No merit in city bus plan

IT’S no surprise that an idea to try to keep cars off our streets and encourage people to use public transport has fallen flat on its face.

A Cairns Regional Council report has found a city loop bus service would not be patronised and would cost a lot to operate.

Consultants considered four options, including point to point services from new park and ride locations in Spence St and Lake St for different lengths, a long service from Cannon Park at Woree to the airport and a loop service within the CBD.

They found that only 4.1 per cent of people in the Cairns region travel to work using buses or taxis. The majority of people use cars or other vehicles (48.2 per cent) or walk or cycle to work (18.4 per cent).

The costs ranged from a low of $400,000 a year for the loop service to $6.5 million for the longest route.

The report says potential passenger numbers ranged from none to 1097 a day.

The council says there is no need for a city loop service with works done or to be done including more car parks, upgrades of Shields, Lake and Florence streets, better footpaths, traffic light crossing systems and street lights.

Quite simply people prefer to use their private vehicles to get to and from the CBD.

They shun the highly subsidised bus service and the price of taxis and Uber make it costly to travel to and from the CBD daily.

While cycling has many benefits it’s not much fun in the wet season, nor is walking that can take too long.

This is not a case of build it and they will come. Nick Dalton Deputy editor