Pedestrians stream through Brisbane CBD bus tunnel ahead of official opening
A Brisbane CBD tunnel designed to streamline bus trips has been taken over by pedestrians before its official opening on Monday.
Thousands of people have walked through Brisbane CBD’s Adelaide St tunnel, ahead of its official opening on Monday.
The 213m tunnel, designed to reduce CBD congestion, will carry around 1400 bus and metro trips every weekday, reducing CBD congestion.
Brisbane City Council Public Transport chairman Andrew Wines said it would save significant travel time in the event of incident in the CBD, as well as take pressure off Adelaide St and Victoria Bridge.
“This ensures that your timetable is right, and you can bank on the times in it, and that’s really one of the key things for public transport user, is that the timetable they read, is the timetable they ride, and that’s what this tunnel is really all about,” he said.
Mr Wines said council was continuing to work with TransLink to introduce three-minute services, moving from the current frequency time of five minutes.
“I’m confident that the new services will be extremely reliable, we’ve seen significant improvements in travel time reliability, we’ve seen significant reductions in congestion in the inner south tunnel and Victoria Bridge,” he said.
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said the tunnel would be vital heading into the 2032 Games.
“We’ve always said 2032 was not just about the two weeks of the Games. It’s about the legacy - one of those is public transport,” Mr Bleijie said.
“Southeast Queensland is one of the fastest growing regions in Australia, but we’ve got to make sure we plan for the population growth.”
Brisbane City Council previously revealed the project cost taxpayers $558m, but the figure also included upgrades to stations including UQ Lakes, Cultural Centre and King George Square.
It will deliver a dedicated connection between North Quay and King George Square station, linking the Inner Northern and South East busways to make journeys faster and more reliable.
The tunnel is the final stage of the Brisbane Metro after it was first touted by council in 2016.
