Page 4672 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 27 November 2019
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the community, we have already made 136 tweaks to the network. We have done that in consultation with schools. We have done it in consultation with communities. At the six-month mark, we are listening to Canberrans and we are engaging with key community groups such as community councils. We are going out through Transport Canberra to community councils. We are listening to what people have to say after six months of operation and we are engaging with key community organisations like the Women’s Centre for Health Matters to hear their feedback.
Miss C Burch raised the issue of safety on our public transport network. I want to make it very clear that safety is our utmost priority for all Canberrans when it comes to all government services. All our buses and major interchanges are fitted with closed circuit TV and, as we expand our network with real-time technology, we will be able to better monitor these facilities. I have announced today that as part of the upgrades to public transport infrastructure we will be looking at improved lighting as well to improve passenger safety at certain bus stops. We will continue to make changes to our public transport infrastructure. That is important and we will do it in consultation with organisations like, for example, the Women’s Centre for Health Matters.
As a result of the success of light rail stage 1, the ACT government is also exploring options to increase light rail frequencies in peak periods. It is important to consider the technical feasibility of increasing frequency at different times, to identify any additional drivers or vehicles that might be required to deliver more frequent services, to do the modelling to understand the increased impacts of conflicting traffic movements between cars, light rail and passengers to ensure safety and traffic flow and forecasting passenger demand over the coming years.
We are doing that work. We are considering that work. We have undertaken to do that work in the Assembly. The Canberra Liberals have clearly demonstrated that they do not understand that adding buses to Northbourne Avenue to supplement light rail capacity, as they have proposed, will only create traffic congestion. The whole idea of light rail was to take off all of those buses that were stopping in the left-hand lane of Northbourne Avenue, causing traffic congestion, among other problems.
The ACT government recently went out to market for a new ticketing system through an expression of interest process and is currently evaluating a preferred solution for the replacement of the existing system. So we are getting on with the work of looking at what the options are to improve our ticketing system into the future. But we also know that we need to keep MyWay up for some time yet in order to ensure a smooth transition to a new ticketing system. This is going to take some time, but we are going through the proper processes to consider what solutions are available for the territory and to get the best outcome for the territory as well. We want a future ticketing system that will provide a modern solution that will provide for multi-modal travel and assist users to take control of their own journeys.
Our government will continue to listen and to deliver public transport options for Canberrans by continuing to recruit more bus drivers and increasing weekend bus services once there are sufficient bus drivers to ensure continued reliability. We will respond to feedback received from community members to make improvements where possible. We will continue to assess the viability of increasing frequency of light rail services during peak periods. We will continue to provide quarterly updates
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