Page 2934 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 14 August 2019
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I have recently written to the Tuggeranong Community Council and businesses along Anketell Street to assure them that we are genuinely considering the option of moving buses off Anketell Street in consultation with bus drivers. While buses were temporarily diverted via Cowlishaw Street during the recent upgrades to the town centre their operation through the area was actively managed under an approved temporary traffic management plan to address safety risks for other road users. They are risks we will need to look at more closely, and that takes time. To be honest, the sequencing of two sets of construction at the same time would simply not have worked. We are happy to look at that now the Anketell Street upgrades are over and consider what further improvements we can make to the Tuggeranong town centre precinct.
I understand and sympathise with the desire of Tuggeranong residents to further improve the town centre and create a welcoming environment along Anketell Street and beyond through the laneways. This means for the short term that buses have returned to Anketell Street; I noticed them while I was there on Monday. We will investigate the capital upgrades required so that buses can move safely along Cowlishaw Street and we will do the consultation required to make sure that any changes are supported. We need to consider the safety of vulnerable road users but also that of bus drivers and whether they can safely move their vehicles around the area.
I am sure that the Assembly is very conscious of the risks that come with running a public transport network and the need to carefully consider the ramifications of any potential changes to ensure that the community is as safe as possible. I can advise that TCCS is investigating the capital upgrades required for buses to safely move along Cowlishaw Street on a permanent basis. It will not happen overnight; it is important that the government understands and delivers the necessary capital works prior to a change being made to bus services because it will have flow-on effects. It is not a simple change to put buses through there. There will be a timetable impact that we will need to consider, and that planning is a very complex matter as I have come to learn.
We will also need to consider other matters relating to the change. We will work through those over the coming months. Those include operational policies and other procedures for bus drivers. We will work with the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate to ensure that any changes made appropriately reflect what should be the transport corridors through the town centre. Transport is directly related to land use around transport corridors and we need to consider those impacts as well. The change is not as simple as some might think, but it is one that we are genuinely working through and I am really keen to get some progress.
It is great to see the upgrades having such a significant effect along Anketell Street. That is something that we want to continue through the laneways. In the long term I hope that our bus fleet will become both quieter and less polluting as we transition to zero emissions buses, but the safety issues will remain. Because the upgrades to Anketell Street are at grade and provide a friendly pedestrian environment, there is certainly a legitimate view from community and business that we should be looking at
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