The fatal flaw

Eddy Avenue

Eddy Avenue bus stop, Monday, 5PM

The 9/11 13 brochure states baldly: "approximately every second bus service ... via Broadway will only  operate to Central. The remaining services will continue to the northern end of the city centre via Elizabeth Street northbound". So commuters catching a bus in Parramatta Road and in King Street, Enmore Road and Stanmore Road will have a binary choice of destinations, Central or Circular Quay. With the Oyster (aka Opal) Card, commuters from further out can change destinations at any bus stop in Parramatta Road or King Street.

Eddy Avenue pedestrian crossing, 5PM

Commuters intending to transfer to a train to north of the Harbour or a southbound train, at Central Electric, will have a choice of alighting from a "Circular Quay" bus at the stop above and using the highly-used pedestrian crossing (left) along side, or being dumped in Pitt Street from a "Central" bus. The bus services of choice for commuters transferring to trains or buses along Elizabeth Street south, is a lay down misere.

When commuters on "Circular Quay" buses leave the bus at Eddy Avenue, the emptied buses must proceed to Phillip Street as it is the only place in the CBD where they can physically turn around. This is the worst possible scenario for the Eastern Suburbs bus services that have been dependent on the Phillip Street terminus from the earliest days of the colony, and for the Harbour Bridge bus services that TfNSW intends to terminate at Railway Square and beyond. The only way to force Public-Bus passengers to transfer to privately-operated cattle cars in Rawson Place is to generate intolerable congestion in Elizabeth Street northbound between the St James Centre and the Old Supreme Court Building. The gridlock in Elizabeth Street will need to occur not only during the morning peak hour, but for most of the day, for the Project to be supported by PPP investors.

Passengers hoping to catch a "Circular Quay" bus from stops in Parramatta Road closer to the CBD, and City Road, such as the stops at Sydney University, will just see the full buses pass them by. To catch bus service along Crown Street they will have to transfer to a tram and travel one stop, then walk across town to Elizabeth Street. To catch a New South Head Road bus service they will have to transfer to a tram and travel three stops, then walk across town.

O'Farrell really has it in for people in the Eastern Suburbs, southern Sydney and western Sydney.