As a long term RBOT member I don’t recall us objecting to rail at all. Yes some areas to improve and I am confident that there was never a capacity reduction against the busway.
Equally you see this as “city-changing “ and a model for the future.
I totally agree. This project has killed of major public transport changes for decades to come. Minor changes will be silenced with “but look at the city changing Metro!!!. No need to change anything”
Ozbob would perhaps have access to the media releases. RBOT called it the ‘Quack’ Metro. We got the figures from the Lord Mayor’s team. Each vehicle was going to hold just 300 passengers, similar to say Vancouver’s Skytrain.
The problem with the original proposal (one among many) is that these trains would need to be about 2 mins apart. Buses, in contrast can be about 30-45 seconds apart.
Problems with the BCC metro proposal:
● Capacity: BCC’s metro proposal reduces busway line capacity from 12 000 pphd to just 9000 pphd. Train carriages are simply too small (300 passengers) and need to be larger (at least 1000 passengers per carriage).
(the carriages had to be small to fit into the SEB station footprints and other corridor constraints).
Here is the calculation.
Calculation:
300 pax/metro x 30 vehicles/hour = 9000 pphd
The current SEB is capable of doing 15,000 to 18,000 pphd.
So, after paying $1.5- $2 billion (2016 figures) you would get a ~ 50% loss in SEB busway capacity. And we haven’t even got to the part where the Victoria Bridge collapses under the weight of the vehicles and rail.
Good luck getting any change moving forward!!
Mode share of over 90% of trips by motor vehicle! City changing ??? More like city choking!!
How is introducing a metro service that cuts peak busway capacity by ~ 50% going to improve PT mode share … even if it is rail?
In the long run, a rail based metro is probably the ideal mode for the SEB corridor. But that possibility IMO is at least ~ 15 years away and Brisbane still requires a capacity improvement project in the meantime. The Brisbane Metro is a good project during that time interval.
Notes
(BrizCommuter: Quirky Brisbane Metro Capacity)
Image Credit: Brizcommuter Blog
Starting on the 28th of April route M2 will run every five minutes on weekdays between 6am to 6pm. At other times it’ll run every 10-15 minutes.
Late night service is starting later that week as well.
They are most likely to have platform 3 at the Cultural Centre open by then.
Holding my breath waiting for the City to change!!!
Hope you don’t pass out from holding it too long…
Damn good chance of it
