Transport Minister Chris Steel has not been a friend of Belconnen, says the Belconnen Community Council. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
The new bus network is a raw deal for Belconnen that seals a year of transport betrayal from the ACT Government, the local community council says.
It is calling on the government to reverse network changes that disadvantage Belconnen residents and meet its other transport election promises.
The new network was announced on Friday (5 December) to cope with the impacts of the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge renewal project, which will put a span out of action for a year at a time.
The changes to frequencies and routes hit Belconnen residents particularly hard, with the R2 and R3 rapid services no longer running beyond Belconnen Interchange.
Residents of Belconnen’s outer suburbs will lose their direct rapid connections to the city, and local routes will run less often.
Belconnen Community Council chair Lachlan Butler said that for these residents, catching a bus would become harder, slower, and less convenient.
Mr Butler said Belconnen residents would disproportionately bear the brunt of the bridge project disruption.
He said that rather than strengthening public transport to help people through this period, the government had chosen to weaken it for Belconnen and hit some of its most vulnerable residents hardest.
“These cuts won’t just inconvenience people, they will penalise those who have the fewest alternatives living on the edges of the network,” Mr Butler said.
Greens MLA Jo Clay is also on board with a petition calling for the cuts to the R2 and R3 routes to be reversed. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
He said that for Canberrans who could use private transport, a less frequent and less direct bus network was a barrier to participating in daily life.
“It doesn’t really pass the pub test,” Mr Butler said.
“They could have put more effort into rethinking routes. If you want to get to Woden from Belconnen or vice versa, you don’t need to go over Commonwealth Avenue Bridge.
“You don’t need to go over Commonwealth Avenue Bridge to get to Fishwick from the city.
“It does look like they’ve sacrificed West Belconnen to beef up the rest of the network.”
He said one in four Canberrans lived in Belconnen, with 50,000 people residing in the West Belconnen 2615 postcode.
“West Belconnen doesn’t just face the impacts from the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge upgrades, the William Hovell Drive duplication starts next year too,” Mr Butler said.
Greens Ginninderra MLA Jo Clay has also sponsored a petition calling on the government to reverse the cuts to the R2 and R3 routes.
“Belconnen resident Dani Hunterford started the community petition because there are so many people who really rely on the R2 and R3,” she said.
“West Belconnen has very poor public and active travel connections. Cutting the few options we have is a bad decision.”
Mr Butler said these changes and recent statements on Stage 1 of the Belconnen Bus Transitway amounted to list of broken promises from the Barr Government that Belconnen voters would remember in 2028.
He said the government made clear promises to Belconnen before the last election — more bus services, a new rapid route to Ginninderry, and Stage 1 of the Belconnen Transitway.
“These commitments reflected years of advocacy and acknowledged what residents already knew: the ACT’s largest district needed better public transport, not less,” Mr Butler said.
The Belconnen Transitway was a 2024 election promise, but doubts are growing about whether it would be delivered in this term.
Mr Butler said the Transitway remained unfunded, and responding to the feasibility study appeared to have slipped from 2025 to 2026.
He said that despite the election promise, Transport Minister Chris Steel had refused to commit to delivering it this term.
Mr Steel had not been a friend of Belconnen, Mr Butler said.
“The government was elected on these commitments,” he said.
“A year later, the gap between promise and delivery of improved public transport options is widening and Belconnen residents have every right to be asking why.”
