I thought there were decanting facilities available at Robina stabling. But maybe there are limitations.
Don’t they have that electric locomotive that inspects the track and the overhead wiring on a regular basis?
Routine inspections and maintenance on the train sets.
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That disruption on the train network yesterday was so inconvenient because all the people that were meant to catch to train piled on the 320 and 301 and subsequently they had to change the signage to bus full so no one could get on it at St Pauls Terrace.
There was no mention on the apps that the buses weren’t picking up people inbound past Bowen Hills. It should show on the apps that a major disruption has occured and that buses were full and not picking up passengers.
If the driver changes the signage to bus full it should trigger a GTFS response to the apps and websites. That way it helps inform people so they can make other arrangements.
Plus at Central all the services on PIDs were showing arriving in 1min, 
when that wasn’t even the case.
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It pains me how little faith I have in BCC/Translink disruption management and it continues to be proven true.
While I had read about it a few weeks earlier, on Tuesday (16Dec25) I inadvertently found myself arriving into Buranda at 20:18 for a transfer to the route 205 trip due out at 20:26 minutes before the scheduled closure at 20:30.
I only remembered while on my first bus after seeing service change notifications from the “Transit” app (More below).
Arriving at Buranda all seemed normal and there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary other than the info screen rotation of the PIDs.
I was sitting near the southern end of the platform and around 20:25 I started observing tags and artics turning and using the O’Keefe portal (Only used by route 61 in normal operations). Noteably the 20:23 169OB never came through Buranda and I observed a gas artic re-entering after Buranda (Aligned with AnyTrip positions). It initially seemed to be about 50/50 split of buses still travelling via Buranda and those skipping it and gradually dropped as time progressed. I noted a 140OB going through at 20:29 and a 555OB at 20:31.
At 20:31 as the 555 departed a manual annoucement came over the PA (Partially inaudible due to the departing bus):
“This is the busway operations… [inaudible]… customers at Buranda busway station please head back upstairs. Alternative stops are being arranged. All buses will be driving around the station which is now closed for maintenance works. Thank-you.”
At this point there would have been about 10 people on the outbound platform and a handfull on the inbound platform.
A few of us got up to leave and then had to relay the message to a few of the other passengers that were oblivious to the upcoming closure, even after the annoucement.
As I was just leaving the platform (Now 20:33) a 120OB pulled in a few people had to run back down. I believe this was the last service to use the station.
I didn’t hang around the immediate station area as I knew per the service update that despite the PA, there was no clear replacement stops for most services, that my desired trip was long gone, and ultimately, that I was keen to go observe non-standard operations.
O’Keefe Portal:
Logan Rd Roundabout:
As usual, there was little information, no signage outside the PIDs, no staff presence and seemingly free rein for drivers in how they handled the closure.
The official service update is grossly insufficient:
- Outside of route 555, no alternative stops were listed for Buranda. These 555 alternative stops were “temporary” stops with no physical demarcation (Not even an A-frame).
- Routes 222 and 209 got alternative stops listed but only due to the closure of Langlands Park and Stones Corner stations which were never explcitly called out as closed. In hindsight this would have also impacted route 61 which I don’t remember seeing operating via O’Keefe after ~20:35.
- Routes 209 and 222 were the only routes to be tagged. As such, only these routes would have appeared via Translink status as having impacts. While I’m glad that Translink tag stops/stations these days rather than only routes (As minor stop changes are generally not relevent for through-passengers), disruption like this where buses notably deviate from the regular route, potentially skip a major interchange station and will easily lose 5 minutes clearly justifies notifying the entire route. I believe that all routes that travel through Buranda during the closure window should have been tagged (i.e. M1, 120, 130, 140, 150, 169, 179, 180, 205, 209, 222, 555)
Diversions in practice
As alluded to, diversions were wildly inconsistent. From my observations, I believe the official diversion was:
OB: SEB then right into Eastern Busway westbound via Harrogate St Tunnel, double left onto O’Keefe St via portal, u-turn at the Logan Rd roundabout then left into O’Keefe portal (Opp Gillingham St).
- Note this exit onto O’Keefe St would not be legal for UQ services (i.e. 169, 179, 209). While I didn’t observe these routes around PAH, to be legal they would have had to service PA Hospital lower level and if so this should have been communicated and tagged.
- Many buses seemed to still service Buranda by stoppping on O’Keefe St eastbound infront of the busway station. I did not observe any M1 services picking-up or setting down passengers but did see some passengers attemting to exit while stopped at the O’Keefe portal traffic lights.
- During the first 15min or so of the closure many outbound buses were coming down Logan Rd rather than the SEB.
IB: SEB then right onto O’Keefe St Portal (Opp Gillingham St), left onto O’Keefe St then right via Ipswich Road to Woollongabba? While I saw many buses head under the M3 overpass westbound, I only observed a single route on the west side which was a 180IB which set-down at the O’Keefe St near Wolseley St stop (Normally 77 and 202 only) and I assumed turn right for the Gabba but may have travelled to the Boggo Rd turnaround. There was no traffic control at the O’Keefe St portal as per other similiar closures which is required for right turns to minimise the diversion.
120 - Services travelled via Junction St
180 - Services seemed to be a mix of travelling via Junction St, Stones Corner and busway
209, 222 - Travelled via Old Cleveland Road and O’Keefe St
205 - That initial trip I missed seemed to stay on the M3 all the way to Cornwall. The next trip an hour later followed the standard diversion and exited the busway onto Cornwall st.
130, 140, 150 - Most drivers followed the standard diversion. Did see a 130OB turning from Ipswich Rd into Cornwall St at ~21:10. Believe I saw at least one of these routes on Junction St too.
Overall it was another very disappointing experience with how Buranda was handled and I can’t imagine that the Upper Mt Gravatt (Mon 15Dec) and Inner Northern Busway (Wed 17Dec) this week were handled any better.
The next Buranda closure for May 2026 is already listed on the Translink site, unfortunately, still with the exact same poor public facing information: Buranda busway station - evening station closure | Translink.
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That is very valuable feedback. Hope the powers to be take note.
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What maintenance work was actually happening at Buranda if there were no workers present? How do they not have traffic control or at least busway operations staff on site to direct the buses and passengers? How do they close a whole busway station with no proper temporary stops?!
They don’t just make an announcement and have one sign to close a road and expect everyone to know and observe the closure.it shouldn’t be any different for the busway, let alone then considering passenger communication.
Agreed! @rowangray or other @management_committee, can this be provided direct to a contact in TransLink? The regular feedback channels are useless for this sort of feedback.
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There was maintenance vehicles and traffic control that arrived around 20:40 but they were only on the busway itself, not for the regular intersections that buses were using.
This car was setting up roadworks signs inside the busway and a few min later a convoy of maintenance vehicles came down the eastern busway from stones corner but I don’t have any footage of that.
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As a slight aside, is this the first time we’ve seen the Metro buses carrying passengers on shared roads?
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I happened to find a set of Captain Cook bridge diversion videos on YouTube the other day:
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The detour may also have been confusing for drivers, as one night this week I saw a 555 with passengers at UQ Lakes, getting directions from another driver on how to get back on track.
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Thats a load of nonsense. Theres like 20 x 6 car roads just in dedicated stabling at beenleigh and robina. That’s not even including the 2 in the beenleigh turnback and 3 you could practically use at varsity lakes.
Seems Exhibition Station will be in use Monday to Wednesday (22-24/12).
A train will also run every 20 minutes between Roma Street and Exhibition stations.
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That would be good if they can open the Ekka station when it comes to further future shutdowns between Fortitude Valley and Roma Street.
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Currently on an R591 from Yeerongpilly to Banoon. Packed to the rafters. Once again, Translink has failed to account for passenger demand during track closures.
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What a fun month in store then…
Note to self, visit the Goldie between 28th and the 2nd
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Anyone know why?
I have two theories:
Theory 1 is simply to provide an alternative for people travelling to Fortitude Valley and/or Bowen Hills.
Theory 2 is to allow trains to terminate back at Mayne rather than at Roma Street, for operational reasons.
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I was thinking along the lines of theory 1 as well. Is this the first time trains have been run to exhibition and there is no local event?
Timetable:
Nice clockface timetable in place:
DOWN Roma St to Exhibition on the hour, 20 min past the hour, 40 min past the hour.
UP Exhibition to Roma St 10 min past the hour, 30 min past the hour, 50 minute past the hour.