Designated bus lanes for major arterial road has businesses worried

Brisbane business owners are living in fear for their livelihoods as they continue to be kept in the dark about new bus lanes on one of the city’s busiest roads. If the plan goes ahead, hundreds of crucial car parks will be wiped out.

Business owners fear for their livelihoods because proposed express bus lanes threaten to wipe hundreds of car parks from one of Brisbane busiest arterial roads.

The Palaszczuk Government is following through on its election promise of a transitway from Kedron to Chermside that differs from a plan drafted seven years ago.

Instead of the route passing the Holy Spirit and Prince Charles Hospitals, the Northern Transitway will trek solely along Gympie Road, from Sadlier Street Kedron, to Chermside Shopping Centre.

Plans for the $53 million, 2.3km Northern Transitway are still being drawn and it’s the unknown and lack of information that’s alarmed local business owners.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads (DTMR) has promised a more efficient public transport system with improved travel times and improved footpaths.

However, there has been no indication of how many car parks will be lost, whether it will be a 24/7 designated bus lane or during peak hours only when it opens in 2020.

“Preliminary work indicates that some kerbside parking along Gympie Road may be impacted by the Transitway,” a Transport and Main Roads spokesperson said.

A CBD bound bus passes a section of Gympie Road, Chermside that will have designated bus lanes by 2020. Picture: Darren Cartwright

“Transitways are a cost-effective, on-road bus priority measure that enables further development of efficient bus services and provides for an incremental approach to delivering bus priority infrastructure.”

Several businesses have told The Courier-Mail that a DTMR information letter, delivered by hand in late November, was “extremely” light on detail.

Follow-up face-to-face visits DTMR staff, while cordial, appeared like “lip service”.

Sink and Bathroom Shop owner Donald Sinclair may not renew his lease next year if the Northern Transitway removes all parking outside his Gympie Road shop at Chermside. Picture: Darren Cartwright

Donald Sinclair, who has run the Sink and Bathroom Shop on Gympie Road for 15 years, said business owners are totally in the dark.

He said if there were no provisions for loading zones or parking outside his premises during business hours then he was unlikely to renew his lease next year.

“The girl I spoke to was very polite but it felt like lip service,” Mr Sinclair said.

“We deal in baths and toilets and the truck drivers, couriers, and customers park right at the front door.

“My lease is due next year and I have to seriously look at that because if customers can’t find a park.”

EmbroidMe owner Daryl Ragen will most likely relocate if the Northern Transitway removes all parking outside his Gympie Road shop at Chermside.

EmbriodMe owner Daryl Ragen, who has been in the same store for 13 years, said his lease was also up for renewal in 2019 and he may not re-sign either.

He suggested to a DTMR representatives that the on-street parking along Gympie Rd only needed to be a designated a clearway during peak hour for buses.

“They said ‘doubt if that is anything we’ll be able to do’,” Mr Ragen said.

Neither Mr Ragen nor Mr Sinclair had expected the designated bus lanes to pass their shops because the section, between Rode Road and Hamilton Road, Chermside, was not part of the 2011 Northern Busway: Kedron to Bracken Ridge draft.

Further south along Gympie Road, Consign-A-Car manager Yvette Cottrill said they would have to relocate or close if there was no on-street parking.

She said car yards along Gympie Road rely on random inspections but with nowhere for people to stop, there were troubled times ahead.

“A lot of our customers are passing just pull-up and come in. It will kill the business if there is no on-street parking,” she said.

The proposed Northern Transitway may be include sacrificing car spaces outside several car yards along Gympie Road, Kedron and Chermside. Picture: Darren Cartwright

Local councillor Fiona King said she’s was looking forward to seeing the new plans and that she had been speaking with businesses and residents in the area.

However, none of the businesses contacted by The Courier-Mail had heard from Cr King in relation to the Northern Transitway.

“I’ve been here 30 years and she has never walked into my office,” said Ray White principal Brian McGrath.

Mr McGrath said he lacked faith in the DTMR delivering a plan that would ease traffic congestion but not inconveniencing or harm businesses.

RACQ’s head of public policy Dr Rebecca Michael said the motoring organisation supported a more efficient public transport system.

She said they were keen to see if the plans included provisions for the bus lanes to also be T3 lanes to ease the bottleneck on one of the most heavily congested sections of Gympie Road.

“It’s (the Transitway) not going to fix congestion on Gympie Road, but I don’t think it will make it worst either,” Dr Michael said.