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Labor’s ‘nuts’ half-price bus ticket policy for Brisbane panned [by Rail Back on Track]
(www.brisbanetimes.com.au)
this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
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Is there really a choice between the bus and train here though? Some places unfortunately can only be accessed by bus. Typically areas where the network is duplicated the trains are faster anyway. In saying that we still have rubbish public transport and it needs to beat the crap out of driving a Corolla to the city in terms of cost, comfort, efficiency and flexibility for more people to consider it rather than driving in. That is, without some work by government to force people onto public transport.
You would think that, but it's not always the case.
Toowong to CBD, for example. I checked just now and the train would take 50% more time than the best bus option according to Google Maps' estimate. Now, that calculus may change in peak hour, but especially if your actual start location is not Toowong but somewhere like UQ—which is sadly not served by a single train, despite being the biggest trip generator in the city after the CBD—it's easy to see why someone would already choose the bus. As much as I do think we'd be better off if we can encourage people to embrace moving away from single-seat journeys, when moving to the mode which is supposed to be the higher-volume higher-speed trunk is actually slower even before you account for swapping time, that seems a hard sell.
But anyway, that wasn't my point. I was actually thinking about a more typical case like Toombul to CBD or Carseldine to CBD, where the train is the better option. What I don't want is to see a situation created where someone deliberately chooses the worse option because it's cheaper. That's a perverse incentive.