You will have no choice

Light poles at Railway Square

When the bus layover from Lee Street was built the government exhibited plans for "improvements" to Railway Square and George Street. Previously buses had circled the bus stop island, bending the supports for the shelters, so it had to be a big improvement.

I objected vehemently to George Street being reduced to two lanes between Liverpool Street and Bathurst Street northbound. I argued that developers could be encouraged to continue the extension of the underground plaza above Town Hall station and the colonnades begun by the pinstripe office tower. I added that the proposed light towers were aesthetically inferior to the existing towers and asked for the escalators on the east side of Lee Street to be retained. As you can see my comments came to naught. The final report did address the matter of colonnades however. The Lord Mayor, Frank Sartor, later demonized colonnades saying they allowed criminals to avoid CCTV cameras. The City Council has been granting property owners bonuses to the floor space ratios to build shop fronts to their site boundaries.

The narrowing of George Street just before the critical section in front of the Town Hall creates congestion at the only places that buses can make a right-hand turn. There is in fact a short right-hand turn lane at Bathurst Street and a very important bus-only right-hand turn lane into Park Street. This right-hand turn lane allows some bus routes (remarkably few) to divert to a terminus in the forecourt of the Domain car park, one of the few places in the vicinity of the CBD, apart from Circular Quay and other dead-ends at Walsh Bay, where it is physically possible for buses to turn around.

Domain car park forecourt

Bus-only lane back to William St.

The Deputy Director General of TfNSW, Chris Lock, asserted at public meetings in April, that congestion in George Street north of Market Street caused delays of up to half an hour during the morning peak from 8 to 9 AM. A rational human being would deduce from this that not enough buses were being diverted to the Domain forecourt at this short period of the day, for five days of a week.

The buses that use this terminus are long range routes through Strathfield and Burwood, but with the Oyster (aka Opal) card where a bus route terminates in the CBD is largely irrelevant. Regardless of the destination on the front of the bus that circulates through the local roads, you can get of at any stop in the shared corridor, in this case Parramatta road, and wait for a bus to your preferred destination. If you are smart you will make your move at section boundaries and as far from the CBD as possible - buses to prized destinations will pack to the rafters early on and become set-down only services, leapfrogging stops, an added incentive to change routes early.

The Domain forecourt terminus would be the prized terminus for passengers headed for destinations in the Eastern Suburbs. You disembark in Park Street, walk around the corner and catch a bus to the Eastern Suburbs. The Domain forecourt bus layover can be improved for a fraction of the claimed $1.6 billion that O'Farrell wants from the Federal Government, for a tramway that will have slower journeys to Circular Quay than the existing bus services. Eliminating the only places in the CBD where buses can physically turn around in order to provide a tram service that does not need space to turn around is not rational.

The 9/11 13 brochure states that "approximately every second bus service ... via Broadway will only (sic) operate to Central. The remaining services will continue to the northern end of the city centre". So the elimination of the bus-only right-turn lane by the tramway spells the end to the bus services using the Domain forecourt.

TfNSW has made a preemptive strike. From last May the bus services from Strathfield to the Domain along Riley Street were ended. They still use the forecourt to turn around (it is the only place they can physically turn round) but they layover (wait for their scheduled start) at a stop in Cathedral Street. The first pick-up stop is in George Street.

So will these services be terminated at "Central", i.e. Pitt Street? The 13 Dec brochure stated authoritatively that 33 of the 175 buses entering the CBD via Broadway during the peak hour would be eliminated but TfNSW has refused to say how. Now they are saying approximately 88 buses will be terminated; but this is clearly a back of the beer coaster figure. TfNSW has given up on trying to model bus routes.

TfNSW started negotiations with the companies that package PPPs ( Public Private Partnerships) for the usual kamikaze investors on 21 October, so they must be telling them which bus services will be terminated in Pitt Street, "under commercial privilege". Are they also telling them they will incorporate draconian penalty clauses or legislate to prevent future governments redirecting them? The assumption for investors to swallow is that passengers on terminated bus routes stay on until the end and can be shepherded onto cattle cars. This ain't so with the Oyster card.

The commuters that use the bus services to get to work will not be receiving any notice of their impending fate any time soon - not before the Project is commenced. O'Farrell is adopting the Robin Askin Stratagem -  commence construction so future governments cannot reverse any of the decisions. This failed in the past when Neville Wran cancelled contracts to build the skyway carriageways in Darling Harbour and went on to inspire a new word, Wranslide.