Yes. There is a thread for the concept of a tunnel via UQ here if you like. It is a placeholder as I have not had the time yet to build out the concept fully yet, but feel free to post your own ideas there in the meantime.
1 Like
Hell, if we can nudge them to replace the CNG fleet with normal articulated electrics on a one-to-one basis to improve capacity on current western services, even better.
1 Like
GTFS feed and TransLink website (via editing date in URL) both now show BNBN network out until 30 July.
4 Likes
The P546 and P569 are being stripped of their Ps as well as their TfB counterparts starting on the 30th of June.
2 Likes
I was at cultural centre last Wednesday and I saw council staff handing these out for platform 3 reopening.
2 Likes
Of all the prefixes to drop, I feel as if this was the least important. The P really turned into a peak hour only label which can actually be useful when planning journeys.
Realistically, the solution is to just not have peak hour only services!
Alas, here’s hoping that the rest of the ancient terminology is phased out!
Thanks for the image of the flyer @as-saffarini.
It is a really interesting approach to reducing bus dwells and queing, at least for outbound services.
Without a Platform 3, those buses would be mixed in with platform 2 services and Metro, taking up space and banking up in the PM peak.
BUZ needs to go next.
1 Like
Unfortunately BNBN looks like a mixed bag in terms of real reflecting timetabling. There’s improvement in some places but other places still have some pretty shocking timetabling/terminus padding. There seems to be a reoccuring theme that 2xx routes are a lot less accurate.
Here’s a quick sheet I’ve put together from GTFS looking at timings departing Buranda-KGS NB, QSBS NB, Boggo WB, Gabba WB and George 116 for Roma St: BNBNTimings.xlsx (20.4 MB)
Few examples I noticed (Sorry formatting is inconsistent between examples):
** George St 116 to Roma St Busway** (Weekday only pair)
349 (OB PM): 6min
134 (IB PM): 8min
205 (All day): 12-20min
** 205IB General**
Looking at midday off-peak timing seems very off:
Carindale to Samuel St shops is 4min versus Google Maps 5-7min driving ignoring getting out of interchange and multiple intermediate stops.
Samuel to Buranda seems possible at 11min
Buranda to George 116: 8min - seems a min or so on the long side. 134 is 5min through PM peak which would be tight
George 116 to Roma St: 12min - seems about double
Gabba to Margaret Stop 95
Sunday (125, 175, 185): 7-8min, (204): 14-16min
Saturday (125, 175, 185): 7-8min, (204): 14-18min
Weekday (125, 175): 7-12min, (185): 8-10min, (204): 11-19min
KGS to Roma St
450,453,454,460: 1-2min
222: 1-2min (vs 3-8min current)
M2: 2min
333,340: 1-3min (As per current)
M1: 4-6min (As per current 111)
South Bank to Cultural Centre
Sunday: min: 2min (Both), max: 5min (Current) | 7min (BNBN: 200)
Saturday: min: 2min (Both), max 5min (Current) | 7min (BNBN: 230)
Weekday: min: 2min (Both), max 7min (Current: 214) | 8min (BNBN: 200, 210, 212, 214, 230, 235)
Improvement Examples:
Dutton Park Place to UQ Lakes
Current: 1-7min
BNBN: 1-4min
Cultural Centre to QSBS
Current: 2-6min (Most), 6-15min (215)
BNBN: 2-5min
1 Like
Also for reference are some station stop allocation changes:
QSBS
QSBS, 1a: 100 (No Change)
QSBS, 1b: 330 (Current 214, 215, 220)
Removed stop (Current 110, 115, 134, 135, 155)
QSBS, 1c: 150 (Current name 1d: 120)
QSBS, 1d: 140 (Current name 1e: No Change)
QSBS, 1e: 130 (Current name 1f: No Change)
QSBS, 1f: 61 (Current name 1g: No Change)
QSBS, 1g: 385 (Current name 1h: Current 150)
QSBS, 1h: 345 (Current name 1i: Current 160, 161)
QSBS, 3a: 180 (No change)
QSBS, 3b: 120 (Current 200)
QSBS, 2a: 200
QSBS, 2c: 205
KGS
KGS, 1a: 333, 340
KGS, 1b: 222, 444
KGS, 1c: M1, M2
KGS, 2a: M1, M2
KGS, 2b: 61, 222
KGS, 2c: 333, 340, 444
Roma St
Only M1, 222 use the dummy terminus stop in data. 205 and 134 use regular platform 1 stop.
Garden City
Garden City, stop A: Set-down
Garden City, stop B: Nil regular/Setdown (Current 122, 123, 152)
Garden City, stop C: 175 (Current 125, 132)
Garden City, stop D: 120 (Current 120)
Garden City, stop E: 122, 123, 132, 152 (Current non-TfB)
Garden City, stop F: 171, 172 (Current 184, 185)
Garden City, stop G: 185 (Current 180, P183)
Garden City, stop H: 179, 180 (Current 170, 171, P176)
Garden City, stop I: 182, 590 (Current 172, 174, 175)
Garden City, stop J: 161 (Towards Eight Mile Plains. Currently no regular)
Garden City, stop K: 598 (Current 598)
Garden City, stop L: 161 (Towards Wishart/Griffith, Current 599)
Garden City, stop M: 599 (Currently no regular)
Garden City, stop N: Nil regular/Setdown (Current 590)
All non-TfB now terminating at Griffith Uni
Carindale
Carindale, stop A: 200OB, 205OB (Currently 212, 213, 215, 225)
Carindale, stop B: 204IB, 206IB (Currently 200OB, P201OB, P206IB)
Carindale, stop C: 202IB, 203IB, 205IB (Currently 204IB)
Carindale, stop D: 212, 213, 215, 225 (Currently 202, 203, P208)
Carindale, stop E: 177, 590SB, 599 (No change)
Carindale, stop F: 222, 217 (Currently 222, P201IB, P217)
Carindale, stop G: 200IB (No Change)
Carindale, stop H: 204OB, 206OB, 209 (Currently 209, 590NB, 598)
Carindale, stop I: 590NB, 598 (Currently 204OB, P206OB)
Carindale, stop J: Non-TfB
1 Like
Just taking a look at my normal trip to/from uni and my usual trip of catching the 203 to either the Gabba or Cultural Centre then transferring, now has me transferring at PA Hospital Station to the M2. Travel time will blow out by over 30mins from 43mins (on average) to 1hr and 14 mins in the new network. Sigh…
4 Likes
You have all those surface changes too in the CBD. A lot of buses will be travelling down Ann street and terminating at Post Office Sq instead of travelling down Adelaide Street. In addition a lot of these services will omit the Valley Island stop as well.
1 Like
I went through the Cultural Centre Precinct on the bus today and it still seems they have a tiny bit to do. They may start at midnight tonight to get things ready for tomorrow?
Nathan on Skyscrapercity has taken some videos today on how the new configuration works at the Cultural Centre. I have also noticed while riding by this morning at 8:20 that there were no buses queuing on the Vic Bridge.
I’m intending to copy that post here too, but until then, here’s my SCC post:
^ At least the 203 doesn’t skip past Buranda along O’Keefe St anymore. That gives you a slightly-less-walking alternative, but 2 transfers needed (ie home-Buranda-Cultural Centre/Roma Street-QUT), so I expect probably no different hassle-wise and no great consolation.
I had to move as a consequence of the 2014 Gold Coast changes - I still had a morning service, but my last bus left Nerang station prior to the changes at about 11:30pm, and afterwards left before 5pm (as a law-talking-guy working in the Brisbane CBD that is precious little use).
As mentioned in the SCC post, I made a point of hopping off at Cultural Centre this morning to check out the opening of Platform 3 and the sequencing of the new 3 lane setup and signaling at Grey Street (I also got to see an idiot cyclist going down the busway and being not too far off getting skittled by a bus).
Traffic light sequencing looks to work pretty well as I expected - inbound goes green at the same time as the West End Outbound lane sequence - West End services get a fairly short ~10 second window between red lights, just enough to allow through the 2 buses that will fit at Platform 3. Straight after that, SEB outbound gets a ~30 second sequence (inbound green continues during this). The SEB outbound lane at the tunnel portal goes red just ahead of the one at Grey Street (inbound I believe gets a red at this time as well), then the Platform 3 green light coincides with the green for Grey Street traffic.
This seemed to work fairly smoothly today - no huge back ups in either direction that I could see in the short time I was there, although I did catch a 385 bus driver either not understanding or paying attention to the lights, going across against a red and barely fitting in across the road and generally gumming up the works. I wonder if the SEB and West End signs confused him - they refer to the position on this side of the lights, but could be read as indicating the lanes across the road. Something I do notice in this one is an inbound 174 sitting at the lights when it should be his green sequence - I can’t tell for certain because of a blocking West End service, but I think this may be a result of Platform 1 being filled to capacity at that point. I did see that a couple of times, but it filtered relatively quickly.
A direct follow on from the previous video, the 385 that barged across against the light is effectively clogging the entry to Platform 3, so the West End buses have to sit through their green light sequence… This one does also show the light sequence for inbound West End beyond the portal, which looks to be keyed in to match the Platform 3 light sequence.
4 Likes
Pfft! That’s a pathetic excuse for a queue, it’s only a third of the way across the bridge!
I’ll be checking tonight after work to see how things are progressing.
1 Like
More evidence of bus queuing late this arvo from another user on Skyscrapercity
I know it’s early days but there has been a lot of rhetoric being said from Ryan Murphy and Lord Mayor Schrinner about speeding up trips along the Vic Bridge
Those senior planners in TMR are to blame as well.