Monday, April 18, 2011

Full CityCat and CityFerry services restored

On Monday 18th April 2011, slightly more than 3 months after Brisbane's devastating floods, Brisbane City Council (BCC) have impressively managed to (almost) completely restore all CityCat and CityFerry terminals back into service. The exceptions to the rule are West End terminal, which was apparently due for an upgrade to a 2 berth terminal anyway, and River Plaza (near the Captain Cook Bridge).

Apparently some of the new pontoons are only temporary. Thus BrizCommuter would expect that as new "more flood proof" pontoons are installed over the next 18 months, that there may be temporary closures of some CityCat terminals. Lets hope that TransLink provide commuters with sufficient notice of these changes.

The new timetable is here:
http://translink.com.au/resources/travel-information/services-and-timetables/timetables/110418_citycat.pdf

As with the pre-flood CityCat timetable, it is pretty impressive, and better than most rail timetables! Downstream peak direction services are every 6-7 minutes. Pre and post peak off-peak services are every 25 minutes. Weekday daytime off-peak services are generally every 12-13 minutes, but there are still quite a few annoying 25 minute gaps during the weekday daytime that can catch out commuters, students, and tourists. This means that it's still not quite a turn up and go service.

The poor am peak service from the CBD to UQ has been slightly improved with the addition of two express services. When frequency is low, BrizCommuter would expect that an all stops service would be better. Maybe these expresses are just a positioning move for the daytime off-peak service anyway? Given the frequent bus services from the CBD and South Bank to UQ, these express CityCat services to UQ are more likely to be useful to students living downstream of the CBD.

Congratulations to BCC for restoring the CityCat and CityFerry services so quickly!

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