The state government is trumpeting Ballarat’s reformed bus service after figures showed a more than 15 per cent rise in patronage across the network compared to data from the previous year.
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Public Transport Victoria launched a controversial overhaul of the Ballarat bus network in January this year, which simplified the network to 15 routes which all go past the Ballarat Train Station on Lydiard Street North. The change also resulted in a substantial increase to buses on the roads.
An average of 5768 passengers used the network on each weekday throughout August, about 800 more than the same month in 2016.
In a statement Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said “these numbers show local passengers are getting on board with Ballarat’s bigger, better bus network”.
The results come as the state government prepares to begin construction of the $5 million bus interchange within the Ballarat Station Precinct in 2018, to be completed later in the year.
Transport for Victoria is expected to conduct a thorough review of the city’s bus system in the lead-up to the new interchange coming online.
Public Transport Users Assocation Ballarat convener Ben Lever said the service was still getting “extremely negative feedback” despite the increased patronage.
“The new network is much straighter and more direct out in the suburbs, but all routes take a ridiculously indirect path through the CBD, zigzagging back on themselves so they all approach the station in a particular way,” Mr Lever said. “Not only is the path through the CBD counter-intuitive and difficult for casual users to understand, it's so slow and indirect it undoes all the gains made by the other changes.
“A trip from FedUni to Sovereign Hill that used to take 11 minutes has been padded out to 18 minutes - a 63 per cent increase - and the bus often has to idle for several minutes waiting for the timetable to catch up to reality. “