Townsville 50 cent bus fares: Testing the public transport system

What are the Townsville buses like these days? The Townsville Bulletin has sent a reporter out to catch the bus from Bushland Beach to the CBD. See how it went.

We’re road testing the government’s 50-cent fares. Picture: File

The average Townsvillian has a healthy fear of our bus service, and they are right to be wary of it, because waiting on a concrete footpath for one hour getting heatstroke is no joke.

But the recent reduction of all bus trips to 50 cents sparked some interest, and it was decided I would bravely go forth and attempt to commute to work and report on the current condition of our mighty buses.

On the surface it should be easy … there is a bus stop one minute’s walk from my house, and another 40 seconds from work, however linking these two is the issue: I live in Bushland Beach, and I work in the city.

Bushland Beach to the CBD just so happens to be one of the most challenging suburb-to-suburb jumps you can attempt.

Here are my fast tips as a now-initiated bus rider:

• No one in Townsville exits via the back door because they like to walk up and thank the busie as they get off
• You have to step on, tell the busie where you are going, and he will print you out a ticket. You can pay in cash (the busie will give you change) or there is a tap and go eftpos machine
• Do not trust TransLink journeyplanner when it tells you to catch a school bus. They are filled to the ceiling with high-schoolers and the drivers will not stop for you.

Townsville Bulletin reporter Daneka Hill spent a day testing out Townsville's bus network.

This week, I set off on what might be my greatest expedition yet at 6.50am, walking down to the bus stop and catching the Bushland Beach 233 when he arrived exactly on time at 7.01am. So far so good, the bus was clean, had great aircon, a USB charger at every row and only two other people were one it, a girl and a woman. We picked up four people in Bushland Beach, three in Deeragun (one carried his folded up e-scooter on board) and a mum and dad with twin babies in a double-long stroller in Burdell.

Then it came time for the most dangerous part of any trip: the transfer.

The Bushland Beach 233 doesn’t go into the city, which means a switch over to a city bound bus is mandatory. There was a small overlap on Bayswater Rd where it was possible to get off the 233 and jump on the city 204. At least, that is what journeyplanner told me.

Due to traffic, my bus was about five minutes late to drop me off and I missed the 204. Not to worry the next one was coming in … an hour.

I entertained myself by walking down Bayswater Rd to Anaconda and waited for the 204 bus there.

To Kinetic’s credit their 9am 204 bus did arrive on time, only it stopped across the road from me, separated by four lanes of morning traffic, and took off towards Mount Louisa, going in the wrong direction.

It was at this point I realised the bus timetables in Townsville did not believe in putting the inbound and outbound buses in different tables.

Luckily it was a chilly morning and I had choc chip cookies in my bag to eat, and my boss knew I would be coming into work anytime between 8.30am and 11am, depending on my success rate.

But if this had happened when I was hot, thirsty, sunburnt and running late? I can understand the frustration.

Townsville Bulletin reporter Daneka Hill spent a day testing out Townsville's bus network.

My next option was the scrappy 215 bus marked on the Anaconda bus stop’s timetable as arriving at 9.21am. Hopefully the different bus code meant it was going in the right direction - and he was.

The bus screamed to a stop in front of me at 9.23am and was letting everyone on for free because the ticket machine was broken. Someone was sitting in the front row on the phone with their doctor, trying to get live updates from the bus driver about how far he was from a certain North Shore medical practice, pleading with the receptionist that he’d only be five minutes late and to not pull the pin on him.

The 215 took us to Castletown where we picked up some pensioners all hauling their groceries in those two-wheeled trolley things, and we then went through West End, Garbutt and North Ward before I got dropped off in the city and walked into the office at 10am.

Not exactly brilliant when you consider I started my journey at 7am. I vaguely wondered what the whole shemozzle would’ve costed me on a normal adult fare.

In hindsight I shouldn’t have gotten off at Bayswater Rd. In reality the safest way to get from Bushland Beach to the city is to ride the 233 all the way to its termination point at Townsville Shopping Centre (aka Stocklands) and catch one of the many city-bound buses running frequently.

So, for my trip home, I did just that, heading down to Flinders St at 2.30pm to catch anything that got me to Stockies. I ended up on the 200 Kelso bus and it got me to the shops no problem.

Journeyplanner recommended I walk down to Iggy Park and jump on a Bushland Beach-bound school bus there. The planner had been recommending I jump on numerous school buses all day, so I decided to test it out.

The bus was crammed full of kids and did not stop for me — what a shocker — and the failed experiment also meant I had missed the 3.30pm 233 Bushland Beach bus and the next one was in … an hour.

Townsville Bulletin reporter Daneka Hill spent a day testing out Townsville's bus network.

Luckily there is no better place in all of NQ to be stranded than Townsville Shopping Centre so I browsed around in the aircon, got a smoothie, and hopped on the 4.30pm 233 as the sole passenger.

The route from there was perfection … almost a direct beeline to Domain (an old guy with some plants was waiting to get on) then North Shore Woolies (a young lady embarked) but things deteriorated when the bus turned for Deeragun and proceeded to take a 40-minute detour. Ah well, at least I did actually get home. At 5.30pm.

So, tips for Kinetic?

First of all, remove one of the Garbutt Shopping Centre stops, there doesn’t need to be two of them.

Secondly, I want to say the service is actually good. Buses never will be faster at getting from A to B than cars, but I really enjoyed the experience.

The buses were on time, the people were nice, and I got to sit on my phone and answer messages, take calls and respond to emails in a way that would’ve caused a car crash normally.

Would I take the bus again? Maybe, if my car breaks down.

I feel quite confident about their service now that I’ve used it.

The main issue is the time sink. Although, I did enjoy the way people would laugh when the bus driver threw his hands up after he got cut off.

Originally published as Townsville 50 cent bus fares: Testing the public transport system