Questions raised over CityHopper, Cross River ferry suspension
Nine ferries that were dramatically pulled from service last month over safety concerns are still seaworthy, according to the maritime union, which has accused Brisbane City Council of a “silence” around their disappearance. The move has caused significant increases to journey times for some commuters.
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Questions have been raised by the maritime union as to why nine ferries were suddenly pulled from service last month.
The wooden ferries, which date as far back as the 1980s, serviced the CityHopper and Cross River routes until July 24, when Brisbane City Council announced they would be suspended out of an “abundance of caution”.
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Extra bus services were organised to compensate, but council acknowledged that journey times for some commuters had increased significantly.
Maritime Union of Australia Queensland secretary Steve Cumberlidge told ABC Radio on Tuesday there was “nothing that would warrant pulling the service offline”.
“From what we’ve been told, (the boats) are all ready to go and should not have been pulled in the first place,” Mr Cumberlidge said.
He accused Brisbane City Council of putting a “silence on everything”, saying two preliminary reports into the nine vessels’ condition were yet to be released.
Responding to the union’s comments, Active and Public Transport Committee chair councillor Ryan Murphy said council wasn’t “the CIA” and would release the reports once they were finalised.
“I appreciate this is impacting residents all around the city,” Cr Murphy said.
“There’s no question that we want to have every one of these ferries back in the water.”
He said significant degradation in the ferries internally included water in the bilge and corrosion of fasteners, which made it necessary to pull the boats from the water.
CityCats will now stop at the Kangaroo Point to combat disruptions. It is expected that CityCat ferries will pick-up and offload commuters from Holman Street terminal from Friday.
The heritage-listed ferry terminal was previously used only by the free CityHopper services, which were halted in late July.
“Due to the additions of a 19th stop the existing City Cat timetable, passengers can expect delays,” Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said.
The inclusion of the Holman Street in the CityCat journey forms the latest part of a transport restructure that aims to minimise the impacts of the CityHopper cessation.
However, Morningside Councillor Kara Cook said other suburbs were still being neglected.
“Currently those residents in Norman Park have no services at all, there are no additional bus services and no ferries,” she said.
Cr Cook said the bus services which have replaced CityHoppers have caused travel time to balloon.
“(Commuters) are facing journeys of over an hour which used to take them a couple of minutes,” she said.
“We haven’t seen anymore services for example in Bulimba which is one of the busiest terminals.”
The union’s comments on the ferries come as council also confirmed yesterday that decorative and commemorative wraps on Brisbane’s popular CityCats would also be discontinued due to cost-saving.
Cr Murphy said the move would reduce plastic waste and save ratepayers $836,000.
“There has also been community sentiment for them to be removed to maximise the views from the CityCats, which were partially obscured by the wraps,” Cr Murphy said.
The decision has since been slammed by both the Labor Opposition leader Jared Cassidy and some posters on social media.
One post described it as “such a shame,” while another described wrapping the ferries as making the city “more joyful.”
“Stripping the CityCats of their artwork, sporting team and event wraps will ruin one of Brisbane’s biggest icons” Cr Cassidy said.
“These wraps don’t just give visitors a taste of the river city’s culture, they also support local artists and sporting teams and give residents a sense of pride.”
However, the decision to remove the wraps has been praised by some.
“There are significant problems with ad-wrap on buses, trains, ferries and trams blocking windows and clear vision,” Rail Back on Track administrator Robert Dow said in a statement.
“Public transport vehicles are built with windows for a reason, so passengers and others can see into and out of them,” Mr Dow said.
He calls for wraps needed to be removed from all public transport vessels.