Adventures in learning how to treat our Earth more gently and our bodies well, while still enjoying a life filled with good things.
The problem with a poor public transport system
By Coralie, on March 2nd, 2009 at 06.52 PM
Category: 
This past week I worked in the city for four days. On two of those days, I caught public transport since I didn’t have to cart around a car full of equipment.
I do try to catch public transport when it’s practical, but the problem with a place like Brisbane is that the public transport system is rarely practical. This presents a problem. A public transport system will only be developed to a decent level when people are using it. If it’s not a good system, then not enough people are going to use it to make it worth their while to improve it. Maybe this is short sightedness on the part of the government, or maybe it’s our fault for not persisting in using the public transport, despite the impracticalities.
The further away you are from a city, the less practical it is
To be fair, public transport is fairly reasonable for those living close to the city. You can pretty much leave home at any time and be guaranteed a train or a bus within 15 to 20 minutes. A long time ago, I used to live in Taringa, about a ten minute drive to Brisbane city. In fact, I lived close enough to the train station that I could listen for the two minute warning for the next train before walking out my front door. These days, I live further from the city - a 35 to 40 minute drive. If this was Sydney or Melbourne that would be inner city living and trains and buses would run more regularly, but Brisbane has a much smaller population, which is part of the reason why our public transport simply doesn’t cut it in comparison.
I suppose it’s not really fair of me to compare our public transport to what’s available in larger cities. I can only assume that the government’s budget for public transport is proportionate to the size of the city, thus why larger cities with more people have greater funding available for better, and more frequent, public transport.
Public transport is great for avoiding peak hour
If I was working in the city every day, it would be worth catching a train or a bus. Driving in peak hour traffic is something I try very hard to avoid. Even with the huge lead time needed to catch public transport, you’ll still arrive at your destination much quicker and with much less stress than if you’re sitting in traffic. Needless to say, it’s also cheaper and much better for the environment than pumping all those petrol fumes into the atmosphere. Perhaps I should be factoring in that extra time to take public transport for any place I need to go and at any time, not just for peak hour.
But is it unreasonable of me to think that having to allow three hours to get to the other side of town by public transport—when it would take about 45 minutes by car—is too much? If I had a morning event to attend, I’d have to allow a whole day of travelling just for one small gathering. Surely I’m not alone in thinking it’s more hassle than it’s worth, despite the benefits. Maybe I should just be making a mental adjustment and doing it, despite the hassle of having a five year old child with me who would either fall asleep or get bored and be a complete handful. Going straight to the city isn’t such a big deal, but travelling anywhere else requires several changes of buses or trains, backtracking quite a bit, and long waits between services.
It’s the waiting that’s most frustrating
For me, it’s not the travelling on the train or the bus that bothers me, it’s the waiting around in between. It would be impossible to link up every train and bus service to the next available service, but knowing that doesn’t make it any less frustrating that such a relatively large percentage of my time is spent waiting for public transport, rather than actually being on it.
I’m not really sure what can be done about this. There’s no doubt that taking public transport is a great way to be environmentally friendly. I suppose it’s a matter of the public supporting public transport by actually using it. But it’s a catch 22 when people won’t use the service because it’s such a hassle.
Alternative means of transport
As traffic gets heavier and heavier on the roads, I have no doubt that more people will turn to public transport. It’s inevitable that the services will be improved to cater for the extra patronage. Or maybe oil will run out before then and there’ll be cheaper and more environmentally sustainable options available for our travel.
Please do leave a comment with your thoughts or experiences.
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I’ve been relying on the public transport system since moving to Brisbane recently, lucky for me I’ve been close to the city, and it’s served me well, but yes, a lot of time is wasted in the to and from the station and waiting for trains etc.
Nice article
Canberra is great to get around in if you have a car. It was designed for it with big fat roads between town centres, but we only have the bus service which is fine if you just want to get to a town centre, or between them, but if you want to go from a little place to another little place, it can be as many as 3 buses and a couple of hours.
Hey! I’ve worked in marketing and communications for my local public transit agency for 10+ years (I’m in Dunedin, Florida, USA). I can tell you that it’s a catch-22. You have to have a good system for people to ride, but you have to have enough people riding to justify the service. Public transit is not a money making venture. Here in the U.S., an agency is doing good if the fares collected from riders cover 20% of the operational costs — the rest has to be subsidized by the government. The way to really get good public transit is to have strong government leaders that see its value and are willing to invest in the infrastructure AND commit to operational funding. I think this is true no matter what country you’re in!
Thanks for your comments, everyone.
Cyndi, it’s very interesting to hear about it from someone ‘on the inside’ so to speak. Thanks.
I used to live only 12km “as the crow flies” from the city. If i drove, it took 45 minutes, if not longer, during peak hour. Taking the train took around 25 minutes.
I now live 50km “as the crow flies” from the city. If I drive, it takes 45 - 50 minutes. Taking the train (7.11am) gets me to South Brisbane at around 7.55am.
I know those numbers don’t look right, but thats how it is!
What is the most frustrating is i take the train from home to Roma Street, then at Roma have to change to go BACK a station because the train line doesn’t go through where i need to be…
And not only that, but the only way to get to the carpark of my local train station is to drive around it. There is another road that leads to the other side of the tracks, which would save me 5-8 minutes driving time (which is a LOT when you are running late for a train)…but you aren’t allowed to park there!!
Sheri: You’d be taking an express train at that time of the morning, right? The non-express trains aren’t so speedy, unfortunately.
These days, yes. Previously, yes also…
What i was trying to refer to was the fact that regardless of where i lived (12km or 50km away) it still takes about the same time to get to the same destination!!
It’s an odd system that works out that way, isn’t it?
I use public transport a lot: primarily to go to work, but also to go the starting point of a hike, a larger town for shopping in the weekend or even to return home after a long bike trip.
Going to work and back generally isn’t a problem: although it’s a 80(!) minute ride, there’s only one or two changes, it runs four times an hour and it runs quite smoothly. But this is because I live and work in the economic heart of the Netherlands, a country that has the busiest passenger railway network in Europe.
Outside of that heart, or outside of peak hours/daytime hours/weekdays, it’s a different story. Trains and buses in more rural areas only run twice an hour, and once on Sundays. The result is that often taking the car is much faster and pleasant than going by public transport, especially if that prevents you from waiting for almost an hour for the bus at the end of a hiking day.