each way. “This government has stolen an hour of my day,” he said.
Residents in Evatt have reported similar issues with overcrowded buses not stopping for passengers. What was once a 30 to 40-minute commute now takes them over an hour. Hundreds of Belconnen residents have reported similar blowouts. An extra half hour each way seems to be the most common account, but some former Xpresso users in the Belconnen area say it now takes an extra 40 minutes each way to get to and from work. As one resident explained:
The short-sighted decision to remove the Ginninderra Drive/Northbourne Avenue [Xpresso] route is the biggest step backward in my 19 years of bus usage.
Parents who live in west Belconnen have related how their children could formerly travel to school in Canberra’s south on a single bus that took 30 to 35 minutes. Now the quickest route for these kids involves three different buses and takes over an hour. Ironically, students who attend the same school but live well across the border in Yass and Murrumbateman still have a dedicated school bus and can get to school in about the same time it takes their Belconnen classmates, with far greater safety and far less difficulty.
In the case of Aranda residents, they have been asking this government for some time to increase bus services to their suburb during the morning and afternoon peaks. Many of them felt certain that their request would be reflected in the new bus network. Instead, the peak hour frequency of the former No 40 bus, which residents have said was already too crowded, has been reduced by one bus in the morning and one in the afternoon with the new 32 bus. I have heard from those who catch the bus in Aranda that fewer people have been left waiting on the side of the road lately, not because the bus is no longer too full to stop but because so many have simply given up trying. In his own words, here is the experience of another resident.
I used to be able to use the number 40 and number 80 to get to work … in 35 minutes. It now takes three buses and around 70 minutes. Even if I catch the first bus in Cook at 5.59 [am], I’ll be late for work. So now I drive to work. Because these changes were aimed at getting more people out of their cars and onto public transport, right?
On behalf of these deeply frustrated and angry Belconnen residents, I commend to the Assembly these petitions with their 1,180 signatures.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Leave of absence
Motion (by Mr Wall) agreed to:
That leave of absence be granted to Ms Lee and Mr Hanson for today’s sitting for medical and family reasons, respectively.
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