I’d guestimate a 3x increase in fleet size.
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The Metro (bus) idea doesn’t need to necessarily be bi-articulated. Single articulated buses could be used for other corridors with the important features of turn up and go frequency, electric power, all door boarding, onboard real-time information etc
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Hopefully Council becomes more public about the $50 million rapid business case, and if Metro extensions like the one destined for Capalaba is even viable or not. (yes, from Chandler to Capalaba it is clear-cut and obvious; but Old Cleveland Rd from Coorparoo to Carindale appears to be the major hurdle, as the area is mostly just low-density residential dwellings).
And with federal politicians like the Member for Bowman, Henry Pike MP, claiming that a Metro from Capalaba to Brisbane City would take just over ~20 minutes, begs the question if an overhead busway on viaducts will be built along Old Cleveland Rd.
And how big will these future busway stations be? Surely bigger than Mater Hill, I hope (if we want to future-proof the busway network) 
Council has had it easy so far (with M1 and M2), but a Brisbane Metro to Capalaba may entail in tens - if not hundreds - of property resumptions, for the eastern suburbs (Coorparoo, Camp Hill, Carina, Carina Heights, Carindale, Chandler, Capalaba, etc).
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Hess do offer the LighTram in single articulated versions (LighTram 19). They might be worthwhile to look at, to increase economies of scale with the LighTram 24 fleet. I may be alone in this, but I personally find the LighTrams a much nicer vehicle to travel on than standard buses, especially if I am standing - standing on a conventional bus is something I try to avoid wherever possible.
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That would be perfect for Old Cleveland Road services, for example.
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Brisbane Metro to Indooroopilly can potentially unlock a transit lane on Coronation Drive, a transit lane on the Centenary Bridge, facilitate major simplification of the western suburbs bus network.
It’s won’t be perfect, but it will be a major improvement versus what we do now with 20-30 different bus routes down Coro drive.
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In my opinion a better option would be to have major bus rail interchanges at Darra, Indooroopilly and maybe even Toowong. Then have high frequency (15 minute) routes terminating at one of these stations serving Centenary, Kenmore etc. In conjunction with this, have 8tph frequencies on the rail line plus the express Ipswich services running all day. This would allow for seamless interchanges, short waiting times and higher frequency routes serving a greater area. It would also free up space on Coronation Dr for a small number of bus routes that might still be needed as well as bus space in the CBD and busways for an increase in “metro” services to those places that don’t have rail (eg. Carindale and Chermside, although I’d advocate for that service to continue to Carseldine for better connectivity to other Northside destinations).
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While I strongly support the idea of upgraded bus into changes at Darra, Indro and Toowong, I don’t think it’s reasonable to abandon the idea of high frequency buses on Coro Drive.
That whole Corro/Moggill Rd corridor from the CBD to Toowong (and beyond to Taringa and Indro) is extremely dense and getting more so. For trips 0-5 kms, especially trips to shops and services, the train station spacing and locations don’t work for many residents.
Coro Dr should have (at least) an inbound bus lane, and more bus priority in general, and Moggill Rd should have bus lanes in both directions.
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An inbound bus lane on Coro would be such a quality of life improvement. I will forever die on this hill. I used to work there and many times I would get stuck on a bus to go to Roma St just because the buses mix with the stupid car traffic.
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Would that be something the 412 could provide?
Probably. It looks like the Coro Dr proper stops are only 6-7% of boardings and alightings for the 412 overall. And if you’re on a bus of 40 people approaching one of those stops you’d expect about 1 person on and off.
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That is currently with all of the different buses going down Coro Drive. If the 412 was the only one taking the entire load it would go up substantially.
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Looks like the 412 is a bit over 1/3rd of the total boardings + alightings for all Coronation Dr stops. Here’s March last year (total 63385).
| route | sum(quantity) |
|---|---|
| 411 | 7518 |
| 412 | 23086 |
| 415 | 2134 |
| 416 | 338 |
| 417 | 2583 |
| 425 | 1802 |
| 430 | 1306 |
| 433 | 2947 |
| 435 | 806 |
| 444 | 11767 |
| 445 | 2298 |
| 450 | 813 |
| 453 | 1847 |
| 454 | 1435 |
| 460 | 2164 |
| 471 | 399 |
| 744 | 12 |
| N413 | 117 |
| N449 | 13 |
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The 450-460 are so quiet and I try to catch those from Roma Street. They are less full and they’re quicker than the 444 to Indooroopilly by a few minutes sometimes five minutes.
The 444 is always packed until Toowong then all those International students hop off and head to Kmart.
At Indooroopilly the 444 usually picks up another 10- 20 pax.
The local councillor tried a social media campaign to encourage people to use other services other than the 444 but it hasn’t made much of an impact. It’s a similar situation with the 130 as passengers tend to stick with that service to Sunnybank rather than getting the 140 or other services to that area.
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The 412 should be upgraded to an articulated bus along with associated stops as well.
Interesting data. So 63,385 trips/month x 12 = 760,620 trips/year (approx).
So about 0.7 million passengers per year spread across 19 different bus routes. Consolidating services into high-frequency trunk routes will be a major improvement.
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If people are so much more likely to use a frequent service, the obvious answer is to make more of the services frequent. A 450 BUZ with a corresponding reduction in the number of infrequent services would make the system more legible and encourage more passengers between the city and Toowong or Indooroopilly to use it.
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I think the main reason people go for 130 over 140 is frequency. 6 bph vs 4. If I’m at Cultural Centre o/b I’d choose either, but from the city, 130 is more likely to get you a bus sooner.
I often see people switching between 130 and 140 stops at QSBS depending on which comes earlier.
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I do that when catching it from there. When so much of the route is duplicated between the two, there’s no reason for a lot of people to wait for one over the other.
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