The Minister for Transport has announced an expansion of Canberra’s light rail timetable with daily boardings well ahead of Government expectations.
Minister Chris Steel said that to keep up with demand, peak travel periods in the morning and afternoon had been expanded.
“More than 15,000 boardings are being made every day on light rail which is ahead of what we expected in 2021, let alone today,” Mr Steel said
“To meet demand, we have extended frequent services in the mornings and afternoon peaks from this week with further extensions to come.”
He said the light rail system had recorded 3.5 million boardings since it started last year, with crowding now an issue on some trips.
“This is a good problem to have, but it is still a problem, and that’s why we are increasing the frequency of services during the morning peaks to every five minutes from term two.”
He said other changes included a half hour extension of the southbound morning peak services (every six minutes) from 7am to 9.30am (previously 7am to 9am); afternoon peak services (every six minutes) have been extended from 3pm to 6.30pm (northbound – previously 4pm to 6pm) and from 3.30pm to 6pm (southbound – previously 4pm to 5.30pm).
“More light rail services will help improve connections from buses at Dickson and other stops and provide a more comfortable trip for passengers from Gungahlin to the City,” the Minister said.
He said the move to a five-minute timetable during morning peaks and the addition of 155 light rail services every week would take the total number of weekly services to 1,600.
“These services will be delivered using the existing fleet of 14 light rail vehicles,” Mr Steel said.
