New Brisbane bus routes packed as huge cost of Adelaide St tunnel revealed
The eye-watering cost of Brisbane’s latest CBD tunnel, which will allow Metro buses to leave every three minutes, has been revealed. It comes as data shows people love the new city bus network.
A new Adelaide St tunnel which will allow Metro buses to depart every three minutes and associated bus stations has cost ratepayers $558m.
The 213m tunnel will open for business on September 29, with a public open day on September 24 and a party to celebrate.
Council transport committee chair Andrew Wines initially told journalists at a media walk through on September 2 that the tunnel cost $558m, but a spokeswoman later clarified that that figure included upgrades at the UQ Lakes, Cultural Centre, Buranda and King George Square Metro stops. Fast electric bus chargers were also part of the figure.
It comes as new TransLink data showed massive increases in patronage on “trunk’’ routes since the New Bus Network launched on Brisbane’s southside on June 30.
The NBN ushered in the city’s first widespread two-trip system, replacing single-trip journeys on more than 60 routes.
It was aimed at feeding commuters into high-capacity Metro buses and cutting travel time by avoiding the congested CBD.
Almost 13,000 more people were now using route 120, with route 107 now carrying almost three times as many people.
Usage on the 171 was up 125 per cent and the 205 was up 88 per cent.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the Adelaide St tunnel would be a “game-changing’’ project.
“More than half a million hours of work have gone into this project and the result is a world-class piece of infrastructure that will support public transport now and into the future,’’ he said.
“By moving thousands of buses underground we’re freeing up space on our CBD streets for everyone to enjoy.’’
TransLink said while the NBN had encouraged more bus patrons, some routes had seen large drops in passengers, such as the 375 and 184.
But it said that was due in some cases to them being split, with the 375 for example now split into a 375 and 348.
Other large drops were due to routes being merged. For instance, the 184 has merged with the 185, or in other cases because routes were reconfigured or renamed.
The data compared the fortnight from June 16-29 with the last two weeks of July, to avoid distortion by the school holidays.
However, TransLink said data could be inflated on small-volume routes and could reflect a “settling in’’ period.
One bus driver, who declined to be named, said troublemakers on the 110 and other notorious routes were still working out how to catch their new services, so the NBN had ironically temporarily made it safer for passengers and drivers.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner also said council had “passed on’’ negative feedback passengers had made to council about TransLink’s new journey planner app, which replaced the MyTranslink app on August 29.
Users on social media have panned the new app as being difficult to navigate, a criticism Mr Schrinner said passengers had made to council.
He also said that while the Adelaide St tunnel was designed to allow the current five-minute frequency of buses on the two Metro routes, M1 and M2, to increase to every three minutes, the timing was up to TransLink.
It would likely transition first to every four minutes, he said.
The project has been one of the most challenging engineering efforts of any tunnel in Australia due to its shallowness and the loose soil, although a council engineer denied at today’s media briefing that it had collapsed or even moved during construction.
A unique mining excavation technique had to be employed because water, electricity and other services were so close, rather than the usual machine boring.
The tunnel would carry take more than 1400 buses off clogged CBD surface streets each weekday, as well as Metro services.
It delivered 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.
George St and Turbot St traffic would ease due to more than 1000 bus trips per week being removed.
The tunnel was not originally part of the $1.5bn Metro project, which was to have had a Cultural Centre underground station.
A prolonged, bitter dispute between council and the state government saw that station finally axed.
Labor Opposition Leader in Council, Jared Cassidy, said the tunnel had been “plagued’’ with delays, cost blowouts and shutdowns due to safety concerns.
“We were promised a 2023 opening, then a 2024 opening and as we predicted, it will be complete late 2025. The goalposts on this project have changed so much,” he said.
“It’s also baffling to hear the Lord Mayor admit today that the business case for the Metro expansion has not even started, despite the federal government reallocating $50 million for this project back in February.”
Multiple weekend closures of CBD tunnels were needed recently to allow testing.
The free public tunnel preview event, from 10.30am-2pm, included seven sessions. Registration was essential as numbers were limited.
The event included live music at the popular Brisbane City Markets at nearby Reddacliff Place.
