John So and his spend drift team are planing on pumping yet again more money into the dubious Melbourne Tourist Bus promotion scheme whilst ignoring inner city transport needs.
Flush with cash for the long term "we hate cars" parking tax the City of Melbourne has resolved to spend millions more on expanding the free tourist bus.
The Tourist bus does not serve Melbourne's residents and business community and certainly is not benefiting or reducing traffic congestion. The City of Melbourne has already put a private tour company out of business by providing a free bus tourist service. The free bus also undermines Melbourne free tourist tram. Why not sure who is benefiting from this Tour Bus deal but pouring more and more money into the ill considered venture is not the way forward.
The money could have been spent in setting up a private drive-owner mini bus taxi service that links Melbourne inner-city suburbs of East Melbourne, Carlton, Parkville and North Melbourne.
Mini buses are the way to go. The bus would ply a fixed rout and would be able to be flagged down and stop on rout in the same way as you would flag down a taxi. Each bus would be operated by the driver-owner and council would in the first instant subsidise the setting up of a trail service. The idea of mini=buses has not taken off in Melbourne for some reason as the main public transport operators prefer to run large buses. Problem is with large buses is that they require large bus stops and the frequency of service is far and far between. Mini Busses could run every 15 minutes of so depending on the route or demand. They would not require large bus stops and can travel routes that large buses could not travel.
John So should stop wasting limited Council resources and pumping more money into a failed service. John So continues to demonstrate that he does not have the answers or right policies to see Melbourne develop into the future. Meanwhile the Greens continue to sit back and remain silent grateful that the City of Melbourne is prepared to pick up the tab for Eco-non-friendly world tours.
1 comment:
Have to disagree with you on this one having seen a very efficient free city service that operates in Perth, or at least it did 5 years ago when I was there for work, is I beleive good for this town.
What was good about this system, and they had two interconnecting loops (blue and red), was the service was every 5 to 10 minutes depending on time of day, was free and quick, and ran into the evening which the city loop trams do not. I think it was electric or Gas operated, though technology is unimportant.
If the state government as part of the public transport franchises wont pick up the idea, then for the capital city government to do so as in the John So Bus is good for Melbourne. The City circle introduced by Jeff Kennett was a good start, though not extensive enough or offered for long enough. We do need more to act as a road decongestant.
Let's not view this as a tourist trap. It should be seen as something for ALL melburnians.
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