The next region of Brisbane in line for a network review is the Northside under BCCs deal with the Queensland Government.
Delivering for Brisbane: State and Council tap on to new bus deal - Ministerial Media Statements
Please use this topic to provide specific suggestions for the network review team in Brisbane City Council.
As a Northsider, Brisbanes bus network up here definitely needs fixing. It has remained mostly the same for the last 20-ish years, excluding the Northern Busway delivered by Airportlink, and a few route cuts.
Northside def needs a better bus network
The low hanging fruit for the northside is to give the Great Circle Line (598/599) better frequencies (20 minute headways or better), Sunday services, and extended hours of operation late into the evenings.
If you wanted to get to Chermside from Nundah, youād want to catch the GCL, and not the 320/322, which is otherwise indirect.
If you wanted to get to Chermside from Brookside/Mitchelton/McDowall, youād wanna catch the GCL, and not the 354, which is even MORE indirect.
Want better bus connections to rail? Give 369 Mitchelton to Toombul via Stafford some proper frequencies (every 15 minutes all-day), among a myriad of other routes.
Another recommendation I have is that route 360 Brookside to City should terminate at Enoggerra train station. Itād improve its on-time performance significantly. Perhaps one day 325 Boondall/335 Sandgate will be truncated too, but I feel like those two would spark significant public outrage.
Just a few things from my neck of the woods. Eliminate the 379, 382 and 383 completely. Boost 380 and 381 to every 30 minutes clockface all day, mainly to provide 15 minute service along waterworks road in ashgrove, but also boost area and to make the timetable more usable off peak. Routes donāt need changing.
Boost 362 frequency to at least hourly and have some attempt to align schedules with the train at keperra station.
385 unchanged except for starting approx 15 - 30 minutes earlier on weekdays.
384 unchanged except for maybe a couple more services. (itās surprisingly popular).
61/maroon city glider extended enogerra train station and align the stops with the 385 at suncorp stadium/paddo tavern. Make sure the timetable of the 61/385 means they donāt go through bardon and paddington at the same time, space them out a bit.
372, 373 and 377 not really sure what to do with because they all suck, but serve a niche purpose, donāt justify frequency boosts, but also donāt service to be fully culled.
needs to be some kind of enogerra or mitchelton to UQ service at decet frequency
Given this statement is from the previous Labor government, can we realistically expect it to happen?
Itās contractual, so itās fairly likely to happen.
Figured Iād add this here:
Iād better get started on writing the left/rights for the routes Iāve put together for the northside so they can be mapped, pronto!
Northside bus review pushed back to after 2028
This is bad.
And remember, Brisbaneās western suburbs are excluded from the current plans to expand Brisbane Metro. This means that exactly the part of the bus network that needs bus reform the most will not be fixed until after 2028, and very likely not until after 2032 games are finished, if ever.
Introduction of a delay
Councilās own āRace to Goldā strategy document claims the business case would be complete by mid-June 2026, and the new Metro services will be online by 2031.
Responding to questions from the Labor Opposition on Tuesday, Acting Public Transport chair Steven Toomey said that there is now no Northside Bus Review planned, despite initially agreeing to one as part of a bus contract signed with the former state Labor government in 2024.
No net new bus service
And to confirm, the contract appears to have a āno net new servicesā clause in it which means only funding from existing bus services can be rearranged, and not new funding. I wonder if this is the case for other SEQ councils as well?
A spokesperson for the Lord Mayorās office said that the contract that the Council Opposition was referring to was since superseded after the election of the LNP state government, with a cap on bus funding for two years. This means that no new bus services can be delivered without removing a service from somewhere else.
Now, I donāt know if the cap on new service is there as a compensation for retaining 50c fare policies, or a continuation of an existing unwritten policy to cap bus funding. But whatever the case, this is bad news for new BUZ services etc.
Does this perhaps also explain the very delayed introduction of the Gold CityGlider, which has not been delivered yet?
Notes
āno net new services clause".
ācap on bus funding for two yearsā.
What more proof do you need that Blue team does not give a shit about public transport, except only at election times.
The Gold CityGlider can be operational tomorrow as all Gliders are 100% funded and operated by the BCC , except now its tied to the metro extension and northside review.
Are you certain that the Gold Glider is tied to the next bus review in 2028 2029?
Thatās the conclusion one can draw from what has been coming out of the BCC recently.
Otherwise it would of been implemented along with the rest of the southside changes last year.
BTQ could write to the BCC and ask them about the Gold CityGlider.
This all really increases risk and delays benefits for no obvious good cause, just on the cusp of the olympics.
If there is any delay, the effect will be that the city is unprepared to move the masses effectively around from both the Northside and Western Suburbs.