The Roundabout Proposal

Read this great summary from John & Virginia Richardson

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UPDATE AS AT 9TH OCTOBER 2017

Tsp NSW unveiled there latest preferred option which is to install a large round-about at the corner of Neptune Street & Barrenjoey Road. They admitted there is a long way to go before they know whether it will work, including traffic studies, impacts on the communities north of Newport, engineering (though they believe they can fit a round-about in) etc. When asked if they were unable to overcome those issues and could not proceed with the roundabout they said they will just have to find another option at Newport. They say they have been told to bring the B-Line to Newport and get it to work. No final decision is expected until after Easter.

Click on the post ‘the Story to Date’ for full details

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(Scroll to the bottom of the page for latest updates as at Sept 2017)

Have your say – either comment below or more importantly leave a message/question at

http://yoursay.b-line.transport.nsw.gov.au/get-involved?tool=qanda#tool_tab

THE DIABOLICAL IMPACTS ON NEWPORT

The Executive of the NRA met with the B-Line Project Team on Wednesday 14th June to hear what they had in mind for terminating the busses and turning them around in Newport.  The Council and the Newport Surf Club had separate meetings with them on Tuesday. The following is a summary of the options laid out for us;

B-Line made a number of suggestions for turning the busses around at Newport

  1. Take over the Bramley Lane car park with busses entering at the northern end (opposite Coles Pde) and leaving via Bramley Lane (very narrow) back onto Barrenjoey Rd
  2. Utilise the northern end of the Surf Club car park an area just less than that currently occupied by the winter Netball teams. The proposal would be to take a right hand turn across  Barrenjoey Road into the carpark (nearly opposite the Neptune St intersection) turn the bus around and then queue it up with an area for three busses on the side of Barrenjoey road facing south before the current bus stop. (Unless they construct a roundabout or install traffic lights it is possible that the Neptune Road access to Barrenjoey Road may be closed for safety reasons- meaning Bardo Road would be the only access point to Barrenjoey Road within the Newport shopping precinct)
  3. Utilise app ¼ of the northern end of the surf club car park turning the busses into the surf club car park at new entrance north of the current bus stop, allowing an area to queue three busses on the left hand side of the current car park and then turn left onto Barrenjoey Rd at the northern end opposite Neptune St

Under all scenarios there would have to be provision for toilets to be built for the drivers.

The changes required to put any of the above into place would take longer than the B-Line mandated start date at the end of this year, so the B-Line project team have come up with two interim suggestions (and they don’t rule those out as becoming a permanent one) as follows;

  1. Turn right at ‘The Boulevard’ off Barrenjoey Road, turn left into Ross St, left again into Bramley Lane and then left onto Barrenjoey – (they would have to probably park the three queueing busses in The Boulevard)
  2. Turn left from Barrenjoey Road into Burke St the Newport Rugby Park (Porter Reserve) and utilise that area for both commuter parking and turning the busses around etc. (The B-Line people said the response from council was they would need to be out of there by March before the Rugby season).

 

Option 1 is problematic as it would destroy at least half of the current car spaces in the Bramley lane park and if it was converted for commuter parking then there would be no parking for customers of the shops and even if they didn’t change the current use there would still be a loss of possibly 50%.

We have had discussions with the Surf Club and they have voted to reject any use of the car park for a bus terminal.

 

THE QUESTION WE HAVE TO ASK OURSELVES – IS THE CURRENT BUS SERVICE TIMETABLE INADEQUATE TO JUSTIFY THE SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON NEWPORT VILLAGE – AND WHERE WILL THIS LEAD IN THE FUTURE – HIGHER DENSITY?

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26th July 2017 Meeting with B-Line Project Team a Failure

Representatives from four community groups north of Mona vale (Palm Beach Whale Beach Assn [PBWBA], Clareville and Bilgola Plateau Residents Assn [CABPRA], Avalon Preservation Assn [APA] & ourselves [NRA]) met with the NSW Dept Transport B-Line project team responsible for creating a new Bus Services schedule for the full B-Line route on Wednesday 26thJuly 2017.

Out of this meeting we got an update on the Terminus Issues as follows;

  • They remain intent on taking the B-Line to Newport
  • Attempted to justify Newport by saying their future demand study for the next 10 years suggested 60% of the demand at Mona Vale would be from the North and 40% from the West. This was a new answer completely at odds with those previously given whereby their initial economic assessment had Mona Vale as the start point.
  • They intend to dedicate up to 70 car spaces at the Newport Surf Club as permanent commuter spots but did not define how that would work
  • They defined a bus ‘Terminus’ as where a service finishes or commence from (and where staff can take a break)
  • They are still looking at 9 different terminus options at Newport including the streets to the west of Barrenjoey Road
  • They have no knowledge of the Mona Vale depot ever being considered as a terminus/commuter parking station
  • They confirmed that there would be no through city services covering the ‘Newport Loop’ during peak hours (there are currently 14 between 6 & 8am weekdays).

 

With regard to the effect of the B-Line terminus at Newport we have no further detail to be able to assess the real impact and so at this stage it remains a real concern regarding the impact on the Surf Club Carpark and/or the residential streets around Newport.

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Update as at 8th September 2017

Following meetings this week with firstly the B-Line project team and secondly our State Member Hon Rob Stokes we report the following;

  • Extension to Newport deferred until 2018 (details under Current Issue Item ‘The Story to Date’)
  • B-Line due to commence in November 2017 from Mona Vale
  • There is consideration to move the access to the Surf Club to the Northern end opposite Neptune Street ( Community groups north of Newport have expressed serious concerns with this plan)
  • Benefit Cost Ratio – part of the so-called rationale for extending the B-Line to Newport was an improvement in the BCR from 1.15 at Mona Vale to 1.22 to Newport. The only reason there is an improvement is that the additional costs of extending the busses to Newport have been more than offset by the savings at Mona Vale in not providing for a 150 car commuter car park at Mona Vale – Newport the ‘cheaper scape goat’!!