Council rejects STA bid to cut parking
Council has rejected a State Transit Authority request to remove 25 parking spots from the route of the 311 bus. The STA says the parking spots will obstruct new, bigger buses planned for the route, and the Transport Ministry says Council’s decision breaches Australian Road Rules and Local Traffic Committee regulations.
The STA has already chopped from the route a loop through Elizabeth Bay because those streets are too narrow for the bigger buses – even though the 12.5 m buses are not yet running on the route. Residents have been actively opposing this, staging multiple protest actions and sparking a successful Greens Bill in the Upper House to restore the Billyard Avenue loop.
The STA also wants Council to remove 25 roadside parking spots near corners along the route to make way for the longer buses, which need a wider turning circle than the present 10.7 m buses. The spots are in Elizabeth Bay, Potts Point, Woolloomooloo, and Darlinghurst.
Some intersections and roundabouts will also require modification to fit the new buses.
“The government has bought buses that won’t fit the streets, now they are trying to make the streets fit the buses,” said a spokesperson for the 311 residents’ group.
“To add insult to injury, the residents would be the ones footing the bill for the changes if they were introduced. Alterations to the landscaped traffic island at the bottom of Elizabeth Bay Road alone is costed at $50,000.”
A representative of Sydney Buses was sent to face angry residents at July’s Community Forum in Kings Cross. Residents and Lord Mayor Clover Moore asked him why the smaller buses couldn’t be simply kept on the 311 route. He explained that the 311 buses worked other routes as well. New timetabling and route integration required the bigger, wheelchair-accessible buses on all routes.
Ms Moore noted that Paris, Hong Kong and Lima ran smaller buses for inner city suburbs with narrow streets while using bigger buses on main routes.
“Why can’t Sydney do the same?” she asked.
“It’s not my decision which buses are purchased,” replied the Sydney Buses spokesman, adding that the new timetables were set and it would take many months to change them.
He said the new timetable had already improved reliability on the Central Station end of the 311 route, which runs nearly to Circular Quay via Elizabeth Bay.
Council letterboxed the community along the route to get feedback on the proposed changes. Out of 102 submissions from residents, 52 said they wanted smaller buses and 81 were concerned about loss of parking.
But the government is unmoved.
“This is another example of City of Sydney Council opposing public transport in favour of parked cars,” said a spokesperson for David Campbell, Minister for Transport. “Earlier this year, State Transit also requested that two bus zones be moved in Greenknowe Ave and Elizabeth Bay Road, which would have given residents in Onslow, Ithaca and Billyard Avenues a shorter walk to their bus stop, but this has been ignored by Council.
“Regarding Route 311, the Government’s position remains the same, State Transit will run buses along Billyard Avenue if Council removes the car parking spaces that currently prevent this,” said the spokesperson.
The Traffic Committee has asked Sydney Buses to investigate smaller wheelchair-accessible buses for inner city routes, and to restore the Billyard Avenue loop in Elizabeth Bay.
by Michael Gormly
