So, the other main bus routes to service this general area (140 and 150) continue to Browns Plains, giving good interchange opportunities. The 130 terminates at a random suburban bus stop.
The question is, where to? Browns Plains would probably be closest, but is it necessary to effectively duplicate the 140/150.
Would sending it to Woodridge Station be sensible? Might be helpful for people in the Algester area to access the southern part of the Beenleigh line, although probably not for the Gold Coast—going north to Altandi would save having to change trains at Loganlea.
If going to Woodridge, would direct along Wembley Rd be best, or would you mirror part of the 547? I would suggest Wembley Rd, which could allow the return of the stop near Forest Way, which was lost with the 547 rerouting.
I’m not sure there’s anywhere else nearby that makes much sense as a terminus.
I guess the other question is, how often would you send the 130 here? I think every service would be overkill. Maybe every 15 minutes peak and every 30 off-peak?
It’s already a really long route, I’d probably just try and get it back to the shops on Nottingham so that there is an anchor at the end. I also think you’d have some pretty poor reliability going all the way to Woodridge.
The other option is just take it up Gowan somewhere so that you have same stop transfers to the 150 to continue to Garden City.
You could maybe send the 139 with a boost of frequency there, but what does sending a bus from mains road corridor to woodridge even acheive?
Whilst it’s more direct than the train and transfer combo, that option still exists.
The 130 is one of the most heavily used and most frequent bus routes in the nation, so it’s doing something right with where it ends up.
Also obliquatory increase the 130 and 140 to at least every 10 minutes off peak. every 15 minutes isn’t enough
Here’s an obvious one: yes to Browns Plains VIA DREWVALE.
They only get the podunk 547 and the peak 153 so an option for them to reach Sunnybank and beyond without drama would be a major improvement.
We mentioned the 139 and I’ve thought about routing it to the current 130 terminus via Compton and Gowan as compensation for the loss of the 155 in Calamvale. If ran every 15 minutes for most of the day (irrespective of university terms) it could be a very useful addition and a good complement for the 130/140 on Mains Rd.
Rather than extending the 130 to say Woodridge or to Browns Plains (which is already suffocating due to its high demand), I would like to see the southside’s bus routes utilize more of its toll roads on a more general basis.
For instance, make 118 Forest Lake or 153 Drewvale all-day services. 142 Browns Plains to City Bullet is an another possible candidate (on the stipulation that it gets extended via Drewvale outside of peak hours).
The northside already makes use of its tolled roads (outside peak hours), as seen by 330 Bracken Ridge and 310 Brighton. And it works out well for them.
As for the 130, I believe it deserves 10 minute frequencies during the weekends, and to be serviced by mostly artics.
It gives a more direct route to the train for people living at the southern end of the corridor (Algester/Parkinson).
Does it really need it? 130 already runs every 10 minutes off-peak for a pretty big chunk of the day (inbound until around 11 am, outbound from 2 pm until 9 pm (except peak when it’s every 7.5 minutes).
Combined, when running at 4 bph, the 130 & 140 should give an average 7.5 minute frequency north of Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown. I think if capacity is the issue at that frequency, you need to run bigger vehicles (i.e. artics).
Not a bad idea. Would you go to Browns Plains first?
On the topic of the 130, I’ve also heard long speculation by other bus enthusiasts that the 140 was always planned to terminate and start at Greenbank RSL park n’ ride.
It’ll be really good when the 140 extension is set into stone, as Greenbank RSL is within walking distance to many Hillcrest residents, as opposed to Browns Plains station.
It’s very likely we’ll start seeing artics on the 130/140/150 trio in the upcoming months with the introduction of the CNG MANs to Willawong alongside a new order of TMR-owned B8RLEAs for Sherwood.
I do believe we’ve reached a cross-roads with the 130 & 140 being at (or nearing) full capacity. Any increases in frequency is always welcome, but I believe some timetable tweaks to make more 130/140 outbounds’ start at Griffith University will be a good start.
It’s time for active travel infrastructure to take precedence. This pocket of the southside (Sunnybank, Calamvale, Parkinson, Algester, Robertson, etc) have inherited solid bike paths and shared pathways, good for short to medium leisurely rides.
However, they’re disconnected because of the big arterials ripping them up. Such as Beaudesert Rd, Calam Rd, Mains Rd, Compton Rd, etc. The lack of shade combined with narrow footpaths is also an another huge deterrent.
My solution isn’t anything grandiose, but its to encourage more southsiders to partake in active travel, as opposed to commuting via the 130 & 140.
Baby steps would be installing shared bike compounds at Sunnybank Hills Shopping Centre and at Sunnybank Plaza. As well as more bicycle lockers at Banoon, Sunnybank, and Altandi stations’.
I’m less optimistic about the heavy rail aspect though, as most southsiders within this area have begrudgingly accepted the 130 & 140 as their bread and butter.
The Beenleigh Line just can’t compete in terms of frequency (at least until Cross River Rail and LGCFR is completed).
More importantly, Beenleigh line is just slow. It’s quicker from Fruitgrove station to the city to take the 150 instead of a train. And I know express services stop at Altandi, but that station has such terrible amenity and connectivity to the surrounding area, it really doesn’t invite transfers.
Bike lanes on Beaudesert road would be great. It’s a wide corridor. Could do with a Class B busway tbh.
The 130 already runs at 10 minute (or better) frequencies during large portions of the day. Inbound on weekdays they run at 10 minute frequencies from 5am until something like 11:15am, and outbound from 2:10pm through to 9:10pm (IIRC from just after 3pm to around 6pm, they’re running at a consistent 7-8 minute frequency).
They built a wide shared path/bikeway at the southern end of Beaudesert Rd when they upgraded the intersection with Illaweena Street. TMR has longer-term plans to progressively ‘upgrade’ Beaudesert Rd (more lanes for cars!) northwards from here. It’s likely they will extend the shared path further north as they go, although with the current state government, who knows?
Drewvale is also a small suburb with a fairly small population of about 5,000 people, compared to almost every other suburb in the area: Algester (9k), Calamvale (18k), Parkinson (11k), Sunnybank Hills (18k). This might be part of the reason why it gets somewhat less service.
There really should be bus lanes from Browns Plains to Klumpp Rd IMO.
I’d say pick one or the other, or we’d be trying to make the route do too much. Sending it to Browns Plains via Drewvale and having a separate route from Browns Plains direct to Loganlea is also a possibility.
I’d extend the 115 and 135 to Browns Plains, while route 130 doesn’t really duplicate routes 140 and 150 as Route 130 serves Algester, there wouldn’t really be much demand to extending it to Browns Plains shops from Nottingham Road, and you wouldn’t want to backtrack it, also Routes 545 and 550 provides enough coverage on Browns Plains Road already (assuming you extend Route 130 to Browns Plains Road to get to Browns Plains shops in the first place).
One thing I was pushing during the consultation of the BNBN project was to get some bus routes connecting between Algester/Parkinson/Calamvale to Browns Plains as that seemed to be logical, the BT Planners didn’t seem to be interested at the time, although I still believe it’d be worthwhile as you’d think there would be sufficient demand between those locations given Browns Plains Shops is the largest closest shopping centre to those suburbs and would provide a way for people to properly connect to the Logan, Beaudesert and Ipswich routes (534, 540, 545, 550, 560)
On another note: I’m back - from more complications to dialysis, through to completing my final assessments for doing dialysis at home (of which I’m now officially certified to do), my time has finally been given back to me!