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| A 333 'bendy' bus |
Yesterday I attended a 60th birthday party held at the home of a friend in Bondi not far from Bondi Beach. There were about fifty guests at the party; most of whom would have travelled by public transport as parking in the area, especially on a summer's weekend, would have been scarce.
The party commenced around midday and there were still about eight guests enjoying themselves when I made my departure at around 8.30pm. I walked up the hill to the bus stop on Bondi Road at the cross junction with Denham Street where I was surprised to see three other party guests who had left the party an hour before me waiting for a bus amongst a group of many others. Four buses (Routes 333 and 380) had passed them by not collecting passengers from the stop. All the buses were full of passengers who boarded presumably from the starting point around Bondi Beach. Another three full buses passed by in the next half hour after which the four of us caught a taxi to the Bondi Junction bus and train interchange where there were other bus and train options.
From that experience it is clear that effectively no bus service was available to intending passengers the full length of Bondi Road, say three kilometres, for at least 90 minutes but in all likelihood for much longer.
Gladys Berejiklian (Minister for Transport) if your staff is monitoring the internet for mentions then please note. These buses may well have been travelling on time and their capacity passenger numbers may suggest popularity but all those uncollected passengers along the length of Bondi Road mean one thing. At certain key times your Government is providing no bus service where a demand exists.
There was a time when Denham Street had a bus terminus of its own allowing a support service within the Beach to Junction corridor. Ms Berejiklian please resume that intermediate service.
That's quite outrageous. I assume the bendy buses were in service to cope with the loads. If the government won't extend the train to Bondi Beach, then light rail from the Junction should be considered.
ReplyDeleteYes Andrew, the 333 buses were bendy buses, full of passengers, which indicates the level of demand.
DeleteIt is the local residents who resisted an extension of the train line to Bondi Beach yet they are the ones particularly affected the inability of the bus service to satisfy demand.
As I have argued publicly elsewhere. The local argument of bringing too many people to Bondi Beach is specious. They come regardless. My thought, a proper underground train as I can't see how road space could be found for a tram, would be for it turn right after reaching a central point at the beach and run to Coogee or even further. We have seen Bondi Beach many times and would quite happily go on to Coogee.
DeleteWonder if it's possible for them to be a little like Uber and Taxis? That is, when it's clear a whole bunch of buses are full, an alert goes off to deploy some others.
ReplyDeleteJames, at the time I wondered whether there was communication between drivers and home bases to advise the problem or whether each driver thinks it just them who is passing by stops leaving passengers stranded.
DeleteUnfortunately, trains here in Melbourne occasionally do the same (turn into express services) to keep on time performance targets. Sometimes trams do it too (terminate early and turn back). The joys of PT.
ReplyDeleteAdRad, I think our public transport is mostly very good but there are these frustrations.
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