Flexible fares offer one way to unclog city - Sydney Morning Herald

ANALYSIS

Slow lane ... Tuesday's traffic woes highlight the need for change. Photo: Supplied

SYDNEY had a particularly bad dose of transport chaos on Tuesday, underlining the city's need for new measures to cope with the flow of commuters into and out of the CBD.

Just an hour after three buses broke down in the CBD and stalled the morning passage of tens of thousands of commuters, a crane collapsed into an inner-city university, demanding the closure of Sydney's main western artery.

The Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, who was one of those delayed, said there should be some relief in the new year.

In February, about 60 morning buses from the north-west suburbs will start on new routes into the city, across the Cahill Expressway and down Market Street, rather than joining a queue on York Street. But the minister and her department, Transport for NSW, are aware more is needed.

The government is sitting on two long-term proposals for clearing buses from inner streets in Sydney, as well as shorter-term schemes for running buses on different routes through town.

One proposal, an underground tunnel to accommodate hundreds of buses rolling off the Harbour Bridge each morning, is being pushed by the advisory group, Infrastructure NSW.

But this tunnel would remain vulnerable to the type of failures that occurred on Tuesday morning, when three buses broke down between 8.20am and 9.25am.

According to studies for Infrastructure NSW, buses fail about five-and-a-half times more than trams. The adviser admits its proposal is in the early stages.

The other proposal, removing buses from George Street and replacing them with light rail that extends to the eastern suburbs, is further advanced but is still awaiting the political green light.

But neither would have solved Tuesday's problems, with Broadway closed for much of the day due to the collapsed crane and the CBD crippled by broken buses.

What would help are fares that allow commuters to get off buses and get on trains, without paying extra. That is what happened on Tuesday, when buses from the inner west dropped commuters at Redfern station and buses from the north dropped commuters at North Sydney station, giving them free passage on their bus tickets.

If commuters had this option every day, there might be fewer people entering town on fewer buses, leaving the city's roads less vulnerable to things going dramatically wrong.