Page 1754 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019
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I am pleased to say that many schools helped to get the message out to parents and students by, for example, distributing information to parents by email or putting notices in school newsletters. This engagement helped ensure that most students were aware of the changes to the network and knew how to get to and from school by public transport.
This individual contact with schools also helped to identify a number of issues with specific services that Transport Canberra has since addressed or is now monitoring. This includes changes to the platforms used by bus services stopping on McMillan Crescent outside St Edmund’s college and St Clare’s College. Since the new network commenced Transport Canberra has again been in regular contact with all schools to ensure that they have information about the changes and to check in with them if there are specific issues with the new services.
As part of this process Transport Canberra has continued to meet with schools and visit schools to observe firsthand how students are using the new services, including at Good Shepherd primary, Burgmann Anglican, St Clare’s, St Edmund’s and Radford. Indeed, my office has also had significant contact with peak bodies and a number of individual schools and parent representative bodies to work with them. We have seen over the first two weeks and into the third week of the new network that this high level of engagement is providing significant information both ways and allowing us to make small changes that have made a difference in the network.
A significant number of students are also using light rail. We know that Canberrans are currently flocking to the new service, including many students either living or attending schools along the corridor. As I mentioned earlier, in order to meet the growing demand for light rail services we have requested Canberra Metro to run an additional service to the city between 7.45 and 8.15 on weekdays and additional school services during the afternoon around school bell time.
At this point 14 adjustments have been made to bus services since the commencement of the new network, which have included: increasing the capacity on a number of routes by scheduling additional buses or larger buses to meet higher than expected demand from school students; making minor timing changes to services to ensure that students can catch a connecting service or that buses arrive at or depart from schools at the best time for students; changing the platforms or bus stops used by buses to better manage how buses move through interchanges or pick up and drop off students near schools; and, notably, aligning with bus services that take students to New South Wales.
Some of these specific changes are: services to commute between the two Burgmann campuses in Gungahlin; scheduling a larger bus on school route 1038 from St Francis Xavier College and St Matthew’s primary in the afternoon; and adjusting the departure time of some rapid 9 services leaving Dickson for Belconnen to make it easier for students from schools such as Daramalan College and Lyneham high to connect with other services.
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