The Transitcare bus service has become lifeline for connecting generations of the Forbes family on Tamborine Mountain.
Every couple of months 80-year-old Joy makes a three-hour trip from her home in Toowoomba to Tamborine Mountain to spend time with her son David and daughter-in-law Kirsten Forbes.
“She gets on a bus and travels to Brisbane then a train to Helensvale where she gets on the bus to come up to Tamborine Mountain,” Kirsten said, explaining that Joy no longer drives outside Toowoomba.
“She is getting older and wants to maintain her independence and get out and about as much as she can.”
Sometimes Kirsten and David’s two children and their grandchildren return to the mountain to spend time with Joy.
The Translink Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) service, which operates on weekdays to Helensvale and Beenleigh train stations, is a vital last step in Joy’s journey.
“She thinks it’s amazing – the fact she can do it by herself.
“It is simple enough for her to do. It’s not like the bus is going to stop somewhere else before getting to Tamborine Mountain,” Kirsten said.
“She gets dropped at St Bernards Hotel and we have lunch before going to our house and then a coffee at Mountain Brew where she gets on the bus to return home.”
Prior to Transitcare bus service Kirsten and David had to pick Joy up from Helensvale and spend the day there with her.
“Now she gets to come on the mountain, which is nice,” Kirsten said.
“It makes it easier for us. When she was just at Helensvale we’d have to work it around our work, now it is just easier.”
Members of the Working Group for Public Transport on Tamborine Mountain, an ongoing Rotary Community Service project, are hoping their submission seeking an extension to the existing weekday DRT service, run by Transitcare to include weekend and public holidays, which was delivered to Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg MP and Translink, will be successful.
