On 15 October 2010, Acting Chief Minister Katy Gallagher released the Canberra City Area Action Plan 2010-2016, which contained a number of exciting plans to improve public transport in the city centre.
In order to improve the percentage of Canberrans taking ACTION, bus passengers will benefit from the extension of the Barry Drive bus lane from Clunies Ross Street to the City Interchange. Funding has been allocated to replace the existing City West Terminus with the City West Bus Station to be located on Hutton Street in the Australian National University, whilst a new layover area to the north of Barry Drive, between McCaughey and Watson Streets, will be investigated.
Gungahlin residents could look forward to further bus priority measures along Northbourne Avenue to speed up their travel times into the City, as well as having routes extended to travel past the existing interchange around London Circuit to the City West Station.
Further potential strategies to improve the percentage of Canberrans jumping on a bus include bus priority measures on Barry Drive, Northbourne Avenue, Constitution Avenue and Canberra Avenue
The plan states that by 2016, fifty percent of inbound bus services will travel on dedicated bus lanes, whilst eighty percent of all routes through the city will service City West. In addition to the City West Station located at the ANU, another could be created adjacent to the Rydges Lakeside.
Road improvements also feature in the plan. Knowles Place would extend to Northbourne Avenue and Edinburgh Avenue to Vernon Circle. Constitution Avenue would be duplicated, Horse Park Dr extended, Parkes Way widened and upgrades would be made to the Monaro Highway and Cotter Road. With the extension of Edinburgh Avenue, the offramp from Commonwealth Avenue to London Circuit (City East) would be removed, with northbound buses instead accessing London Circuit via the extension to Edinburgh Avenue.
You can view the plan here and discuss it at our forums here
This page was last updated on 26 April 2021
