Page 501 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 February 2020
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help to cut travel times for Tuggeranong residents who are looking to use the R5 to get directly into the city.
Another key improvement that we are making is that we will be establishing a new route to service Barton through Russell from Woden and the city that will be running very frequently. I will be releasing the timetable in mid-March with further detail about that. Local services from Palmerston, Crace, Nicholls and Casey will be provided to Belconnen. Improved services will be provided through Giralang, Kaleen and McKellar, with more routes and direct local services to Gungahlin. Better access to Mitchell will be provided through route 18 being extended to Dickson, reducing the need for multiple transfers. We are making further changes that respond to feedback that we have had through the network being implemented last year.
In relation to students, I know that Canberra’s students have adapted well to the new network with 2.2 per cent more journeys being taken by students on the public transport network compared to the same time in 2018. Young people are now choosing to use public transport for journeys outside of their school trips. It is great to see young people using public transport to do other things, to go to recreational activities on the weekend. They are being supported by Transport Canberra customer service officers at our interchanges, if they need it.
We have been listening to schools, school communities and their representatives on what improvements can be made to better connect students with public transport since the new network started. I will be announcing further improvements to public transport for schools, based on feedback, when I release the timetable around mid-March.
In relation to weekend services, we have seen a very significant increase in the use of public transport journeys taken on weekends, with 19.9 per cent more journeys on the weekend in the last quarter of last year compared to 2018. Last week I tabled in the Assembly the second quarterly update of the weekend transport action plan quarterly update that outlined a number of actions that have either been completed or are in the process of being delivered to improve the reliability of weekend services.
Weekend reliability has dramatically increased since I made changes to the weekend timetable last year to improve reliability. We made the decision to clearly prioritise reliability while we took actions that are outlined under the weekend bus action plan to increase the number of bus drivers. We have recruited 87 new bus drivers since our recruitment drive got underway, and we are funding an addition 43 in the funding that was announced in the budget review to help us deliver a frequent and reliable public transport network.
This means that Transport Canberra will be increasing bus services for local bus routes on Saturdays during the day from term 2. I will continue to update the Assembly as we work on actions to improve weekend reliability and frequency, including how we can improve services on Sundays going forward.
The government is making ongoing investments in growing and improving our public transport system, which includes building light rail to Woden and other parts of
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