LETTER TO CANBERRA TIMES:
(Re above headline in today's print version. Canberra has a brand new tram service that's just started operating, about a month ago. Photo is Rippon Lea in Melbourne):
I'm a visiting ex Canberran having spent the last forty years in China and Hong Kong.
My question on Canberra Transport: why not go for smaller light buses at greater frequency with fixed routes but no fixed stops?
We have that in Kong Kong, called the Public Light Bus service.(Van-zai in Cantonese). Seating up to 19, they fill in the gaps left by normal buses, the MTR (subway), taxis and trams. They are run by individual owners on assigned but flexible routes. The driver can pick up and drop off passengers wherever they like along the route.
If a new route or more frequent services are needed, the government simply puts them out to tender. Private enterprise ("aspiration"!) does the rest.
It strikes me that Canberra's current obsession with fixed light rail and large buses is locking it into a cumbersome, costly and inflexible system.
Surely - as your correspondents make clear - what is needed is more frequent services and more flexible routes.
Pf etc..
