2019-10-08 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                 8 OCTOBER 2019


   Most densely populated areas are well serviced; however, some urban areas are outside of
     the 400m walk up catchment of a bus stop (refer Attachment 1 – Public Transport Service
     Coverage Map).
   Route 631 from Noosa to Nambour via Cooroy and Eumundi is a well patronised rail
     connector service and has 30% more passengers on weekends despite the reduced
     weekend frequency.
   Noosa Junction is the most well served centre, however, the level of service to Noosa Civic
     is not reflective of its role as the Shire Business Centre.
   Routes 620 (Noosa Heads to Maroochydore via Peregian Beach), 622 (Maroochydore to
     Noosa Junction via Sunshine Coast Airport and Coolum) and 631 have solid patronage per
     service.
   No services to Kin Kin and limited services to Cooran and Pomona.

While not part of the network review of services, consideration of the existing Free Holiday Bus
services was made and it was identified that this could be scaled up or down depending on
Council’s behaviour change objectives as follows:
    Scaled down to focus on congested areas – the new ticketing system will have the
      functionality to make passengers ‘touching off’ at particular destinations (e.g. a congested
      location like Noosa Heads) free at certain times (i.e. Christmas and Easter). However, the
      decision whether to implement this would be made by the Department of Transport and
      Main Roads in consultation with the Minister for Transport. As per the current Free Holiday
      Bus arrangement, it is likely if this were to be supported, that Noosa Council would need to
      contribute to the lost revenue associated with such an initiative.
    Scaled up to extend the Free Holiday Bus to every weekend, noting as per above regarding
      the decision makers and likely conditions. This option has been included in the discussions
      to date with TransLink (refer section 4 below).
    Scaled up to extend the Free Holiday Bus to include the June/July and September school
      holiday periods, noting as per above regarding the decision makers and likely conditions.

4.   TransLink consultation
In combining the specific insights of the network review and the desired objectives of the
Transport Strategy, Council has held direct dialogue with the Department of Transport and Main
Roads and established the following range of short, medium and long-term concept initiatives.
Short Term Initiatives
Potential initiatives                    TransLink feedback
Increase service frequency of trunk     Requires Ministerial approval and TransLink and
corridor bus routes 626 and 627 to      Council would need to agree:
15-minute frequency on Friday and        the timeframes for the investment;
Saturday nights between 7pm –            the commitment period for funding from Council;
10pm for a 12-month trial in the         KPIs to assess the success of the trial; and
2020 calendar year (commencing           the communications strategy.
from Easter 2020)                       This would need to be agreed via the Minister’s office.
Increase service frequency of bus       As per above assuming routes 629 and 632.
routes 620*, 622*, 629, 630*, 631*
and 632 to operate a weekday            Including routes 620, 622, 630, and 631 increases
timetable on Sundays for a 12-          complexity (requires additional funding to support the
month trial in the 2020 calendar        initiative) and this is unlikely to align with TransLink
year (*optional bus routes subject to   short term priorities.
funding agreement noting that these
bus routes run into the adjoining
Sunshine Coast Regional Council
area)


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