Dani Hunterford and Greens MLA Jo Clay launched the petition. Photo: James Coleman.
The decision to temporarily cut Rapid bus routes from West Belconnen during the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge renewal works may face scrutiny in the Legislative Assembly after a strong response to a petition launched just before Christmas.
The petition, initiated by Dani Hunterford, a former West Belconnen resident and federal Greens candidate for Fenner, has attracted more than 700 signatures, which can be enough to precipitate a committee inquiry.
Ginninderra Greens MLA Jo Clay also sponsored the petition.
The petition calls on Transport Canberra to retain the R2 and R3 bus routes that connect West Belconnen to the rest of Canberra and explore all other options available to mitigate congestion, including having the R4 travel along Parkes Way.
The ACT Government announced changes to the bus network in early December to cope with the flow-on traffic effects of the bridge works, which will see a span closed a year at a time.
Local services terminating at the Belconnen interchange will replace the R2 and R3 routes while R4 will have reduced frequency but use bigger buses to maintain capacity.
Belconnen Community Council chair Lachlan Butler said at the time that that Belconnen residents would disproportionately bear the brunt of the bridge project disruption.
“It does look like they’ve sacrificed West Belconnen to beef up the rest of the network,” he said.
Ms Hunterford, who now lives in the Belconnen Town Centre, denied the petition was a Greens initiative and politically motivated.
“It’s more just about keeping the R2 and the R3 bus routes for West Belconnen,” she said.
“I would use the R2 pretty much every day to get from West Belconnen into Civic and I just felt really passionate about keeping that route.”
Ms Hunterford said West Belconnnen residents felt abandoned because public transport was one of the most important ways to keep people connected, particularly vital routes to Civic.
She said a lot more people would be using their cars, which is something the ACT Government should be concerned about.
There had been a lot of support online for the Parkes Way option for the R4 and she hoped the government would consider it.
But Public Transport Association of Canberra (PTCBR) chair Amy Jelacic said such a move would only create more problems for the network and passengers.
Buses on parkways also posed serious access issues if they broke down, especially in heavy traffic.
Dr Jelacic said PTCBR accepted the need for these network changes to happen and acknowledged the hard work that Transport Canberra had put into developing the best possible option in a resource-constrained environment.
“We urge Transport Canberra and the ACT Government to follow through on their stated promise to closely monitor how the bus network performs in coming months and to make any changes necessary to keep providing a really great bus service to the community,” she said.
Dr Jelacic said the new network to be launched on 2 February would still service Belconnen well.
Ms Hunterford hoped that when the Assembly returned the petition would be raised.
“I hope one of the major things on the agenda is to address this petition, because we’ve got 700 people calling for this, calling to keep the R2 and the R3 connected to West Belconnen,” she said.
Ms Hunterford said she would consider recontesting Fenner but any decision would be up to the party.
