Long-awaited Brisbane Metro buses finally hit city streets
It has been plagued by cost blowouts and delays, but the long-awaited Brisbane Metro will finally start operations today, changing the face of public transport in the river city.
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The river city’s long-awaited Brisbane Metro starts today and council promises it will change the face of public transport in the state’s capital forever.
One half of the project gets rolling this morning – the M2 line which runs from Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital to the University of Queensland – will leave every five-minutes during peak times and service 12 stops, including two universities, three hospitals, the Cultural Centre, and CBD.
First announced back in 2016 by then Lord Mayor Graham Quirk as an underground system for Brisbane and despite keeping the name Brisbane Metro, the project has evolved into what commuters will see today: a turn up and go service using fully electric, 25-odd metre bendy buses that can carry up to 170 passengers.
The project has been plagued by cost blow outs and delays with services originally promised to start in 2023 and the final bill totalling $1.55bn, not the projected $944 million.
Despite criticism from punters and transport advocates that the name is confusing, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says he’s less focused on what people call service, and just wants them to use it.
“You can call it a bus if you want, it’s an amazing bus, it’s a beautiful bus, it’s an electric bus, most importantly it’ a bus that turns up every five minutes,” Mayor Adrian Schrinner told The Courier-Mail during a sneak peek ride on the new vehicles.
“Brisbane Metro is a game changer for public transport as it delivers more services, more often to get people where they need to go.”
Today marks the biggest change to the bus network in decades, with the M2 services alone boosting capacity by up to 3.4 million seats a year.
Infrastructure needed to rollout metro includes upgrades to busway stations, a new underground tunnel and a state-of the-art depot.
The vehicles include USB ports and free Wi-Fi for all passengers, a low floor from front to rear and a panoramic rear window to showcase city views.
The Swiss-made buses have been customised to be “the most accessible in the world”, Brisbane City Council transport Chair Ryan Murphy said.
Mr Murphy said he expected commuters to experience a more comfortable ride with bolstered airconditioning and a smoother ride than on the current diesel buses.
Each metro will be named after something unique to Brisbane, with the first after NRL legend Darren Lockyer.
Passengers on board Metro will receive real-time travel information voiced by Brisbane born actor Melanie Zanetti, who voices Chilli Heeler – Bluey’s mum.
“Brisbane’s buses carry around two-thirds of all public transport passengers and Metro Bus Rapid Transit is the answer to busting congestion through better public transport,” he said.
“This is just the start … with more services rolling out this year that will deliver more than 30 million additional seats every year.”
Mr Murphy said BCC was still working with both the state and federal governments to
on the expansion of Brisbane Metro to include services to Carseldine, Springwood, Capalaba and the airport.
“We want to see three new lines, at least, operating by the time we get to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” he said.
He said the extensions were necessary to get major improvements to the capacity of the city’s public transport system in time for the games.
The M2 had a four-week trial on the 169 route late last year and some teething problems were identified, including the height of grab bars and the loudness of announcements.
New Metro school services will also be introduced this week, including nine extra school routes and 17 services with route changes.
In the second quarter of 2025, Brisbane Metro service M1 will open and replace route 111 and 160 bus services, becoming the permanent M1 service, running at five-minute intervals between Eight Mile Plains and Roma St.
The second stage will also include five extra bus routes, four all-day services, 12 combined bus routes and three divided routes.
There will be capacity for an extra 55,000 students to UQ, QUT and Griffith universities.
In the third quarter of 2025, the highly anticipated Adelaide Street tunnel will switch from the existing Queen St Mall tunnel to the new tunnel, allowing Metro service frequency to increase from five to three minutes.
It will also ease the bottleneck of buses through the Cultural Centre Busway over Victoria St bridge.
Tunnel excavation has finished, with major surface works under way on North Quay to create a new portal into the tunnel.
Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union secretary Tom Brown questioned whether the testing undertaken by Council ahead of the launch, where sandbags were used on the vehicles instead of humans, was wise.
“Our guys are saying the weight alarm can off any time it gets to about only 100 people,’’ he said.
“They’ve only tested it with sandbags, not real people.
“The load limit is 13 tonnes, or 173 people weighing about 75kg. An average Aussie is 80-90kg and they’re not sandbags.
“There’s also only 64 seats. The articulated (bendy) buses have 55 seats, only nine less, but the Metro buses cost $1.5m more.’’
However, Council said the buses had been extensively tested, based on the requirements of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.
Only minor modifications had to be made after last year’s route 169 trial and no weight alarms were triggered during tests, including the public trial.
A spokeswoman said Metros had a much higher capacity than a standard articulated bus, which had a full load capacity of 115 passengers.
Labor Opposition Leader Jared Cassidy said Tuesday’s launch of the Metro M2 route was “not worthy of this LNP Council’s fanfare’’.
“It is simply a longer bus, with less seats, on an existing route (66),’’ he said.
“Today’s bus network changes also include moving seven bus routes from CBD busway stations to street level.
“Placing more buses on busy CBD streets during a congestion crisis is a sign of poor planning and is completely counterproductive.’’
Mr Cassidy said the M2 name could also cause confusion as the Logan Mwy was also called the M2.
Originally published as Long-awaited Brisbane Metro buses finally hit city streets
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