Brisbane Metro costs go up as buses go down below the ground

Tweaks to the Brisbane Metro underground bus station design beneath the Queensland Cultural Centre will push more buses underground past the station and add costs to the project already costed at $944 million.

The Queensland government on Wednesday afternoon agreed to consider making a contribution towards those additional costs once the design was finished.

Last year, the state government requested Brisbane City Council investigate other nearby options for the underground busway station for the metro.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says tweaks to the design of the Brisbane Metro underground busway station means West End buses may go underground from Melbourne Street to get to the underground station. That will add extra costs.Credit: Tony Moore

Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner confirmed a final site had since been chosen with the state government for the underground busway station.

"The new underground metro station will be at the Cultural Centre. It will be located at the original proposed location that we put forward a number of years ago," Cr Schrinner said.

"What we are working through now with the state government is some tweaks to the design of that station.

"Those tweaks would potentially involve another (underground) portal for buses from West End to get into the metro station.

"The original proposal  was for the West End services to continue at surface level, with most services going underground. Now, we are now looking for opportunities for the West End services to go underground."

Several engineering options were being explored by the project team, Cr Schrinner said. Those design options and a request for a contibution towards those likely extra costs would be presented to the state government as soon as they were completed.

"I think that is a reasonable assumption to make," Cr Schrinner said.

"We had a fully-funded project ready to go. The state wanted some changes to that project. It is reasonable to expect that they put in some contribution."

On Wednesday morning, Cr Schrinner explained how an underground sewer pumping station under the Cultural Centre was being shifted to nearby Alexander Smith Park, where it will be placed 14 metres underground and the park replanted.

The sewage pumping station needs to be shifted to allow the underground bus station to be built, he said.

"Currently at the site of the underground metro station at the Cultural Centre there is an underground pumping station that needs to be relocated," he said.

"The site is being relocated here and we rebuild the pumping station here and de-commission the old one and get on with building the underground Cultural Centre metro station.

"So this is an important $8.7 million package of early works that will enable the Brisbane Metro to go ahead."

The council is paying 80 per cent of the relocation costs and Queensland Urban Utilities the remaining 20 per cent.

The council has so far invested $115 million on the $944 million Brisbane Metro project, which Cr Schrinner said was scheduled to be completed by "the end of 2023".

"But that will ultimately depend on how quickly the state government reaches an agreement with us on the Cultural Centre station," he said.

Cr Schrinner said "other parts of the project" were being completed while the state government and the Brisbane Metro project team evaluate changes to the underground busway station.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said there was now good collaboration with the council, which had agreed to "progress a design to underground West End bus services".

"Being able to take buses off the above-ground road network would be a good outcome," Mr Bailey said.

"We’re ready to discuss any funding implications with council on what is currently a $944 million project once the final design work is complete."