Murray Bridge is a regional city within the Greater Adelaide Region located 76km south-east of Adelaide. The city’s population is at approximately 22,900 as of 2021 (Informed Decisions, 2022). At present, the city is served by a Dial-A-Ride bus that operates from 9am-5pm hourly on weekdays only (Link SA, 2022). The topic of Murray Bridge needing a new and improved service has been brought up numerous times in media and amongst the transit community, but why?
According to Walker (2011) public transport is regular, open to everyone, has capacity and can take people to different places. So let’s look at the history and if a new service could fit this criteria.
Inter or Intra?
Firstly, what is an intra-town bus service? The definition of the word ‘intra’ means within, and ‘inter’ means between (Miram-Webster Dictionary 2022). Put that in the context of transit, intra-city is a localised service operating within a particular area, and an inter-city service operates between set areas or cities. This topic is focusing on the intra-city service within the area of Murray Bridge.
The History
We must wind back to 2005 when the local fixed route service was facing the axe. The service (as all public transport services in South Australia) was funded by the Department for Transport and due to ‘economic’ reasons, areas of the transport budget needed to be trimmed. The result is regional communities losing out on public transportation services (Leane 2005). The fixed-route bus service operated across two routes at frequent intervals (pictured below).
The new proposed service was to replace the system entirely with a single bus that would be available to commuters by calling for a pickup and only operated hourly and not on weekends. The local community responded with petitions, rallies and letters to the minister, but to no avail as the change went ahead (The Murray Valley Standard 2005).
The Present and Future
Fast-forward 16 years and little has changed. The Dial-A-Ride service is still in operation
with no changes to how it operates. The topic frequents media like it did in 2005, again with not much changing (Brown 2020).
Murray Bridge is growing rapidly, the population growth rate is at 0.26% in 2021 compared to the rest of the Greater Adelaide Region which was 0.16%, and according to data collators Informed Decision, the population is forecast to increase to over 28,000 by 2040 (Informed Decisions 2022).
What should the service be?
So with the population growth and with politics aside, what type of improved bus service should Murray Bridge have? There are predominately two types, fixed-route and flexible route (also known as demand responsive). Both have their perks.
Fixed Route
Fixed-Route is in the name and is the most common type. It is a bus that traverses a set route and collects passengers at designated stops along it’s journey. It can operate in a loop or a point to point type service (Rural Health Information Hub 2022). For the context of Murray Bridge, there are a number of trunk or arterial corridors which connect the city from its households to nodes of activity (pictured below). There would need to be several fixed-routes that traverse the trunk roads in either a circuitous or point-to-point pattern. The benefit of fixed-route is that it is much quicker than flexible or demand service but doesn’t service everyone.
Flexible/On-Demand
The next is Flexible or On-Demand service. These can sometimes be separate or interchanged modes of service. A similar operation would be that of Keoride which operates in Mount Barker (South Australia) and Sydney (New South Wales). The service traverses a route and can deviate to pick people up from a predetermined location via an app (Keoride 2022). The benefit of this type of service is less of a walk to a transport stop, however it may take much longer for you to get to your destination (Rural Health Information Hub 2022).
So, does Murray Bridge’s current transit system fit the criteria of what Walker (2011) says about public transportation. Or does the system need improving or changing? What about the two types, fixed route or flexible, does that fit the criteria?
In summary, it would be safe to assume that Murray Bridge is due for an improved system but what would be the best type?
Comment Below!
References
Brown, D 2020, ‘En route to regional bus service review’, The Murray Valley Standard, 19 September 2020, viewed 4 May 2022, < https://www.murrayvalleystandard.com.au/story/6930776/en-route-to-regional-bus-service-review/>.
Informed Decisions 2022, Rural City of Murray Bridge, Informed Decisions, viewed 9 May 2022, < https://profile.id.com.au/murray-bridge>.
Keoride 2022, Transport on demand, Keoride, Keolis Downer, viewed 9 May 2022, < https://www.keoride.com.au/>.
Leane, M 2005, ‘Buses scrapped as state government introduces dial-a-ride’, The Murray Valley Standard, 10 November 2005, viewed 4 May 2022, < https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AWGLNB&req_dat=AE54A57C19304CA2903A29D40685A148&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F138130F850E45358>.
Link SA 2022, Link SA, Link SA, viewed 9 May 2022, < https://www.linksa.com.au/>.
Rural Health Information Hub 2022, Types of transit systems, Rural Health Information Hub, viewed 5 May 2022, < https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/toolkits/transportation/1/types-of-transit-systems>.
The Murray Valley Standard, 2005, ‘Bus petition gathers more than 1000 signatures’, The Murray Valley Standard, 2 December 2005, viewed 4 May 2022, < https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AWGLNB&req_dat=AE54A57C19304CA2903A29D40685A148&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F13813171F3AD9958>.
Walker, J 2011, Human Transit : How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives, Island Press, Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [14 May 2022].
Image References in order
Image 1: Brown, D 2020, ‘En route to regional bus service review’, The Murray Valley Standard, 19 September 2020, viewed 4 May 2022, < https://www.murrayvalleystandard.com.au/story/6930776/en-route-to-regional-bus-service-review/>.
Graphic 1: Informed Decisions 2022, Rural City of Murray Bridge, Informed Decisions, viewed 9 May 2022, < https://profile.id.com.au/murray-bridge>.
Graphic 2: Author’s Own 2021, ‘Murray Bridge old bus services’, Google Earth.
Graphic 3: Informed Decisions 2022, Rural City of Murray Bridge, Informed Decisions, viewed 9 May 2022, < https://profile.id.com.au/murray-bridge>.
Image 2: Author's Own 2021, 'Old Murray Bridge bus stop'.
Graphic 3: Author's Own 2021, 'Murray Bridge trunk routes', Goolge Earth.
Image 4: Keoride 2022, 'Keoride bus', Keoride.
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