An extension of the free CAT bus service is needed to help struggling business in East Perth, according to the City of Perth.<\/p>\n
The council voted at its April 29 meeting to ask for the CAT service that runs in the Perth CBD to be extended to Point Fraser.<\/p>\n
But it has pumped the brakes on calling for more public transport from Claisebrook to the river to give the Point Fraser proposal a better chance.<\/p>\n
The city had previously asked for the CAT route to be extended to Point Fraser in July 2023 and January this year.<\/p>\n
Both times the Public Transport Authority said Point Fraser was serviced by bus route 24, which ran from every 10 minutes to 30 minutes, and believed it was adequate.<\/p>\n
It said there would need to be a significant increase in riverfront development and activity to justify more public transport.<\/p>\n
A proposal from East Perth resident Vicki Raniszewski said there was already \u201csignificant\u201d movement between East Perth, Victoria Park and the Perth CBD.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposed diversion would allow the Blue CAT service to depart Barrack Street Jetty and travel along Riverside Drive (eastbound), stopping at Fraser Point near the landing of Boorloo Bridge, before continuing via Adelaide Terrace and St Georges Terrace and reconnecting with its existing route at Barrack Street,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Transperth route 24 operates within the surrounding area, many residents, tourists and visitors are unaware of this service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cr Catherine Lezer said the CAT service needed to be extended to Point Fraser as the Boorloo Bridge had provided a link between Victoria Park, Heirisson Island and the Perth CBD.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith over 10,000 residents in East Perth and visitors staying in approximately 2100 hotel rooms along the Adelaide and St Georges terrace corridor, they would gain better access to the Swan River foreshore and the broader CAT network with this one small change,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to also point out that the City of Perth parking website shows that Point Fraser carpark has 269 parking bays, which we know are subject to the Department of Transport\u2019s Perth parking levy.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially these funds were specifically intended to support the CAT service and yet there is no CAT service operating anywhere near the vicinity of Point Fraser.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means that while users of the facility are contributing to the levy, they and the broader East Perth community receive no direct benefit from the service it\u2019s meant to fund.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy Lord Mayor David Goncalves wanted the city to also push for better public transport links between Claisebrook and the river but withdrew it after city staff said it would hurt Point Fraser\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n
General manager planning and sustainability Maria Cooke said the city needed to put its \u201cbest foot forward\u201d in the argument for extending the route to Point Fraser.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite a different business case to the minister or to the State member for that particular route as opposed to the Claisebrook connection to the river, which is a very different justification and would draw on a different set of data and requirements,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
CEO Michelle Reynolds said staff had not had enough time to consider Cr Goncalves\u2019 amendment and the council needed to be clear about what it was advocating for.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe initial submission is around Point Fraser with the intention to really support the efforts of the Boorloo Bridge as a tourism destination,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorth to south bus links is a bigger issue and one that obviously … has a bigger impact on the network.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cr Chris Patton said the focus had to be on Point Fraser as businesses there were struggling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI somewhat agree with the administration: if we ask for too much, we risk diluting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a bus to Point Fraser. That\u2019s got to be the sole focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly half of the council declared an interest in the proposed extension and did not take part in the vote.<\/p>\n
Crs Viktor Ko, Liam Gobbert, Raj Doshi and Adam Pacan said they had properties that would be affected by the route\u2019s expansion \u2014 leaving the council with a buffer of just one member before being unable to form a quorum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An extension of the free CAT bus service is needed to help struggling business in East Perth, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[917,1774,152,335,149,464],"class_list":{"0":"post-6028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-perth","8":"tag-central","9":"tag-local-government","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-perth","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}