'We're as frustrated as they are': No short-term fix for Brisbane buses

Some of Brisbane’s busiest bus routes are struggling to cope with demand, as students and professionals vie for space on routes through Woolloongabba to the University of Queensland.

Anecdotal reports of full buses daily driving past key stops such as Princess Alexandra Hospital backed up data on bus patronage, The Gabba ward councillor Jonathan Sri said.

Brisbane buses are often overcrowded particularly on key routes through southern suburbs to the University of Queensland.Credit: AAP/Darren England

The Greens councillor said bus routes such as the popular 66 - which travels from UQ at St Lucia through Woolloongabba, South Brisbane and up to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital - were frequently overcrowded and missing stops.

Other routes, such as the 139 and 169, from Sunnybank and Upper Mt Gravatt through to UQ, also missed stops often because of overcrowding.

“What the data tells us and what I’m hearing anecdotally is that there’s massive demand for those UQ-related bus routes, and that students are frequently missing out and that people get left at stops,” Cr Sri said.

“At the moment it seems like the council is waiting for Brisbane Metro to happen and hoping to address some of the problems.

“The state isn’t putting more funding into the creation of new routes and services, which means if the council sees the need for more services it has to cannibalise other routes.”

Cr Sri said students in particular populated the bus routes but were less likely to raise issues with council or the state government about delays.

Public transport lobby group Rail Back on Track also reported increasing complaints from professionals and students getting left behind at stops along the route, particularly near the hospital.

Brisbane City Council public and active transport committee chairman Ryan Murphy (Doboy) said the council shared the frustrations of bus users on the busy routes.

“We plan all routes in conjunction with the network planner which is TransLink, we know that UQ particularly is a massive trip generator and that route 66 service essentially mirrors [Brisbane Metro] line 2,” Cr Murphy said.

“So we know that the demand for a high-frequency turn-up-and-go service there is really high.

“We’re proposing Metro because we know ultimately there is no short-term solution to bus overcrowding on this critical route.”

Brisbane’s buses are managed by state-owned TransLink and operated by the council.

A customer satisfaction report produced by TransLink for February showed Brisbane’s buses scored 68 out of 100, or “satisfactory” performance for reliability and frequency.

A TransLink spokesperson confirmed the UQ routes were some of the busiest in the city and the authority was “well aware” of the high passenger demand to and from UQ.

Monthly travel data based on TransLink Go Card tap-on origin and tap-off destinations show several of the key routes, such as the 139 from Boggo Road at Dutton Park to UQ St Lucia, reported thousands of passengers filling popular bus routes.

“Our principal source of information is ticketing data, feedback from bus operators and feedback from our customers, including through social media,” the spokesperson said.

“TransLink is currently working with a range of stakeholders including our delivery partner Transport for Brisbane in developing a solution to increase service capacity.”

The spokesperson said there were no immediate plans to increase buses to the overcrowded routes, with route 66 buses already operating every five minutes using larger articulated buses.

A council spokesman said while the state government was ultimately responsible for delivering public transport, the council would work with TransLink to address overcrowding.

“Council last year rolled out 20 new high-capacity buses on Brisbane’s busiest routes including routes 66, 169 and 139,” the spokesman said.

“A further 10 high-capacity buses will be delivered in early 2020 and will be distributed across the network."

The spokesman said regular Brisbane buses carried fewer than 80 passengers, however, the high-capacity vehicles allowed significantly more passengers.

Cr Murphy said while there was no easy short-term solution for the overcrowding issue, the council was eager to begin work on its new high-frequency public transport service Brisbane Metro to resolve the issues.

“The message is that we need the state government to get on board with Brisbane Metro to get our approvals happening soon,” he said.

“We are ready to start early works on Metro … but until then we remain as frustrated as [passengers] are.”

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said in late March that the state government would not be rushed in giving approvals to Metro as it carefully assessed the $900 million project and its considerable impacts on the city.