NEWS
Valley lagging in bike scheme rollout
Thinking of grabbing a CityCycle bike from a rack in New Farm, Teneriffe, Kangaroo Point or West End and heading up to the Valley for a coffee or a shop? Plenty of time to get there within 30 minutes, dock your bike and not pay an extra cent over your subscription outlay? Take your time. Enjoy life. Then grab another bike, head home in the half-hour and save money all round?
Well, think again. There are no stations in operation anywhere near the Valley’s commercial heart. The Independent’s investigation found two on the very fringes of the suburb – outside the Olive Pit Restaurant in James Street, and at a rack further west on James Street just past the Palace cinemas. By our reckoning that’s two out of almost 20 stations shown on the CityCycle website as being stage one stations in Fortitude Valley for the multi-million dollar scheme.
That same site shows a reasonable percentage of stations in the CBD, New Farm, Teneriife, Kangaroo Point and West End are now operating, so why has the rollout in the Valley been delayed – and does City Hall owe scheme users an apology for at the very least giving them the impression that they could make a trip to our city’s second commercial heart and not get caught short?
Well, the answers from the Lord Mayor are simple: there is no delay in the Valley rollout, and no apology is clearly needed because the CityCycle bike hire like all public transport “requires some journey planning”.
“CityCycle users are encouraged to check the website, call the 1300 free call or download iphone applications so that they know which stations are operating, where the nearest station are and which stations have available bike racks,” the Lord Mayor wrote in response to one of our questions on the issue.
And asked if there were any specific reasons why the Valley rollout appeared well behind schedule, Campbell Newman wrote: “Fortitude Valley stations were programmed for the last quarter of the year and will continue to be built and commissioned up until Christmas 2010.
“The CityCycle installation is part of a planned, continuous rollout program. West End, CBD, New Farm and Kangaroo Point were in the second and third quarter of the 2010 program, so more stations are currently constructed in this area. Asked to identify the Forttiude Valley stations and the dates residents can expect to be able to hire bikes from them, Cr Newman said:
“Nine stations are currently built in the Fortitude Valley. One station is currently operating in the Fortitude Valley at James Street and Harcourt Street. Eight stations are currently constructed and are currently awaiting electrical connection and commissioning to the network. These stations will be commissioned on a rolling basis up until Christmas 2010 – James and McLachlan Streets, Ann Street and Murri Way, Ann Street and Chester Street, Wickham Street and Murri Way, Gipps street and Wickham Street, Alden Street and Wickham Street, Bridge Street and Wickham Street and Malt Street and Brunswick Street
“The two stations at James and McLachlan Street (1) and Bridge and Wickham Streets (2) are planned to be operating in the next few weeks.
Responding to a question that said in part that “surely Valley residents are entitled to feel neglected in the rollout of the scheme, the Lord Mayor wrote: “The CityCycle call centre is responding to community enquires and advising subscribers and the community about operating station and the timing for the installation program.
“The eight stations above will be open in Fortitude Valley by Christmas.”
Top: The Stage 1 bike station beside the Fortitude Valley Post Office awaits commissioning.
