Labor announces Brisbane transport shake-up

Brisbane Labor has announced plans to axe all future funding to inner city transport projects, including the Brisbane Metro, and redirect spending as part of a major transport overhaul.

An artist's impression of how the new Brisbane Metro electric bus charging depot in Rochedale will look. Photo: Supplied

Brisbane Labor will axe all future funding to inner city transport projects, including the Brisbane Metro, and redirect spending to suburban works as part of a major transport overhaul.

The Labor Party has announced it will halve the price of all Brisbane bus fares if it wins the council election in March as part of a significant transport plan that would see existing metro project funding redirected to suburban infrastructure.

The party plans to redirect $1 billion worth of spending towards traffic calming and safe school projects, intersection updates, safe cycling pathway updates and public transport initiatives in an effort to curb Brisbane’s crippling congestion.

A Labor-led council would spend $110 million implementing the 50 per cent fare discount on Zone 1 and Zone 2 bus routes which it estimates would save commuters around $1000 a year.

The combined zones pull in more than $221 million in revenue each year, but Labor said the costs would be covered by the redistribution of planned metro project funding that council was not already contractually locked into.

Lord Mayoral candidate Tracey Price said the transport plan would simultaneously address cost of living and congestion challenges.

Labor mayoral candidate for Brisbane City Council Tracey Price. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

“Public transport in Brisbane needs to be about more than one inner-city project – Brisbane Metro,” she said.

“There needs to be more work done, in the suburbs especially.

“The Lord Mayor and his team have loved the media opportunities and social media photos that have come from the Metro project.

“He has entirely neglected the rest of the network though, and people are fed up with the inaction.”

Under the plan, a Suburban Congestion Taskforce made up of representatives from Bicycle Queensland, RACQ, the Bus Industry Council, Transport Unions, TMR and council’s traffic and transport engineers would be created to direct council on which suburban road upgrades should be prioritised.

Bus fares would be halved under the plan. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

Labor would also put forward a $10 million business case to extend the Northern Transit Way on Gympie Rd, bring bus manufacturing back to the city, connect more footpaths to bus stops, extend night bus services and make them free between midnight and 5am to ensure people can get home safely.

Labor also plans to fund extra security vehicles and guards on night bus services and the fitting of more safety barriers on buses.

An additional $25 million would be spent on fixing 2000 broken footpaths, with Labor planning to fast track cycling projects and crack down on e-scooter companies.

Ms Price said the transport plan was ambitious but realistic.

“It’s about getting back to the basics and really thinking about what the city needs as our population grows,” she said.

“People should be able to get around the city, safely and affordably.

“My team is focused on getting public and active transport right while tackling congestion at the same time.”

LNP spokeswoman for the Team Schrinner campaign Fiona Cunningham has called Labor’s transport plan a “diabolically dishonest announcement”.

“It attempts to respend money already invested delivering fully-electric turn-up-and-go Brisbane Metro services across a network of 18 stations,” she said on Tuesday.

“It attempts to spend fare money that belongs to the State Government, not Brisbane City Council.

“Worst of all, it attempts to spend money that simply doesn’t exist.”

Ms Cunningham said the $1billion transport commitment was a blunder for Labor’s lord mayoral candidate Tracey Price and it would only be paid for through rate hikes.

“Brisbane residents can’t afford a Green/Labor Coalition of Chaos running Australia’s largest local government,” she said.

Transport plan snapshot:

• Make all Brisbane City Council bus fares half-price

• Build buses in Brisbane

• Invest $1 billion dollars in suburban road infrastructure

• Bring forward cycling projects to fix missing links

Fare Revenue for 2022/23 FY

Zone 1: $135,352,306

Zone 2: $86,080,722

Zone 3: $40,702,924

Zone 4: $5,705,661

Zone 5: $16,703,894

Zone 6: $5,691,292

Zone 7: $127,593

Zone 8: $329,392

Total: $290,693,784