It would be a cumulative effect - while all doors may be open at certain stations like KGS, Cultural Centre and the Unis, it’s doubtful that all of them would be opened in places like Normanby, Mater Hill or Boggo Road. I imagine it would take more than one station stop for all the cool air to vacate?
In my personal experience of riding the M2 - usually between Boggo Road and KGS on a weekday morning - I’ve found it quite rare that all the doors are open at any station other than Cultural Centre - even at King George Square I have seen it with at least one set of doors remaining closed.
The below was published in my local highschools newsletter. It’s good to see that the Metro team has been sending out notices to schools
From Monday 30 June, we’ll be introducing Brisbane’s New Bus Network including:
turn-up-and-go Brisbane Metro services running along the M1 (Eight Mile Plains to Roma Street) and M2 (UQ Lakes to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital) routes every 5 minutes, all-day and 24-hours on weekends
new bus routes, extended all-day services and improved service frequency in the suburbs.
It will be the biggest uplift to the bus network in more than a decade and will change the way people travel in Brisbane. For people using the new bus network to get to and from your organisation, it may mean they now need to:
transfer as part of their journey
change where they get on and off
travel on a new route
use a different bus service
check their timetable for changes.
To help people navigate the new bus network, we will also be undertaking the following activities:
Providing on-ground support at key locations across the network prior to and during the changes to answer any questions and help people get where they need to go
Installing signage at bus stops and busway stations which will direct customers to Translink’s Journey Planner.
Translink’s Journey Planner will be updated from Monday 2 June, and we are encouraging everyone to follow the below steps to plan their new journey.
Step 1 – Visit Journey Planner at translink.com.au from Monday 2 June
Step 2 – Enter a start and end location and select a date from Monday 30 June
Step 3 – Find the new journey
Step 4 – From Monday 30 June, travel with confidence on Brisbane’s New Bus Network.
If you have any questions about the new network, please contact Translink by calling 13 12 30 or visit translink.com.au. Prior to 2 June, more information about the network changes can be found on Council’s interactive network map here. If you have any questions about the Brisbane Metro project call 1800 692 333 during business hours or reply to this email.
Kind regards,
Brisbane Metro project team | BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL
Well, now that the Brisbane Metro is here it should be aggressively expanded along with bringing back the highly effective BCC BUZ program. A major gap in the network is CBD-Indooroopilly and the Mains Road corridor.
Air conditioning issues are not limited to the bus mode. Much of the Melbourne train network collapsed in 2009 due to train air conditioning becoming inoperable above 35 deg C (Melbourne summer temperatures can reach up to around 45 deg C).
Hopefully these technical issues can be sorted in due course.
Overall, the Brisbane Metro BRT service will greatly improve things, and improve patronage in doing so. Another good thing is that we can also improve the trains at the same time as well.
Just like water that you can get in a bottle, from a tap, or have fall from the sky, transport is the product and different modes are just different tools or means of supplying it.
And ultimately, what we all want is better transport. It has to be improvement across all modes.
I don’t see CBD - Indooroopilly as a gap because there is a high capacity, perfectly capable rail line there that is being underutilised in terms of frequency and bus/rail connections. While 15 minute frequencies isn’t bad, I personally think it should run 7.5 minutes all day to Indooroopilly from the CBD.
I would say 7.5 minutes could extend to Corinda (and practically a better place for terminating trains anyway).
Darra would be ideal, but currently probably not feasible due to the lack of electrification on the fourth road, and possibly also the interaction with coal trains.
In an ideal world, perhaps everyone would catch the train. But BCC is unlikely to ever agree to that.
If one accepts that constraint, then what?
IMO it is a gap as you currently have multiple different bus routes going down that corridor that could all be combined into a Brisbane Metro BRT route with the remainder becoming feeders to rail and BRT at Indooroopilly.
That would be a net improvement in that corridor overall.
(similar thinking applies to the Mains rd corridor at Altandi)
Such a service would ideally continue to the Centenary Suburbs and Darra.
A bus-rail interchange at Indooroopilly train station has been considered for 50 years, it’s not likely to happen any time soon.
Was picked up by media and at a later stage was picked up by both Green Team and Red Team at LGA level.
Then Lord Mayor Graham Quirk didn’t support it at the time. But if it came true, it would trigger a major bus review in the western suburbs.
A new CityGlider bus running every 10 minutes to the city from Brisbane’s Centenary suburbs is part of a suite of bus changes proposed by the city’s leading public transport lobby group.
I understand there’s politics at play here, but I still think a more efficient use of the rail line here would be best case. Perhaps a high frequency route can run from Darra station through the Centenary suburbs to Indooroopilly and on to the CBD via Coronation Drive which gives bus service to the area but not overkill like so many parts of the city. Everything else can interchange with Indooroopilly (or Toowong on a few occasions).
I know this would require some investment in making Indooroopilly a proper interchange, but it works in Auckland with the Panmure interchange, so it’s definitely possible (if the relevant authorities would get their act together).
But how does this high frequency route continuing to the CBD create more efficient use of the railway line? If anything it encourages people from the Centenary area to stay on the one bus rather than transferring to trains.
I agree. My personal preference would be to have all bus services in that region (including Centenary suburbs) beginning and terminating at either Darra or Indooroopilly (or Toowong on a few instances), but there just seems to be a lot of people on here advocating for buses running down Coro Drive, or having some sort of high frequency Centenary suburbs running all the way into the CBD. I personally don’t think they should run to the CBD, but I’m also not not very familiar with the routes or patronage levels in the area since it’s been quite a while since I’ve lived in Brisbane, and I was suggesting it based on the thought that since so many seem to want it, perhaps I’m missing something.
And this would be in conjunction with making that corridor higher frequency (7.5 minute headways).
Sure, I believe we should have lots of buses running down Coro Drive, even though it runs parallel to the railway, because the inner west is reasonably dense and will only get denser in future. A high population can use both a train and bus corridor well.
However, that can’t be described as an efficient use of the railway. And Coro Drive would need bus lanes reinstated for it to work. I notice a lot of peak services on it get horribly delayed, affecting the starting time of the driver’s subsequent trips. But there’s always going to be the possibility we get another Campbell Newman who wants to rip up the bus lanes to pander to motorists.
Unless some future government spends billions on a tunnel to extend the busway from UQ Lakes to the Centenary Highway via Indro, the only permanent, efficient solution I see for the Centenary area is to transfer to high frequency services at Darra or Indro. But not only does this require a cultural shift, as others have said, Indro will always be hamstrung by the gap between its train station and bus interchange.
We don’t have to antagonise one mode against another as both have different use cases and catchment areas.
What I reckon could be a good middle ground for the western suburbs is to:
i) only run only 3-4 routes at Coronation Drive, but run those four at high frequencies with articulated buses. Good candidates are the 412 (maybe extended to Botanic Gardens in the lower CBD), 444 (rerouted to end at QSBS via Go Between Bridge), 450 (for Centenary) and 460 (for Forest Lake, Heathwood and maybe an extension to the industrial areas at Forestdale).
ii) make a mini-busway at Coro Drive for those routes with stations similar to those on G:link.
iii) curtail every single other route to Indro, Darra and Richlands.
There is a bit of a tendency for advocates to get caught on perfect solutions.
A Brisbane Metro to Indooroopilly will achieve BOTH feederisation to rail AND keep a direct service for those who value it while making buses along Coronation Drive much simpler as well.
As someone who worked on Coronation Drive for 2 years, I like that idea. It would need one bus lane there tho. Theres nothing more infuriating than being stuck in the bus because the bus is stuck in traffic. As a compromise, Coronation Drive needs a bus lane inbound.
My only comment is that a lot of consolidation into trunk routes, stop rationalisation, stop facilities/bike parking, transit lanes and traffic light prioritisation can be done without having to buy new longer buses and the associated infrastructure to charge them in Stage 1.
Overhaul the network, get the legibility right and then (Stage 2) start to increase capacity as demand is encouraged and with a clear longer term “right-size” vehicle Vision.
Brisbane Metro BRT should be extended to at least Indooroopilly and further.
When bus routes become consolidated and the remaining routes become feederised, there is that need for higher capacity so that transferring passengers from those feeder routes can also fit into the trunk bus line they are transferring into.
This is similar to the approach being taken for the M1 southside and it’s feeder bus services.
Yes, let’s get it to Indooroopilly via UQ. We don’t want anymore services going in and out of the CBD. Crosstown services and some more feeder services would be better.
A part from that they are busy painting the bikeway Green on the Vic Bridge as well completing lane marking which separates outbound services to South Brisbane and the SEB.
3 Days to go and I hope it works, as it’s been 3 years in the making that reconfiguration.
