Re: SOT - Solution to Westbus Problem?

[Santosh Bhat <santosh@student.unsw.edu.au>]

Well its the transfer waiting times that commuters wouldn't like. If you
knew that a train connection would arrive very soon after your bus
arrived it wouldn't be that much of a problem would it?

Can i just ask, did that 30% drop in passengers mean that they then
drove? or perhaps went to the train station by another means?

It's just that most of the literature I've read have indicated that when
a rail network exists such as Sydney's, buses shouldn't compete with the
rail, but to serve as feeders to it.

Consider the example of the Hills - City  trip run by westbus, there is
no rail line for these commuters, hence its success. Another successful
bus line i can think of is the 400 bus that runs from Burwood to bondi
via the airport. Again, there's no suitable rail services along these
lines.

Whats the measure of success for bus lines? patronage? on time running?
frequency of services?
Or are performance measures the same as for railways?

Santosh

Adam Hayhurst wrote:
> 
> I read with interest that you suggest that bus services should only be
> feeder services to railway stations.It is well known that commuters
> dislike changing modes of transport . In 1979 when the ESR opened the
> majority of 324 325 buses from watsons Bay To the Quay terminated at
> Edgecliffe interchange and passengers expected to change for a train to
> the city. In less than a month the patronage on the 324 & 325 dropped by
> 30%. Nothing has changed commuters like to stay on 1 mode of tansport
> for the entire journey.....Hence the 324 & 325 operates direct to the
> Quay and Edgecliffe Interchange has become an empty space not even
> staffed by an Inspector any longer and the only residents being pigeons.
> 
> Adam.

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