Page 4671 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 27 November 2019
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weekday journeys being taken and 20.7 per cent more weekend and public holiday journeys being taken.
Ms Lawder: Journeys?
MR STEEL: Yes, journeys, not boardings. There may be multiple boardings in the journey. Those are figures from October 2019, compared with October 2018. Network 19 has also delivered an additional 3,556 bus and light rail services on weekdays during school terms. We are not cutting services. We have put thousands more services on. This includes 2,350 more bus services on weekdays and 1,206 light rail services on weekdays each week. There are currently 501 more timetabled Transport Canberra bus and light rail services each weekend under the interim updated weekend timetable than there were under the old network that operated prior to 29 April.
This includes 214 more bus services each weekend, as well as 287 more light rail services. In addition to that, our public transport operating hours have been extended. The span of services has been extended, with more services in the evenings in particular, to deliver more services every day of the week. As part of our introduction of network 19, Transport Canberra undertook a review of the location and use of bus stops across the city. Of course, there were changes that were made to the bus stops. We had a changed network. The objective of the review was to ensure that the new network struck the right balance between having faster bus services, which was the feedback we received through the consultation that was undertaken in the lead-up to the introduction of the new network, and having bus stops close to where people live.
The review resulted in 59 new bus stops being opened, bus stops being moved, and 11 former bus stops being reinstated. There were also a number of bus stops closed. Overall, there are now 2,434 bus stops in use in Canberra, which is 606 fewer bus stops than there were under the previous network. But we made that change to improve the frequency of service because we know that that is important to building a public transport system that works for more Canberrans.
However, this number included 202 school services only bus stops, which in many cases caused a situation where, if a student missed their bus under the previous network, there was no other bus to catch. Almost all students catching public transport to school now use the same bus stop and light rail stop as other customers on Transport Canberra, meaning that, again, if they miss their bus, they can catch the following bus to school and actually get there.
Only our government is committed to ensuring that we help young Canberrans become lifelong users of public transport. We have seen that with students adapting to the new network and actually using it on the weekend, because they understand how the new system operates. It is a seven-day-a-week network, not a five-day-a-week network with a separate weekend network in operation like there used to be.
The ACT government are working hard to ensure that we can continue to increase the number of public transport passengers. We have been listening to what Canberrans have had to say after six months of operation of the network. Based on feedback from
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