Brisbane Metro to expand to Chermside, Carindale and Springwood

Brisbane City Council's proposed metro system will eventually be extended to Chermside, Carindale and Springwood, deputy mayor Adrian Schrinner said, as more details of the revised project were revealed.

According to the council's plans, the new Chermside line would feed into the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital station, while the Carindale line would feed into the Buranda metro station.

Artist's impression of a Brisbane Metro bi-articulated bus crossing the Victoria Bridge.Credit: BCC

The Springwood line would be an extension of the already announced Eight Mile Plains line, along the South East Busway.

The revelation came weeks before the business case for Brisbane Metro 1 (between Eight Mile Plains and Roma Street) and 2 (between the University of Queensland and the RBWH) was due to be released.

Deputy mayor Adrian Schrinner says the Brisbane Metro will eventually be extended to Chermside, Carindale and Springwood.Credit: Robert Shakespeare

Cr Schrinner said, ideally, the expanded Brisbane Metro would run along the yet-to-be built Eastern Busway and Northern Busway extensions, but it could still be delivered prior to those state projects being completed.

All that would be required in that scenario would be dedicated bus lanes and the construction of Brisbane Metro platforms.

Having the Brisbane Metro mixing with general traffic, Cr Schrinner said, would "defeat the purpose" of the high-frequency service, which would have a service every three minutes during peak times.

"If, for example, you had bus lanes along Old Cleveland Road to Carindale, then you could potentially run metro along those bus lanes all the way out to Carindale," he said.

"There would be a cost in making some modifications to the infrastructure with the platforms, it could be done relatively quickly.

"We'd need to procure additional vehicles to do that, but in the scheme of things, once we've got the model in place and it's operating with Metro 1 and Metro 2, I think it could be scaled quite quickly."

The Chermside connection was mooted by Rail: Back on Track public transport lobbyist Robert Dow earlier this week as a future Brisbane Metro route.

Cr Schrinner said the council's abandonment of its original $1.54 billion Brisbane Metro proposal, which had rubber-tyred trams running along tracks between Woolloongabba and Herston, allowed its future expansion.

Instead, bi-articulated buses would run the high-frequency routes.

"It's a scalable and expandable project now, which is wasn't in its original form," Cr Schrinner said.

"When you're relying on the tracks, that then limits your flexibility essentially, so that's one of the advantages of the new (Brisbane Metro), that you can extend it further."

Future extensions to the Brisbane Metro are shown with the broken yellow lines.Credit: BCC

Details of the new Cultural Centre underground metro station have also been released, although detailed plans of the new station, including artists' impressions, had not yet be drawn up.

The station would be built about seven metres below the intersection of Grey and Melbourne streets, adjacent to the existing South Brisbane train station.

It would include two 100-metre platforms (inbound and outbound), platform screen doors, real-time passenger information displays, off-board ticketing and escalators.

The proposed location of the Brisbane Metro's South Brisbane station, which will be seven metres underground.Credit: BCC

The existing Cultural Centre busway station platforms would also be replaced, to cater for bus services connecting West End, the CBD and Fortitude Valley, such as the existing CityGlider services.

Upgrades to six existing busway stations – Eight Mile Plains, Upper Mount Gravatt, Griffith University, Buranda, Mater Hill and Roma Street – would see platforms lengthened, while another 11 stations would need modifications.

Platform screen doors, which would provide a physical barrier from the busways, would also be installed at Brisbane Metro stations.

Cr Schrinner said the final cost of Metro 1 and Metro 2 would be revealed in the business case due next month, but it was expected to be "less than $1 billion".

"With the new metro, the fact that we're not worrying about tracks means that we can essentially extend it, provided you have infrastructure like a busway or dedicated right of way," he said.

"At the very minimum, you'd need dedicated bus lanes. Ideally, you'd need proper stations as well, because these are long vehicles that can't use a normal bus stations.

"But if you had a busway extended to Carindale or Chermside, you could easily run the metro out to those areas. Wherever the busway is extended, we can look at an extended metro as well."

At its launch, the Brisbane Metro would require about 60 bi-articulated buses, each with a capacity of about 150 passengers.

The council has announced public information sessions about its Brisbane Metro project would be held at:

• King George Square on Saturday, April 8, between 10am and 1pm.
• Queen Street Mall main stage (outside Myer) on Monday, April 10, between 11am and 2pm.
• Holland Park Library at 81 Seville Road on Tuesday April 11, between noon and 2pm.
• Diana Plaza Hotel's Aventine Room at 12 Annerley Road, Woolloongabba, on Thursday, April 20, between 4pm and 7pm.
• Garden City Library at Upper Mount Gravatt on Saturday, April 22, between 10am and 1pm.
• Queen Street Mall main stage (outside Myer) on Thursday, April 27, between 11am and 2pm.