Babinda bus: Cairns pushes for public transport service to suburb
Elderly residents of an outlying Cairns suburb are being forced to carpool or fork out big money to get to private medical appointments due to a lack of affordable public transport.
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ELDERLY residents of an outlying Cairns suburb are being forced to carpool or fork out big money to get to private medical appointments due to a lack of affordable public transport.
Pressure is mounting ahead of the upcoming state election for Babinda to finally secure a regular twice-daily bus service to the CBD.
Semi-retired resident Lance Armstrong-Waters has lived in Babinda for the past two years but regularly comes to town for medical appointments, education and social meetings.
“I’ve been in a situation before where I didn’t have a car,” he explained.
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“To get into Cairns in an Uber or taxi was about $150 each way, and the existing private bus service was about $80 to get in and back.
“The Greyhound bus left at about 12pm, got to Cairns, dropped you off and then turned straight back around to Brisbane — so you’d have to stay overnight to get home.”
Mr Armstrong-Waters said a public bus service twice a day would suffice.
“If you look at the demographics in Babinda, there are a lot of elderly people who can no longer drive due to medical conditions or just because they simply don’t have cars,” he said.
“They’re basically cut off from Cairns as far as socialisation goes.
“You hear horror stories about people trying to get to important private medical appointments and paying $150 to get there. That’s ridiculous.”
Division 1 Cairns regional councillor Brett Moller said no action had been taken since the council last wrote to Transport Minister Mark Bailey about the matter in 2018.
Babinda residents travelling for medical appointments could access Queensland Health’s Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme, but not for private health.
A spokeswoman for Transport Minister Mark Bailey said the department received many requests for new bus services across Queensland.
“There needs to be a sufficient level of passenger demand to justify an investment in new services, as well as confidence that those services can be delivered efficiently,” she said.
“Unfortunately, the long travel distance from Cairns and Innisfail and the low population in Babinda don’t meet the requirements to extend public transport services to link up with the Cairns network.”
Originally published as Babinda bus: Cairns pushes for public transport service to suburb
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