Real number of bus stops set for closure revealed after Transport Minister admits another 400 will only be used for school buses
At first he claimed about 500 bus stops would go but Transport Minister Stephan Knoll now admits the real number is nearly double, because 400 are being converted to school bus stops only.
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More than 900 general-use bus stops will be scrapped under the State Government’s planned overhaul of the bus network, Transport Minister Stephan Knoll says.
Mr Knoll had previously stated more than 500 bus stops would go while the Opposition claimed more than 1000 were on the cut list.
Mr Knoll was asked about the discrepancy between the figures on ABC Radio this morning.
“Just over 500 (are) going and then just over 400 (are) being converted into school stops,” he said.
“To explain what the Government’s position is and the information that we’ve put out there when we announced these bus changes, we said there were around 500 bus stops that would go, but in their place that we would have 1100 new Go-Zone stops…. and there are a number of stops which are going to be retained but be used for school routes so specific routes where kids get picked up from home and dropped to their school.”
Go-Zones are bus stops where a service will run every 15 minutes or less.
“That information has been out there since day one,” Mr Knoll said. “I don’t understand where the Opposition has got their figures from.”
Opposition transport spokesman Tom Koutsantonis also weighed in. “If you can’t be honest with the people of South Australia and come out and tell us exactly what’s going, what it is being replaced with, how can you possibly consult with your customers?” he said.
Premier Steven Marshall also spoke on ABC Radio this morning and defended the reform.
He said bus patronage had been “unacceptably low” for a long time and the changes aimed to create a better service.
“I think the people of South Australia want to see an improvement to public transport,” Mr Marshall said.
“Buses are holding up motorists all the time because they’re stopping every 300, 400, 500m.
“We’ve had some incredible feedback, people saying the bus trip in is so slow I could walk faster than the bus in ... this is what is discouraging people from using public transport.”
Mr Marshall said the Government would continue to seek public feedback and “we’re not inflicting this on them without listening”.
On Tuesday, analysis by Labor suggested that at least 1067 bus stops were being cut – more that twice as the State Government’s quoted number of 500.
The Government had repeatedly said 500 bus stops would go as part of broad reforms aimed at getting 700,000 commuters close to faster, more frequent GoZone bus routes.
It has have refused to release a list of bus stops to be cut arguing a new Adelaide Metro website page, set up as part of the consultation process, allows people to easily see potential changes to their routes.
Mr Knoll would not be drawn on Labor’s analysis but did hint that the discrepancy in numbers were because some bus stops would be converted to school bus stops.
Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas released a map of the bus stops he said were set to be culled to coincide with a campaign to fight the public transport overhaul.
The map shows the hardest-hit areas include:
THE north east, including Golden Grove and Modbury.
WESTERN coastal suburbs including West Lakes, Grange and Henley Beach.
INNER southern suburbs, including Edwardstown and Cumberland Park.
SOUTHERN suburbs, including Hallett Cove and Sheidow Park.
NORTHERN suburbs, including Elizabeth and Gawler.
THE Lefevre Peninsula.
LABOR’S MAP OF PLANNED BUS STOP CUTS
Highlighting his desire to ensure the issue is a key election issue, Mr Malinauskas said his team’s analysis showed cuts to Adelaide’s bus network are even deeper than originally announced.
“Analysis of Steven Marshall’s own maps reveals more than 1000 bus stops will be cut,” Mr Malinauskas said.
“We now know why Steven Marshall didn’t want to reveal this information – these cuts are widespread, hitting suburbs north, south, east and west.”
The Sunday Mail revealed two weeks ago that almost half of the 500 Adelaide bus stops to be scrapped are used by just one person each day.
Mr Knoll said he had not “had a chance to look at whatever Labor is choosing to do”.
“And I am not going to take my cues from the people that presided over a decline in our bus network,” he said.
“The former government refused to do the hard work on how customers want to use their public transport network. That is what we have done.”
Mr Knoll said the proposal out for public consultation until the end of next month addressed concerns raised with his government.
“We are out there for feedback at the moment because we know that there is lots of individual’s circumstances that we need to take into account when it comes to these changes.”
