Going to Ipswich is going to be something of a detour. I would be suggesting maybe the following 2 routes.
Both would have the same stopping pattern from Toowoomba to Withcott. I would go Toowoomba Hospital, Grand Central shops, Toowoomba bus station, St Vincent’s Hospital, down the range to Withcott. From there onwards:
The direct route would continue along the Warrego Hwy, Ipswich Mwy, Ipswich Rd and then to Roma Street (using the busway from the Gabba to North Quay). Stops only at Plainland, the UQ Gatton bus bays on the highway, and possibly other highway bus stops that don’t require any deviation off route.
“Local” route which serves Helidon, Grantham, Gatton, UQ Gatton, Plainland, Hatton Vale and Marburg and then goes only to Ipswich. Some of these would involve going off-highway. I would also then look at curtailing the 539 so it only runs from Rosewood to Gatton and connects with this (there are hardly any trips past Gatton as it is).
You could also potentially just run the “direct” bus into Goodna station and leave it at that if that would result in better frequency for less outlay, although I would want to see permanent Ipswich expresses to support this.
I personally would trim the stops of the Brisbane service to just Grand Central and Toowoomba Bus Station. I don’t think that route needs to service the hospitals, leave that to the local route.
My first refinement would be to have the Toowoomba east stop on Herries St outside St Vincent’s Private Hospital, rather than on Margaret St outside Toowoomba Grammar. I think it makes more sense to run close to the health precinct (which also includes multiple specialists’ buildings and a day hospital) rather than a school.
I wonder if an option to provide connectivity for passengers in the Ipswich area would be to have a stop at either Goodna, Redbank or Dinmore railway stations for easy interchanging between the Ipswich line and/or local bus routes.
The Crisps’ Coaches run from Warwick into Brisbane uses Dinmore as their Ipswich drop point. It’s location wedged between the Warrego and Cunningham Highways near their merge point seems pretty well-placed.
The issue with Dinmore is it isn’t well connected to any local services except the train, whereas Goodna and Redbank are (especially with the recent changes). The Crisps service isn’t subsidised and probably would have minimal if any feed from public transport - certainly compared to a trip to Toowoomba given the relative sizes of the towns on the Southern Downs to Toowoomba and their distance from the Ipswich area - and it has to go past Dinmore anyway if it is coming up the Cunningham Highway.
Going via Legacy Way would mean no connection at Indooroopilly. The destinations QUT Kelvin Grove and RBWH on this route are also accessible from Roma Street via the Brisbane Metro.
Ipswich
It is a pickle as Ipswich is a large population centre, but then service it incurs a large route deviation. But I believe Greyhound serves Ipswich nonetheless? There may be an alternative route into Ipswich via Brisbane Road that would minimise deviation but might be slower.
Only GX495/GX496 (Mon-Fri to/from Charleville) service Ipswich. All others bypass it. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact this is a subsidised route? Maybe it’s part of the contract. Although the route to/from Mt Isa doesn’t service Ipswich. Both also service Haigslea, and Minden Crossroads, but the Brisbane<->Toowoomba runs don’t. Once again, maybe part of the contract with TMR.
I was thinking about this and just couldn’t find one which didn’t have a painful and time-consuming diversion from the motorway. The UQ St Lucia-Gatton service stops at Dinmore, so they must have decided that is the best connection to the train.
But Indooroopilly is also accessible by other frequent connections. The only reason to stop at the busway stations is that’s the quickest route into Brisbane for a bus anyway so there’s very little time cost to stopping.
I have an idea. Why not introduce express buses operated by TransLink to Toowoomba. My idea is they would start outside Toowoomba Station and run on new dedicated bus lanes on the Warrego Highway and call in at Helidon, Gatton, Laidley, Rosewood, Plainlands etc, then drop people off at Ipswich Station where they can take a train. All up from Central to Toowoomba the journey would be about 2 hours. Under an hour by train and then probably the same amount of time on connecting bus. We could even run the bus into Brisbane but one you go east of Ipswich you hit traffic and it’s probably better to transfer passengers onto an empty train waiting at Ipswich which is what they already do for Rosewood Line customers. I would envision this service to run hourly but more frequent on peak hours.
This is like the fourth thread on this topic but just put into different words. The Government came out clarifying a few weeks back that they aren’t funding and operating any direct or express services, citing the current operators that do so.
Which is really stupid. Existing operators. Firstly, Greyhound is a private company that can pull out any time. Secondly, more operators bring competition and in theory lower fares. With gov 50c fares, greyhound may actually bring their fares lower or add stuff to justify their prices as a premium service
Given that the State isn’t interested in subsidising direct Toowoomba services, should we be asking for the Helidon 539s to be extended to Toowoomba?
To the best of my knowledge, there’s currently no direct service from Helidon to Toowoomba. Neither Greyhound nor Murrays service the town.
I realise this isn’t the outcome many were wanting, but I still think it would be better than no connection at all. It would give residents in the western Lockyer Valley region better access to health and education facilities. It would be even better if all Gatton 539s could be extended to Toowoomba.
Agreed at a minimum. The two Helidon services plus at least 1 early morning eastbound service (5:54am originating from Gatton) and 1 late evening westbound service (7:03pm from Rosewood) should be extended to Toowoomba at a minimum
