Yes indeed. Seems less than optimal. Dropped catches all over the field.
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What? BCC, Translink and QR aren’t working together properly? I’d have never guessed… 
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I think delays in the project took things out of BCC’s hands to an extent. The timing of the works to Cultural Centre basically prevented the roll out of M1 from happening any earlier than it is, and the only options would be for them to hold off on starting M1 until into Q3 (breaking their Q2 commitment) or to push back the certification works on, and therefore the opening of, the tunnel even further.
It’s not the only change/change back example that the wider network changes are resulting in either. The unusual busway and Rochedale Station-related rerouting of the Clarks 575 is now being reversed again, just a few weeks later - just long enough for people to get use to having this service!
I vented about this when it happened because it created a route that is quite a convoluted and painful experience heading inbound (but much less annoying going outbound).
It’s going from this (servicing Springwood Platform 3):
To this (now servicing Springwood Platform 1):
I feel like this detour was solely to provide a link between (most of) these stops to Rochedale Station and the busway until the 545’s route changes cover it from June 30, but it really just adds confusion by putting in place a temporary route change without any notification that it will be temporary. I caught it home the other night, and people were using it to access stops on Logan Road, so they might get on it again on June 30 and find it now bypasses that stretch completely.
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While routing the 545 onto the busway will no doubt improve reliability, I am worried it leaves a gap in service up Logan Rd at Eight Mile Plains. The 152 is only hourly as is the re-routed 155 in the off peak. Both bus come past around the same time too 
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Far from me to defend BCC but the media claims that people were blindsided by the changes when this has been in the works for years, including consultation and plenty of ads in the buses itself about how the new network has been coming, is pretty annoying and disappointing.
Could BCC have done a better job communicating the changes and the reasons behind them? Absolutely, but blindsided is a bit too much.
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The 152 has very limited operating hours, 6:28 am - 4:15 pm towards Garden City, and 8:40 am - 4:40 pm away from Garden City, weekdays only.
Not sure who the target market is. With that span, it’s useless for most regular commuters, and doesn’t even cover core shopping hours.
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To play devils advocate here, rerouting the 545 affects 5 stops:
Logan Road @ Underwood Road (Inbound only) - directly replaced by the nearby Eight Miles Plains State School stop <300m away.
Logan Road @ Brandl Street &
Logan Road @ Padstow/Miles Platting Road - I’m grouping these two together because I strongly suspect that these two stops would primarily service the Brisbane Technology Park, so a half hourly peak/hourly off peak service is probably sufficient for this
While a satellite view shows houses parallel to Logan Road nearby to these stops, there is a continuous fence from opposite Brandl Street up to Chester Road with only two pathways through it, and then from Bolton Street to Padstow Road with no breaks. IMO, this limits the use of these stops by those houses. I think many of houses in this area would already opt for walking out to Warrigal Road to access the more frequent 150, although it could be a bit of a hike for the houses closest to Logan Road.
Logan Road near Liverpool Street (stop only exists inbound) - there are a limited number of houses along here that may use this stop, but the Warrigal Road Green Link Stop is <500m away for the furthest away house.
Mt Gravatt Depot - serviced by numerous routes including the 150.
I’ve thought long and hard about that stop because I’ve been thinking about an alternative: run the 150 from Warrigal to Miles Platting Road, giving frequent service to the Logan Rd area and Technology Park to the busway via 8MP.
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And strand the Warrigal road green link? Nah. Take it from someone who used to catch that bus every day to school back in the day. The AM peak traffic on the stretch of Padstow road between Warrigal and Logan roads is appalling. The green link is a godsend for the 150.
From memeory the 156 used to do what you’re describing, not sure if it still does. It ran express down Padstow / miles platting though.
Tbh the way BTP is laid out it’s not very bus - friendly. Not sure the 150/156 is the solution
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^^ I used to ride it back during that era too, and yes - it sucked until the Green Link arrived.
I don’t like the idea in general, as it would add a significant amount of time to what is already a fairly long journey for a detour of limited benefit IMO.
As someone who worked at the Technology Park for a time, I don’t think it requires an all day frequent service. It’s not like the CBD or inner city mixed business and retail precinct - it’s very much a ‘arrive at 8:30am and leave at 5pm’ sort of location. Outside of those times and on weekends, it doesn’t need to be serviced frequently.
And yes, the BTP isn’t very bus friendly - buses can only travel through it in one direction for example (Logan Road > Brandl Street > McKechnie Drive > Miles Platting Road).
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I’m not saying “throw the 150 into BTP” though.
Serving it from the outside would be far more efficient than having a podunk bus route that runs three to four times per day.
The 299 should definitely be eliminated in favour or something that’s actually useful, with the buses liberated from that service reallocated to more frequent 262 runs.
Then again, I come from a culture that is always aghast at the idea of hourly urban bus services and thinks that ALL SERVICES should be run at 12 minutes or better, so take my ideas with a fair bit of skepticism.
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Stop closures and modifications galore:
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About time they started to advertise these changes!
This article has been produced in partnership with Brisbane City Council.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says the city’s new bus network will deliver “more services, more often” when it launches on Monday, June 30.
However, the new network is likely to result in changes to existing bus journeys, meaning some passengers may have to transfer during their trip, change where they get on and off, travel on a new route or use a different bus service.
Funny how the tables turn. All impacted non-TfB routes are linked to a service update while the TfB ones aren’t at all. They all will just silently change/end from a data/service update perspective despite all the other flashy pages and media.
Apart from the fact they are running a big red banner at the top of pretty well every page on the Translink website at the moment.
The complete absence of cartography with these changes is pretty abysmal, as is the overreliance on the journey planner. The idea should be to make it easier to use the public transport system as a means of getting around generally, rather than dedicating resources solely to explaining how to make a particular trip to the CBD at a particular time of day.
The new Redland and Logan timetables also aren’t out yet other than in the journey planner - only a week away.
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Yep, and this is something that really pisses me off, to be honest! I want to print off some timetables that Dad can keep on him until he gets used to it, but they aren’t there to print.
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Printable timetables for Transdev services showing their new stopping patterns in the city are now available online.
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No new ones yet for the Clarks routes, but the Clarks Facebook page has been running posts all week about the changes, including the details of the changes broken down either route by route, or groupings of routes as per the Translink Service Update.
I will give them credit for actually including the details of the changes in their posts, rather than using just a generic “check Translink for details”.
For example: