RFT: underground City Bus Station feasibility

Started by Bus 400, November 19, 2018, 07:33:49 PM

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Bus 400

An interesting tender for a change, the latest tender is for a feasibility study for an underground City Bus Station (https://tenders.act.gov.au/ets/tender/display/tender-details.do?id=91973&action=display-tender-details&returnUrl=%2Ftender%2Fsearch%2Ftender-search.do%3F%24%7Brequest.queryString%7D)

The plan is to see if an underground bus station under current London Circuit carparks & Northbourne Avenue is feasible & improves the City. With both carparks replaced with open public space. Bus entrance would be from Marcus Clarke Street. With dynamic bus stands, these change depending on what buses are where.

If it goes ahead, the new bus station would open in 2025, so plenty of time to head over to Perth & check out theirs.

I'd still like the bus station either moved closer to the tram stops, work could even be linked for Northbourne median to be cut open before light rail to Woden starts. Or a pedestrian walkway under Northbourne to link the tram,

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Sylvan Loves Buses

It's cost the government nearly a billion dollars to build the lightrail, who's the genius coming up with these ideas? I think we've got enough on our plate to last us another 100 years, considering it took that long for stage 1 of the LR.

Busfanatic101

#2
And in the Canberra Times today. Probably needs its own topic now under infrastructure.

One question I have is how they go about maintaining air pollutant levels in underground bus stations.


Quote from: The Canberra Times
The govt is thinking about moving the city bus interchange underground

By Sally Pryor
21 November 2018 — 12:00am
Talking points

  • Moving the bus interchange underground would fee (sic) up public space in the city centre
  • The underground bus interchange could be an airport-style waiting area.
  • The government has put out a tender for a feasibility study of the costs and benefits.
  • A similar project, Perth's $217-million Busport, encouraged more people to use public transport

The ACT government is considering putting the city bus interchange underground, turning it into an airport-style waiting lounge, while the land above it could be transformed into a vibrant public space.

The City Renewal Authority is exploring the potential benefits of replacing the current, sprawling street-level bus interchange with an integrated underground one, and has issued a tender for a feasibility study to determine whether this could be a practical option for the city centre.

Authority chief executive Malcolm Snow said the study would examine the potential costs and practicalities around a new underground facility, protected from the elements and connected to the light rail.

"One of the benefits that could potentially arise from relocating [the interchange] from street level to an underground location, easily connected to light rail and within a five-minute walking catchment of the city, would be that we can repair and indeed improve those streets which probably have currently been impacted by bus operations," he said.

"It's not necessarily an adverse commentary around the way the existing bus station works, but we certainly are very aware, and we have had feedback from traders, that the street level bus station certainly does have some impacts on their ability to trade."

The authority controls two future land release sites in the city that will be considered in the study – on the City Hill corners of London Circuit and Northbourne Avenue.

A potential underground interchange would be located under one or both of these sites, which, Mr Snow said, would contribute to future growth of Canberra's public transport network while offering "better street-level urban design outcomes for Civic".

"While the proposed release of those two blocks is still some years off, doing this planning work now allows the government to make an informed decision on a project that could significantly shape the revitalisation of our city centre," Mr Snow said.

He said while the government believed the new light rail system would encourage more people out of cars and onto public transport, the long-term future of the bus system needed to be considered.

"We also need to make sure that the bus experience for customers and patrons of the bus system contributes to that effort to be able to access the city easily, but also to do it in a contemporary way, a very attractive way," he said.

"As a planner I think one of the most important things that you need to do to encourage higher levels of public transport is to provide a modern system and modern facilities, and buses are no different. I think connecting the city precinct better, particularly through public transport and also through other transport planning strategy, is really important to the success of our program."

The feasibility study, which would be undertaken next year, would help define the scope of a potential underground bus interchange, taking into account costs, transport network benefits and improved urban renewal outcomes.

"If the current surface-level bus station was to be relocated, what we think may happen, and the study will I guess investigate and explore this possibility, is that we can encourage conditions where perhaps property owners might be encouraged to reinvest in their building and property assets, and [create] a greater diversity of street life," Mr Snow said.

"Many of those [bus interchange] blocks are just simply for people to stop and catch a bus, but the Sydney and Melbourne buildings are an important focus of our work, and the simple act, potentially, of restoring East Row, which is heavily impacted by bus operations, for example, would be pretty attractive to us as part of the renewal effort."We could widen footpaths, we could plant trees, we could encourage outdoor cafes, we could do a whole series of things where we could convert literally asphalt into public space."

He said the authority had been looking for some time at how cities approached public transport in the context of urban renewal, and that Perth recently opened a new underground bus interchange as part of its city centre renewal efforts.

The Perth Busport, which opened in 2016, cost $217 million and had been "anecdotally very successful" in increasing public bus use.

"We need to make the public transport experience an attractive one, and putting it underground, particularly with our big seasonal changes."

"It operates on a real-time basis, you sit in what effectively look like Qantas Club lounges, air-conditioned lounges, well-lit spaces, spaces where you can do other things and wait for your bus to turn up," he said.

Inside the $217  million Perth Busport.
Inside the $217 million Perth Busport.CREDIT:JAMES MOONEY

Brisbane's King George Square also now featured an underground bus station, featuring a concourse, although the central bus system had a combination of street-level and underground terminals.

"Both those cities have done things which are directly comparable to what we will be looking at in this project," Mr Snow said.

"The board of the authority has really been challenging us to think about a range of projects that would really help to drive and in some cases accelerate the renewal effort.

"Certainly the way in which public transport connects to the city renewal precinct is very important to the precinct's future, but also that ability for us through the facilities that we provide as part of that public transport."

The tender for the feasibility study closes on December 13, 2018.

Source: The Canberra Times

Barry Drive

Quote from: Sylvan Loves Buses on November 19, 2018, 10:56:05 PM
It's cost the government nearly a billion dollars to build the lightrail, who's the genius coming up with these ideas?
For the record, "The Lightrail" has not and will not cost the government nearly a billion dollars. The capital cost is apx $650m to be repaid over the next 20 years. The first payment does not take place until the trams are running, so to date it has cost the Government nothing.

Who's the genius coming up with these ideas? As shown above, it is the City Renewal Agency's idea.

IMO, having a study for a single proposal is a bad idea. Would be better to consider other locations and designs for bus operations in the City. One such possibility would be to locate the City layover and station at the eventual sport stadium. Bus routes could then be distributed throughout the City similar to Sydney and Adelaide.