Wednesday, June 15, 2011

On the buses


I don't catch buses very often, but today I needed to go into the city for a meeting, and The Husband required the car, so a bus it was.

Public transport in Canberra is provided by ACTION - the ACT Internal Omnibus Network. Modern buses, like this one, have easy access - there's just the one step onto the bus for normal use, an extendable ramp, and the whole bus can tilt over slightly towards the door to minimise the step height from ground level. Some buses (like this one) are powered by compressed natural gas. If you're into the mechanics, there's a spec sheet for this bus available on the ACTION website. The bus system is quite good, although it takes quite a lot longer for a journey than it does by car as the buses wind through the suburbs.

The yellow structure on the front is a double bike rack, and someone got on with a bike during the journey, so I was able to get a photo of it in use:

4 comments:

Mark said...

Hi Karen. Great to see a photo blog from the Nation's Capital. I have been really busy lately and all off a sudden I see that there are lots of new photo blogs happening.
Great shots of the "real' Canberra. I will really try and follow as I really love Canberra.
How come you know Grafton so well?

karen said...

Hi Mark - nice to 'see' you! My husband has family in Junction Hill, and I have aunts and uncles and cousins on cane farms on the islands near Maclean. My brother was born in Grafton (we were living in South Grafton) and was in hospital with pneumonia during the '67 flood - fortunately they were able to get across the train bridge! We also lived in Bonalbo when I was a baby (many years ago!) and in Casino in the late '70s.

Mark said...

You could call yourself a local! It is a small world that is for sure.

Gordon said...

The bike rack on the front is a good idea; I cycle frequently but there are times when it would be great to go further afield by bus and then cycle. We can carry bikes on our trains, but trains don't go to as many places as buses.