TO: The Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House the need to make 50c public transport fares permanent by law.
Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to do all in its power to introduce and pass a law to make 50c fares for all public transport permanent.
I think going forward we cant have 50c fares forever. It’s good in the interim while they get all the PT up to scratch as well as changing behaviour of not paying for fares.
He has had a couple of petitions recently. Given the content of some of them, I wouldn’t be surprised if he works for Westside, or at least is a frequent passenger.
"Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House the urgent need for safety barriers to be installed in buses to separate the bus driver from passengers for the safety of the driver and declare all buses that don’t have such barriers fitted as being unroadworthy and that the buses registration is cancelled.
Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to have safety barriers fitted to all buses in Queensland as soon as possible and declare all buses unroadworthy and cancel the buses registration until such time as the barriers are fitted. "
All Translink buses to have the routes programmed into the GPS units on buses
"Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House the unsafe practice that not all bus companies undertaking Translink routes have GPS devices fitted to provide drivers with spoken directions for bus routes. If drivers have not previously driven the route they are expected to read directions from a piece of paper.
Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to do all within its power to ensure it is a legal requirement for all bus companies providing Translink routes to have a GPS unit fitted with the bus routes."
Improved bus routes to/from Burpengary East and North Harbour
Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House the need to introduce new and improved bus routes to better serve the communities of Burpengary East and North Harbour. The current public transport system fails to adequately meet the needs of the local residents, workers, students, and commuters. A more efficient bus service to key locations will provide residents with convenient access to reliable public transport, which is crucial for fostering a strong, connected community.
Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to do all within its power to implement new and direct bus routes that link residents of Burpengary East and North Harbour to important destinations like North Lakes and Morayfield, employment hubs, universities and TAFE, hospitals, healthcare services, and shopping centres.
Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House, we the undersigned are concerned with the ongoing closure of the Dean Street (Red Hill) pedestrian bridge, which has interrupted access for many locals into Ashgrove. We note the Education Minister’s decision to cut this bridge from the Red Hill Special School’s scope of works.
Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to do all within its power to work with Brisbane City Council to replace this footbridge, and restore accessibility for local residents and students.
This is a worthwhile push. Developing parts of MBCC don’t seem to have attracted the same attention as equivalent parts of Logan or Ipswich, maybe because the railway is a bit closer in general to places like North Harbour than places like Ripley or Logan Reserve. Certainly nothing like growing areas of the northern Gold Coast where GCCC has had to put its hand in its own pocket to make anything happen.
I can tell you it is not for lack of trying by the 4 local bus operators based on discussions I’ve had with various people working for them. Translink does not have the resources to fund anything because it is not properly funded to begin with, even though the operators are putting in proposals all the time. This was the case even before $0.50 fares denuded the system of a lot more potential revenue.
The problem as always is politics. Translink would fund better service if it could but the people in Parliament simply don’t instruct Treasury to open the purse strings. Recurrent expenditure is anathema to a beancounter, they would rather spend billions on concrete than on paying people to drive vehicles.
There is no shortage of fairly new buses in the MBCC area. There are a total of 63 TMR owned “rail replacement” buses (out of 200 to be delivered across SEQ) allocated collectively to the 4 MBCC operators, on top of ongoing fleet replenishment and expansion outside those buses.
Elsewhere, Mount Gravatt BS only has a single route outside of peak hour (262) and yet on top of its own low floor fleet they have 20 TMR buses. There just isn’t the funding to put them to better use. (The 262 is also the only bus route in SEQ that runs 7 days a week but does not run on public holidays, but that is probably down to industrial issues specific to Mount Gravatt - they have always had a high average driver age.)