Michael Ferguson,Minister for Infrastructure and Transport
The Tasmanian Liberal Government is funding and delivering projects under the Hobart City Deal to ease traffic congestion and encourage more Tasmanians to use public transport.
As a result, people commuting between Huonville and Hobart will benefit from the introduction of a new express bus service.
It is great to see private businesses like TassieLink confident to invest on the back of our $81.5 million public transport election commitment, with the company purchasing these two new buses specifically for this new express service.
The new service, to be run by Tassielink, will start from Monday 12 July 2021 and will run four times in each direction during the morning and afternoon peak periods. The first bus departs Huonville at 6:05am and then every hour until 9:05am. The first bus from Hobart departs at 3:17pm and then every hour with the last bus at 6:17pm.
It is the first of additional bus services being rolled out over the next 12 months as part of the Tasmanian Liberal Government's Southern Projects initiative. It's all about encouraging more people to use public transport and managing traffic flow along Hobart's southern corridor by providing an end-to-end solution with faster and more frequent bus services.
The package of integrated projects include a dedicated transit lane on the Southern Outlet and clearways and bus priority measures on Macquarie and Davey Streets to improve the flow of buses to their destination; and park and ride facilities at Huntingfield and Stage 2 at Firthside, which will start construction soon.
When complete, they will provide the growing population in the Huon Valley and Kingborough regions with real choice on how they travel and an attractive alternative to private cars.
These new express services are in addition to the existing services that travel via Kingston and the new express route will take about 45 minutes, making it more comparable to car travel. Passengers will be able to board the service at any of the existing stops along the Huon Highway between Huonville and Leslie Vale and then travel express to Hobart via the Southern Outlet.
Tassielink has secured two new buses with coach seating, luggage racks and USB charging ports to provide this service.
Our plan is to not only increase the use of public transport by commuters travelling to work from 6.4 per cent to 10 per cent but to also reduce single occupant car journeys travelling into Hobart.
