Official efforts to syncronise the terminal bus to the 590 may run foul of Skytrain’s monopoly…
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I’m not sure Airtrain is entitled to blanket exclusivity for public transport within and around the BAC area.
I don’t have any documentation in front of me but I think there is a redacted version of the BOOT agreement that might be floating around which I may have looked at - I have the impression I read somewhere (possibly in that document) their exclusivity is limited to effectively mass transit from the airport terminals to points out of the BAC area, and possibly also to any direct service to the CBD.
There are clearly a whole bunch of arrangements which have either been negotiated or which fall into carveouts from Airtrain’s rights, including:
- Carbridge’s bus operations in and around the airport, which includes free interterminal transfers.
- Skybus’ unsuccessful attempt to operate between the City and the terminals via Kingsford Smith Drive.
- Late night transfers to the CBD when Airtrain does not operate.
- Regular long distance coach services to and from the terminals.
- Private airport buses, shuttles and transfers.
- Route 590 - not just to Skygate but also around the DHL apron / Lomandra Drive to the east.
In practice I suspect no more than a handful of people would be inflicting this journey on themselves so Airtrain simply wouldn’t care.
The equivalent in Sydney is a lot less of a hassle and so a lot more attractive, because the bus component is a lot shorter and services are more frequent. This involves getting off the train somewhere like Mascot or Rockdale to dodge the terminal stations gate fee, and getting the local bus into the terminal - 420 from either station to either terminal, or 350 from Mascot to domestic terminal only. Some people also probably get off at Mascot and walk to the domestic terminal, it is certainly doable if you are lightly loaded and happy about a 20 minute walk.
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I’m not so much thinking it involves a blanket exclusivity for Airtrain, but more so could BAC and BCC working in concert to synchronise their services be seen as collusion to provide a alternative, partially Government-subsidised service to the airport that breaches the exclusivity their contract does guarantee?
While catching the 590 to or from UMG is an hour of your life that you will never get back, catching it from Toombul to Skygate is a 10 minute trip with walking across Sandgate Road being the only substantial issue. With some better syncronisation between the 590 and SKYG, could going via Toombul potentially become a properly viable alternative?
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Only of they had the bus interchange at Toombul on the station side rather than the formal shopping centre side.
More SKYG services with extended operating times would be a start to help better connect with the 590.
Skygate didn’t exist when AirTrain was signed. Anything built at Skygate is BAC owned and nothing to do with AirTrain.
The contract does not make any claims of space under or near the viaduct as their exclusive domain, nor do they have say on development on land they don’t own in proximity to the viaduct
The BCC can add as many bus services to Skygate as they wish, AirTrain got no say on this. There are no terminals at Skygate.
Let’s not forget about the fake-metro extension too.
Both are zombie proposals and we will here more about them in 2028.
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I had the misfortune of catching an extremely overcrowded shoulder peak 555 this morning.
I took the caught the bus at 9:25 am, 10 minutes late.
The bus was essentially overfull at Springwood, but the driver still allowed a couple of people to get on at Rochedale. By this point, there were people standing in the rear door no standing area. I’m assuming that at this point, the driver put the “bus full” sign on. He stopped at Eight Mile Plains to let maybe 3-4 people off, but someone still boarded (via the rear door, which isn’t permitted on Logan buses, but that’s a separate discussion).
The strange thing is, I don’t know why someone would try to board this very obviously overfull bus, as there was an M1 ready to depart, and in fact departed essentially simultaneously with the 555.
Anyway, getting back to my main point, maybe there’s a need for more artics on the 555, or perhaps to run an extra 581 or two after 9 am, or perhaps some short 555s starting at Springwood.
Whatever the solution is, the overcrowding suggests insufficient bus capacity at that point in time.
It would also be a viable option from Cannon Hill. It’s only about 20 minutes from Cannon Hill Interchange to Skygate by bus. Cannon Hill station to Toombul Station is 42 minutes. Yes, not the same place, I realise. Pity there’s no rail connection with the 590 on the Cleveland line.
Or you could get them fake metro’s out to Springwood/Loganholme way.
This exactly mirrors my experiences with catching buses from Loganholme after 7:30am, when the 569 frequency is dialed back to every 15 minutes with a timetable that mirrors the 555 - 7:30, 7:45, 8:00 (then the final AM run at 8:20am). The effect of this is that the 15 minute breaks between services allow enough passengers to gather that you end up having two services leaving at standing capacity already, and for the 555 that changes to crush capacity when Springwood and Rochedale are serviced.
Honestly, I think they need to consider adding additional 569 peak services to plug the gaps and lessen crowds at Loganholme, increase the peak period to continue longer to alleviate the shoulder peak crowds, and maybe consider all day route extensions or new routes to better link Springwood to the M1 at Eight Mile Plains. Extending the 572 and 574 to Eight Mile Plains or even Griffith would be my first suggestion - these routes take ~20mins end to end, so you could extend them without making them excessively long routes.
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I agree that the lack of connections with this route on the Cleveland line is terrible. Although this speaks to a wider issue across the network too regarding of lack of connectivity between various modes.
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I’d say that the real issue with the Cleveland line is that a lot of its stations are in genuinely terrible locations, with some of them being waaaaay too close to each other.
An upgrade program involving level crossing removals, electrification of the third track for actual peak express service and relocation/merging of certain stations (think Union Station in Melbourne, but for Murrarie/Cannon Hill) would be the ultimate solution.
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Also agree.
For the record, Clarks only have 6 artics so think of that what you will (Transport for Brisbane has about 60+). Clarks’ artics only ever wake up during the AM and PM peaks, and never during the weekends (when FSLs’ on the 555 are still common). So to say that they are underutilized is an understatement.
I’d argue TMR needs to get their priorities in order, and secure + loan Clarks some artics. Stipulate that those loaned articulated buses are to run up and down the SE busway, doing 555s’ 7 days a week.
The more cost-effective alternative is to truncate the 555 to Griffith University busway station (very unpopular opinion). The 555 would no longer be a one-seater journey into the City, but it would improve on-time reliability and potentially allow the 555 to double in off-peak frequency (from 15 minutes to 7.5 minute headways).
There’s also the case for the 569 to become an all-day service, as I know they’re more popular than the 555s’, since they run express to the City.
The 6 artiulated buses that Clarks currently have. 4 of the Clarks artics are soon to be retired, as they have been in service since 2008-2010.
Source: Queensland Bus Tracker > Clarks
It’s probably for the best that Logan Clarks get loaned a fresh batch of artics this year (preferably up to 20 or more artics to ensure that the 555 is always serviced by artics).
This is justified as 4 of their existing 6 artics are very, very old - they’ve been in operation since 2008-2010, and are surely going to be retired in the next few years.
I would prefer to kill the 569 and merge that capacity to a massively beefed-up 555, running express from Buranda to Griffith.
In general I would prefer to neuter the reliance on peak/rocket services by simplifying the bus network with a decreased amount of routes that offer more frequency.
The problem with Clarks’ artics isn’t just that they’re under-utilised: they get sent to absolutely absurd and nonsensical services. Like…
What the actual hell is this? Why is unit 556 being sent out to do the 570 with its incredibly small streets?
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Two decades ago now, myself and another, a Consultant, actually went out to Capalaba and explored how we could expand on the Capalaba Bus Interchange (which had opened a few years prior at the time) - I think it was linked to the Capalaba Park and Ride or the Eastern Busway planning, not sure which one, but was happening at the time. And one of the ideas I floated to the Consultant while I was out there was to turn Noleen Street into a bus only road, linking to Dollery Road and Moreton Bay Road, with the interchange built along it. It was only a brief idea.
That is, buses would turn right (IB services) into Noleen St from Moreton Bay Road, with an extension of the existing traffic lights and then pop out at Dollery Road (which wouldn’t need lights as it’s not as busy as Moreton Bay Road).
As a side note, I really hate the position of the Capalaba Park and Ride, hated it from the moment it was decided to be built there. Makes planning a touch annoying.
By the way, just keep in mind too that for some weird reason, Redland City Council decided to knock down the old library building and community hub building that opened in the mid 90s and replace it with a mini skyscraper type building with a revamp of the pedestrian areas near those buildings. So I’m not sure how much space will be available as I don’t know much about that project, in fact, when I last went out to Capalaba to see family, I was shocked that the library had moved into the shopping centre and that the buildings were gone!
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The library’s moving back there once they rebuild, I wish what they did was turn Noleen Street to run the whole way through and have a long Cultural Center style platform for the future Capalaba Metro with a glass bridge overpass connecting the new center to Capalaba Bus Interchange.
And remove the traffic lights on the Redland Bay Road entry and do the same setup but with four platforms instead of two long ones to have smoother arrival/departure time. Extend the bridge to go into Capalaba Park Shopping Center as well.
Close down the Capalaba P&R and turn it into a Metro charging station/depot
The PnR could be turned into a Griffith University styled layover area for connecting buses, as well as some fast chargers for Metrobuses and normal sized electrics.
Right now there’s a small plot of land alongside the PnR that’s used for storing rail replacement buses as well, so it’s not a long shot really.
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