news, local-news, bus timetable, network 19, canberra bus timetable, new bus network, transport canberra, meegan fitzharris

Transport Minister Meegan Fitzharris has blamed "bedding down issues" for travel time blowouts on the first day of Canberra's new bus network. Commuters reacted with rage and confusion to the new public transport timetable, which has undergone a ground-up transformation for the first time in 20 years. Parents reported full buses driving past their children, who missed connecting buses and were late to school, while commuters were left waiting at light rail stations as full carriages passed them by (around 2500 people caught the light rail alone between 7am and 9am). Ms Fitzharris said Transport Canberra would keep an "hourly and daily" watch on the new network, and it would "take some time to get used to". "I think by and large across the system as a whole it's a quicker, more frequent and more reliable system," Ms Fitzharris said. "I certainly acknowledge for some existing passengers there have been changes but by and large that should not take longer and maybe that's to do with some bedding down issues in the system because we're just on day one. "What I would say is that we are providing significantly more services to new passengers and particularly with a month's free travel right across our whole network we are really encouraging everyone to give it a go at least once or twice and see how it works for them." Ms Fitzharris said there was capacity in the network to add extra services when routes were full, however the network would not be reviewed for "any particular tweaks" until the end of the year. A full analysis will be done in one year, she said, with its success to be determined by passenger figures. "Our public transport usage at the moment is probably the second lowest in the country at around 8 per cent. We see Melbourne at close to 20 per cent, Sydney at close to 25 per cent," Ms Fitzharris said. "We want to be able to build that number over time particularly as our city grows." However the Canberra Liberals' transport spokeswoman Candice Burch said the review could not come soon enough. "I think the government definitely has a responsibility given this has been such a huge change to the network to review ... sooner rather than later," Ms Burch said. Ms Burch said the "vast majority" of feedback she'd had on the network was negative, and she was concerned that it could force more people back into cars. "I think in the longer term we're definitely going to see more people back on our roads resorting to car travel because the new network [means] their door to door journeys are longer and it is no longer convenient to use public transport," Ms Burch said. "On top of that of course we have the cuts to dedicated school bus services, so for a lot of children across our city today they've had to navigate the public network for the first time to get to and from school - but it's also meant that for a lot of parents they've had no choice other than to drive their children to and from school so I'm sure a lot of commuters out there notice the roads around our school zones were much busier as well." However Ms Fitzharris said the network redesign was based on national and international success stories. "We have looked around the world at what drives more patronage on public transport and ... this is the design that's worked around the country and around the world," Ms Fitzharris said. Ms Fitzharris also played down concerns there would not be enough bus drivers to staff the expanded weekend timetable. There are 147 extra weekend shifts due to the network redesign. The government scrapped moves to introduce compulsory weekend work last year, meaning the territory's 759 bus drivers have to volunteer for Saturday and Sunday shifts. "We are very confident we will be able to deliver a seven-day network and to deliver weekend services and bus drivers will do the right thing by the Canberra community and they'll be volunteering for shifts on the weekend just like they always have," Ms Fitzharris said.

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/doc7398dwxwptikld8h9hv.jpg/r6_83_3118_1841_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg