Funding in this year’s ACT Budget to the tune of $8.2m over four years for a bus lane on Canberra Avenue from the Hume Place roundabout to Fyshwick is the first step in easing congestion and improving travel times for commuters between Canberra and Queanbeyan.
As the fastest growing inland regional city in New South Wales, around 15,000 people commute from Queanbeyan into Canberra on a daily basis.
According to Queanbeyan-based Deane’s Buslines, the increase in traffic in recent years has resulted in an eighty percent increase in travel time for its Queanbeyan to Canberra routes, with the route taking nearly an hour in peak hour.
Deane’s has sought a variety of bus priority measures between Queanbeyan and Civic since 2008.
ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said that upon completion of the first leg of the Canberra Avenue bus lane, currently expected in 2014, she would examine the cost benefit of extending the bus lane through to the Queanbeyan border.
Despite the fact that any road infrastructure upgrades would be as a result of increased traffic generated from further residential developments across the border including Googong, Queanbeyan Mayor Tim Overall has said that his council would not contribute to the cost.
This page was last updated on 8 August 2011
