footy buses in hobart today

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tasstockau
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Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2012 7:15 pm

footy buses in hobart today

Post by tasstockau »

Hi

as I live within walking distance of blundstone arena I decided to check out the special bus operations to the football today. Metro was running its articulated fleet rather than O'driscolls running the service as had been the case with the cricket services.

Timetables on the net indicated 29 special arrivals between 1040am and 1310 with 21 of those between 1125 and 1245.

I got there at 1130 and managed to record 20 arrivals over the next 75 minutes. all artics with 14 individual vehicles noted.

Initial arrivals I saw had very good loads and I assesed the first 11 arrivals as having an average of 100% seated loads (some standing loads offset by some spare seats). loads dropped away after that to what i assessed as an average of 60% loads.

If it could be assumed that the 9 services I missed had say 50% loading then it could have been assumed that there was 20 bus loads of seated passengers. Allowing for 20% standees as a full load then 16 - 17 well loaded buses which I would suggest is a reasobanle and growing % of the official attendance of 11100 used the free buses to get there.

A pretty good result to get people there, although locations selected by drivers to drop people appeared completely haphazard in terms of final approach to the ground and where in church street they actually stopped.

I went back to check out the departures at 4pm.

Oh dear!!

13 articulateds (one less vehicle) again spread over both sides of the street and over 200m of church street. Kingston, DEC and no destination buses all mixed in together.

the punters roved up and down looking for buses and the drivers seemed to depart as they felt fit as some early departures were certainly not full.

A friend of mine recounted her experience to me of trying to find a bus back to the DEC. Asking some bus drivers was no good as they didnt know. Asking police was no good as they didnt know. An operations supervisor was eventually found and police then asked the supervisor about the system in use as they would like to help. He was overheard to say words to the effect of " I am not sure - upstairs organised it"

At least one bus went round the block empty in the traffic chaos to pick up passengers.

Eventually when the 13 buses had left there was at least 200 passengers standing on the footpath being kept under watch by about 8 police on the other side of the road. Buses started to arrive back about half an hour later after the supervisor was heard asking the buses where they were all the time. lucky it wasnt raining!!

I know this was probably metros first go at this and the service was free but Hobartians do appear to be slowly getting the message with these boundary rider services, so it is incumbent upon the operator to get it right and continue to encourage them in my view.

4 suggestions

1. have the DEC buses on one side of the road and the Kingston/City buses on the other and have temporary signs advising of this. Only the front bus loads until it full and leaves when instructed to by a supervisor.

2. marshall the buses into this order whilst the game is on and make sure each has a paper sign indicating a destination and hold any reserve buses seperate rather than randomly in amongst all the others.

3. do a count of the passengers taken to the game (as they get on) so that it is known how many have to go home and the right number of buses ready to roll at the departure or how full they should be. Buses returning from the DEC for a 2nd trip is too long for people to wait at the end of the game.

4. homeward buses to DEC and Kingston not diverted via rosny. 1 dedicated bus should be able to handle this on a 10 -15 minute turnaround if it can get out othe area quickly and lots of punters will elect to walk the short distance rather than wait anyway.

I know someone has to pay for all of this but the decision needs to be made whether we want people on the buses to these games or not. Their homeward bound experience at the end of the game is the exeperience they will remember for next time. Overall very encouraging but need improvement to keep the gains made rolling.

I understand there was something of a parking debacle at the DEC as well but I didnt see this myself.

I hope this has been of interest to someone out there.

Phil
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Tas Bus Nut
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Re: footy buses in hobart today

Post by Tas Bus Nut »

Here here Phil. YOU should be "upstairs" :wink: . Like you say, how hard can it be. Metro (MTT) have been transporting patrons from the football for 40yrs. Back in the 60s & 70s there were at least 8-9 buses at EVERY TFL game. I remember @ Nth Hobart oval ALL buses had the correct destination and were positioned adequately. I DO know, that some of the problem off-loading, is CARS park in designated bus zones, but if they were BOOKED, they may be reluctant to park there the next time. Bus Zones should be marked (witches hats) well before the game, and buses should (generally) be left @ the ground and drivers bought back by ONE vehicle (as in days gone by). Admittedly, this was the 1st time a game of this magnitude was played (and serviced) by Metro completely, but yes, improvements can be made. :roll: As for the number of buses used, this type of work is voluntary, so this is dependant on amount of volunteers offering to work (remembering, this game was in the MIDDLE of the Easter long weekend). You will also find, drivers finishing their "normal" shift would have been asked if they were available to "fill the void" and cover back-up services as required.

Positioning of buses SHOULD have been made early in the day, a problem that HAS occurred before, so you'd think it SHOULD be fixed by now. Obviously not. As for the destinations, ALL buses would/could have the appropriate signage. ALL buses have KINGSTON on the destination, likewise GLENORCHY could be displayed for D.E.C. and of course HOBART for the Regatta buses. Hopefully, fine-tuning will be in place for the July 7 clash with West Coast, which I assume would attract a BIGGER crowd.

I personally was involved with a LARGE bus movement years ago when I worked @ Redline. This involved 34 buses from a variety of DIFFERENT operators. ALL buses had signage, myself being in charge, organised WHERE the buses parked so they were easy to find, and myself, being in charge (as a supervisor @ Metro should be) was aware of WHERE the buses were parked AND their destination. So it's NOT hard to do with appropriate PLANNING.
PS: Hopefully you didn't just "note" the bus movements, but took heaps of pics, so don't forget to post any pics you took of the vehicles. :mrgreen:
tasstockau
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Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2012 7:15 pm

Re: footy buses in hobart today

Post by tasstockau »

I will leave the pictures to you blokes Neil. Since the demise of the Leyland National era my interest has turned more to the logistics rather than the vehicles but still enough interest to watch & learn. will have to dig out my late 1970's pictures sometime though.

Didnt realise the drivers volunteered for the extra shift (well done to those that did) so that may be a limiting factor but was everything was organised enough inadvance to get the punters there by a timetabled service though. Noticed most of the drivers went into the footy so I suspect free entry was part of the sweetener for the shift.

I expect the next game could be bigger due to timing and the opposition so hopefully more drivers will be available as well.

hopefully Metro hold a post mortem meeting that raises some of these issues. Traffic control has improved over the years so itb would be nice to see the buses match it.

Clarence council had a roving push bike mounted parking officer that seemed to handle private cars but offical cars such as police and st john ambulance were parked in some awkward spots.

Phil
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leyland clippers
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Re: footy buses in hobart today

Post by leyland clippers »

I went out to the DEC to check out bus movements. Parking was rather a debacle. The main car parks were blocked off and cars were parked alongside the road leading up to the building and in the car park on the otherside of the DEC. Why they didn't open up the car parks beggars belief. People arriving to catch the last buses would have been struggling to find a parking spot. Saw 1 artic arrive and load up. There were still peolple waiting when this artic left. On the way into town I saw another artic on it's way to the DEC. Parking was better at the Regatta Grounds. A turning circle was provided on the Regatta Ground for the artics to turn and there was still plenty of car parking space available. The last artic came in empty and left empty. Obviously the HCC planned it better than the GCC. Hopefully it will be better set up at the DEC for then next football match otherwise I would recommend parking at the Regatta Ground.
Hobart,The Way Life Should Be
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