It has been advertised that on Channel 9's A Current Affair tonight they are running a story on Adelaide's Ghost Buses. Bus services that run around almost all day with none or very little patronage and we the tax payer are footing the bill.
This is true. It has been happening for years. It's happening because boffins within our so called transport department do not have the faintest idea of how to operate an effective public transport system if their collectives lives depended on it.
To work in this department one must have a piece of paper declaring that one has obtained a diploma or something. How many of these people have a diploma or higher in transport planning or anything related to transport? Very few, if any would be my guess.
Now, I have almost 30 years experience in Adelaide's public transport industry, something that is a passion of mine and has been since I was 11 years old. I recently left the industry I loved to embark on a new career path, but I still have my interest in buses, trains and trams.
The problem with our bus network for example, is that it is very very slow to react to changing community demands largely because of bureaucratic red tape and a lack of community knowledge by these so called transport experts. I will give you a couple of examples.
Route 229 operates from Pooraka to Para Hills and follows a meandering route along the Para escarpment through Pooraka, Ingle Farm and Para Hills. It has essentially traversed the same route for the past 55 years with only some minor route alterations which made the service even more of windy.
The large area's that this service operate through have no DIRECT bus access to the nearby Ingle Farm Shopping Centre, Mawson Lakes, Mawson Lakes University or Tea Tree Plaza. These four places are very significant transport nodes and focal points for these suburbs, yet Route 229 does not service one of them. It does get to within about 1km of Ingle Farm SC but that is less than satisfactory.
This is why the service largely carries no one. Only a few desperadoes who are going into the City or along Main North Road. Buses on route 229 only operate all the way into the City during peak periods and from end to end it takes over an hour for the privilege. The equivalent journey time for buses that operate along Bridge Road into the City is approximately 40 minutes, so you can see Route 229 is a waste of time. Yet it has been forgotten by the experts. So much so, that bus stops get taken away because some resident objects to buses stopping out front of her house! So instead of 300m between some stops, there are now gaps of 600-700m between stops. This is too far a distance for suburbia.
Route 225
This service like Route 229 only operates from the City in peak periods. It connects with City buses at the inhospitable Gepps Cross then makes it's way to Mawson Lakes then out onto Main North Road then through Para Hills, Salisbury East and Brahma Lodge to Salisbury.
This services primary function is to service Northbri Avenue, Brahma Lodge and Para Hills, it does this yes but it has problems. A few years ago it was re-routed away from Para Hills SC, supposedly because of the right turn buses made out of Goodall Road onto the busy Bridge Road. I could accept that, but they left Route 560 to still perform this manoeuvre, so that argument is flawed.
The Para Hills SC on Bridge Road is small as shopping centre's go, but nonetheless it is still an important communal focal point as it also has a surgery and the Somerset Hotel is adjacent. Route 225 was re-routed away from these facilities.
In peak periods, passengers who choose to catch Route 225 to reach the City must endure an hour plus journey which wends its way through Para Hills, Mawson Lakes and Cavan before heading along Main North Road into the City. Needless to say, not many people avail themselves of such a tortuous service. Residents find alternative arrangements and Route 225 is ignored and operates with none or very few passengers.
The suburbs of Adelaide are littered with bus services that provide poor service and poor service coverage and have done for years. Many of these services have operated along the same routes for over 50 years and whilst it may have been satisfactory in 1972, it no longer caters for community demands.
Route 720 in the southern suburbs was taken away from the premier medical facility in the south, Flinders Medical Centre. Why? This means that the huge suburbs of Hallett Cove, Sheidow Park and Trott Park have no direct access to the Flinders Medical Centre. This, in my view is totally unacceptable and everyone responsible for making and allowing such a decision to be made should be ashamed of themselves.
The services MUST still operate because the suburbs must be provided with public transport, however, the services MUST be redesigned by people who understand travel requirements of the local communities to make the service more vibrant and user friendly.
Not only is the route traversed important, so too is the level of service. Having almost the entire northern suburbs of Craigmore, Elizabeth Downs, Blakeview devoid of public transport after 9.30pm is a disgrace in this day and age.
I soon will have a double diploma in Counselling and Community Services and I will be an expert in this field! Perhaps then when I have two pieces of paper in an unrelated field I could get a job in the transport department to rectify the issues I mentioned above, because I was given the cold shoulder for the past 30 years when I was actually in the system.
That's my opinion.
