Transport Canberra is set to roll out a new bus timetable from the start of Term, 2, which promises to better connect ACT’s suburbs to the city.
The new timetable, which comes into effect from Monday April 28 , will mean more rapid, local and school services, particularly to Molonglo Valley and Belconnen.
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Rapid services between Denman and the city will start earlier with the new timetable, at 6:05 am, and will run every 15-minutes through the day.
Local services connecting Denman, Whitlam and Belconnen will also start earlier and run nearly three hours later, providing hourly frequency from 6 am – 10 pm with 30-minute frequency during the pm peak.
Additional services for popular routes between Belconnen and the city, and Woden and the city will see buses running more frequently during high demand periods.
“This new timetable delivers key parts of Labor’s plan for more frequent local and rapid services that we took to the election,” transport minister Chris Steel says.
“We’ve heard from the community that some buses are full on certain routes, and we’ve responded by increasing frequency on these routes to meet demand.”
There will also be a range of improvements to help students get to various schools thanks to additional services and refined routes “so they provide better coverage to surrounding suburbs”. Other services are being adjusted in step with schools to better align with bell times.
The service uplift aligns with the opening of Australia’s largest all-electric bus depot in Woden. The new depot off Paramatta Street in Phillip, which opens soon, includes undercover shelter for 100 buses, with the roof designed to hold a future photovoltaic solar array.
The depot aims to improve the efficiency and reliability of the Transport Canberra bus service as buses can be garaged closer to the areas they service, creating less out of service running and a more responsive and flexible operation.
The government has upgraded the grid capacity in the area by laying new cables from the Wanniassa substation (11.9 km away) to allow up to 96 electric buses to be charged at the depot simultaneously. Each bus will take about three to five hours to reach a full charge.
Steel says the facility is responsible for the new timetable, which has “increased the efficiency of the whole public transport network”.
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