617 chose a very inopportune time and location to disagrace itself last night.
I understand gear box problems immobilised the bus on the bridge (presumably with passengers) just after 4pm. Was noted being towed through Lindisfarne about 5.30. In the intervening period the chaos it contributed to wasnt helped by significant road works in the northern suburbs meaning both bridge routes to the eastern shore were subject to significant delays.
So much so that a ship was heading up river at 5.45pm to pass under the Tasman bridge about 6pm. This was intercepted by a tug off the casino and turned around to head back down river to Taroona where it again turned around to come back up the river again to head under the bridge about 6.40pm to give the traffic build up a chance to clear (as bridge traffic stops when a ship passes under since 1975).I have never seen that occur previously.
This comes after media attention on traffics increasingly worse traffic issues in early 2016.
Time to stop building car parks in the city and focus on some real options for speeding up public transport so it is an attractive alternative - be it dedicated bus lanes, ferries or light rail.
Phil