AFTER more than a year of “public transport chaos”, according to shadow transport minister Candice Burch, the ACT government will introduce a “significant” public transport update on July 18. 

Transport Canberra has been budget funded an additional $4.5 million in the Budget Review to hire new drivers for routes, which include reinstating the bus route from Crace, Palmerston and Nicholls, to Belconnen, after unhappy Crace residents have been calling for its return for more than a year.

One frustrated Crace resident, Jenny McManus, said seniors and vulnerable people were having to travel in reverse direction (from Crace to Gungahlin, and then Gungahlin to Belconnen) and were missing their medical appointments.

“It is ridiculous that a journey of 20 minutes takes 90 minutes and the timetable of October 2017 must be reinstated immediately as it will benefit everyone,” Jenny said last week.

And the government agreed, with Labor MLA Michael Pettersson, in an email to Jenny, saying: “I agree that the bus route from Crace to Belconnen should never have been removed.”

The updated network will provide 692 extra bus services each weekday.

A spokesperson from Transport Minister, Chris Steel’s office said Transport Canberra has also been able to achieve efficiencies in the network timetable, which has allowed for the additional services to operate each day.

The updates include:

In Tuggeranong:

• Travel time savings of about 20 minutes from Lanyon, Tuggeranong to the City for passengers using Rapid 5
• Rapid 5 (Lanyon to City) running every 10 minutes all day on weekdays
• Three local routes 72, 76 and 77 providing direct services from Tuggeranong suburbs through to the Canberra Hospital and Woden
• Better coverage of Wanniassa with route 73 stopping on Kirkton Street, Gaunson Cresent, Longmore Crescent and Sainsbury Street.

In Woden, Weston Creek and Molonglo:

• Rapid 10 (Molonglo to city) service will run more frequently, every 15 minutes at peak times
• Rapid 4 and Rapid 5 to both take the most direct route from Woden to the City
• New Frequent Local route 59 introduced from Woden to Forrest, Barton and Russell, running every 15 minutes on weekdays

In Inner north and south:

• Travel time savings of about foru minutes each way on Rapid 9 between Dickson and Belconnen
• Route 902 running directly from Old Narrabundah to the Woden Town Centre, seven days a week to reduce the need to change buses
• More direct services on Rapid 4 and Rapid 5 from Woden to the City.

In Belconnen:

• Travel time savings of about nine minutes in the morning on route 41 from Charnwood, Flynn and Melba to Belconnen
• Services on route 32 (Belconnen to City via Jamison) running every 10 minutes at the busiest times
• New services through Giralang, Kaleen and McKellar connecting to Gungahlin and Belconnen

In Gungahlin:

• Local bus services from Crace, Palmerston and Nicholls to the Belconnen Town Centre to reduce the need to change buses
• Mitchell improvements with Route 18 extended to Dickson, reducing the need for passengers to make multiple transfers

But, Ms Burch says the Labor-Greens Government’s latest overhaul of the bus network will continue to cause headaches for school children, vulnerable and weekend bus users.

Ms Burch says this “tired” bus offering still doesn’t deliver the weekend network, thousands of children are still without dedicated school bus services and many vulnerable Canberrans will still have to walk longer distances to reach their bus stops.

“Canberrans who have suffered through months of transport chaos aren’t fooled by Minister Steel’s spin,” Ms Burch says.

“Now just months out from an election the government is unapologetically attempting to put out a fire it deliberately lit.”