Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

Action for Public Transport (NSW) is a transport advocacy group active in Sydney since 1974. We promote the interests of beneficiaries of public transport; both passengers, and the wider community. We make this submission on the community update issued this month on infrastructure changes at the intersection of Showground Road and Carrington Road, Castle Hill.

Bus priority generally

The project is designated Bus Priority Program but there are two difficulties with that name:

• The objective should be to give priority to passengers. Bus services can be sped-up by removing stops and by detouring them around busy centres but that would be contrary to passengers' interests and should not be the intention.
• The term "priority" connotes doing something that gives buses (i.e., bus passengers) an advantage over other road users however the proposals set out in the community update leaflet do not make clear what is to be done that could confer an advantage.

It is not clear how the proposed adjustments are related to the future metro station. The diagram in the Community Update dated June 2017 does not extend to the station entrance, which is in Carrington Rd well south of Middleton Avenue. Will a bus stop be provided there? Whatever happens at the station, the stops shown in the update between Middleton Ave and Showground Rd are not close to a safe crossing of Carrington Road; they should be.

We suggest that the two stops in Carrington Rd between Showground Rd and Middleton Ave and the two stops in Showground Rd east of Carrington Rd should be combined and relocated to Showground Road immediately east of the Carrington intersection. That would permit PTIPS to give priority to buses from both the south and the west and would remove the necessity for passengers to guess which bus will arrive first.

We also suggest that the westbound stop in Showground Rd between Carrington and Doran be relocated to immediately west of Doran Avenue. The advantages of this would be to place it close to a safe crossing of Showground Rd and also to permit PTIPS priority for buses.