Brisbane bus network cannot fail or city is doomed, experts say

Monday is the last dice roll for Brisbane’s buses. Either the biggest changes in decades work, setting the city up for the 2032 Games, or reform stalls — with an awful future for road users.

The man behind Brisbane’s new “spider web’’ bus model, which starts on Monday on the city’s southside, is understandably nervous.

It is the biggest change to public transport in decades and if it succeeds, experts see a future where mini Metro-style buses will buzz around the suburbs, dropping passengers to big Metro vehicles on bus “super highways’’.

But if it fails, further change will be politically almost impossible.

For the man behind it all, council’s civic cabinet transport chair Ryan Murphy, it’s a big day.

“We’ve been working on this project since 2016 and it’s the most complex, the most difficult, the most expensive project council has ever undertaken,’’ he said.

“There is a lot riding on its success.’’

Councillor Ryan Murphy at the Cultural Centre station ahead of the new bus network changes starting today. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Courier-Mail

“All small and mid-tier cities, when they become big cities, need to evolve the way they move people around.

“Brisbane has the opportunity to take that step into the future.’’

Mr Murphy said Newman-era bus network changes, in 2013, had left “deep cultural scars’’ within Translink and council that persisted to this day.

Newman failed because services were cut, but he said this time there would be 30 million more trips and 160,000 more services a year.

About 85 per cent of services would be faster and they would be on time more often.

There has already been a huge lift in patronage after the M1 Metro route, from the University of Queensland to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, launched early this year.

But Metro buses were still often only half full, or less, and had capacity to take up to 170 people each.

Passengers on the Metro M1 trial last year. Picture: NewsWire/Glenn Campbell

Once the Adelaide St Metro tunnel opened later this year the electric buses could run every three minutes, instead of the current five minutes. “Bunching’’ of the buses should also be fixed.

Mr Murphy conceded 15 per cent of passengers would be “losers’’, facing slower trips and the need to change buses. The majority would be big winners, he said.

“(It) is not a network that is perfect for everyone but it will improve the public transport spine of this city for decades to come,’’ he promised.

Over the past 30 years successive councils have bought more buses, however that achieved little.

Light rail was touted as a solution for a while, but Mr Murphy said it would have meant closing the northern and southeast busways for two to three years and rebuilding Victoria Bridge.

Former LNP Premier Campbell Newman also floated an ambitious BaT plan — bus and train tunnels — but that was dropped by the Palaszczuk Labor government.

Council then proposed a Metro on rails, before settling on 60 electric Metro buses — plus the bus network changes which feed into Metro.

RACQ’s Michael Kane welcomed the reforms although he said they should be viewed as just the start.

“A minority of people will have challenges (with the new routes) but if we don’t do this change 100 per cent of people will be losers,’’ he said.

Dr Kane said Brisbane was decades behind in its rail network compared with Sydney, where its infrastructure was laid down early on when the city was still being built.

He said underground rail projects, the only rail option now left for Brisbane, typically took 20 years to deliver and cost more than $1bn per kilometre to build.

By then, Brisbane would have the same population as greater Sydney.

Dr Kane said in the medium term southeast Queensland was stuck with buses.

They delivered 119m trips a year, compared with 53m for trains and just 22m for ferries and the Gold Coast light rail combined.

He said Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s vision to expand Metro relied on grade separated routes, something the RACQ supported on key corridors such as Gympie Rd.

But it would be expensive and difficult to build in a mature city.

Eight key changes — for better or worse

Instead, the RACQ would like to see a vision for a “higher order network’’ where smaller electric Metro buses connected popular destinations in the western suburbs, northwestern suburbs and also in other southeast council areas.

That meant passengers having to change buses.

“Two-seat journeys need electric vehicles with wide, multi doors, low floors and information displays so people know where and when to find their connecting (bus),’’ he said.

“We also need super stops, like tram stops, where the bus pulls up at a platform at the same level so people in wheelchairs and with mobility issues can easily and quickly get on and off.

“We should be also looking at MetroGliders 18m tram buses, operating on bus priority road corridors across SEQ, in addition to the busways.’’

Griffith University adjunct professor, transport expert Matt Burke, said cities the size of Brisbane right around the world such as Vienna and Copenhagen had moved to similar “spiderweb’’ bus networks.

The move was long overdue in Brisbane where “assets’’ such as QEII Hospital and Griffith University were being properly connected for the first time since they were built in the 1970s.

He said Brisbane currently had only one “dodgy’’ cross city service, the 599/598.

“It’s infrequent, takes a circuitous route connecting the shopping malls that ring Brisbane, it goes to bed at midday on Saturday and doesn’t wake up again until midday Monday,’’ he said.

“But this new network is transformative. It’s been the signature project of this council over the last two terms and they have delivered, relatively on time and on budget.

“That’s despite huge cost pressures and geotechnical problems with the Adelaide St tunnel that were like an act of God.

“The 50 cent fares have not and will not work as well as they could in other cities without these networks, but we have only attempted them at Enoggera.’’

He said the “vast majority’’ of people in the outer suburbs would be winners, particularly students who would be able to get to university much faster and more often.

An example was the 135 and 155 services which used to go all the way into the CBD despite dropping two-thirds of passengers at Griffith University.

“There’s greater inconvenience (for students) but it will actually be quicker because there won’t be the usual 10-minute delays at the Cultural Centre,’’ he said.

Dr Burke agreed that the main reason the 2013 reforms failed was its proposed cuts to services.

In comparison, the new network would deliver a significant increase in seats and the design work was much better funded and thought out, he said.

“There will be losers but you will never hear from the winners,’’ he said.

“Council will find it difficult to do something on this scale on the northside unless it works this time.

“It’s nowhere near as radical as cities like Atlanta, where they went all in with a dramatic sweep of their entire network, but theirs is also much smaller.’’

While “coverage’’ routes which “squiggled all over the suburbs’’ would be axed, Dr Burke said most people would still be within 400-500m of a bus route that offered a “decent’’ service.

Day one, which included the launch of the second Metro route, the M2, servicing the southside, comes as CBD bus tunnels close for the next 10 weekends to allow testing of Metro buses on the Adelaide St tunnel.

There would also be closures on the Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines at Moorooka and Dutton park until July 18 for Cross River Rail works.

But day one also coincided with the school holidays, lessening demand.

Nevertheless, the changes sparked a flood of outrage on social media several weeks ago when the new Translink timetables were first published.

Southside councillors, including Labor’s Steve Griffiths in Moorooka ward and Independent Nicole Johnston, said despite initial claims on the Translink website that transfers would be nearby and on the same platform, the reality was far different for many of their residents.

Ms Johnston said St Aidan’s high school students would be particularly hard hit, with many now faced with complex trips or having to be picked up by their parents.

Metro will remove huge numbers of buses from the congested Victoria Bridge where delays can be 20 minutes or more, helping suburban buses run on time. Picture: Lachie Millard

“Sadly, council and Translink are not printing hardcopy timetables any longer. We know this will adversely impact many people, particularly the elderly,’’ she said.

“Despite spending $1.6b on this massive Metro project, at least 15 per cent of people in the city will actually get a worse bus service.

“The very expensive Metro bus does not service Tennyson ward and our local bus services are a mix of cuts, changes and minor additions that really don’t provide a better overall bus service for residents.’’

Mr Griffiths also said the council would not accept that older or disadvantaged people struggled with technology.

He said it had forgotten council was obliged to provide a decent service for all.

One 85-year-old Moorooka man told him he faced a 1km-plus walk to the shops and medical appointments.

Others with medical conditions would struggle as well, he claimed.

The Adelaide St Metro tunnel will open later this year, allowing Metro buses ot run every three minutes. Picture: David Clark

“I’m really concerned how these changes will affect residents as they are not in line with what we lobbied for,’’ he said.

“Numerous trips have been cut, reduced and re-routed. This network was designed to benefit suburbs with easy access to the new Brisbane Metro.

“But for areas like Moroooka ward, where Metro access is limited or non-existent, the result is fewer services, longer wait times and more inconvenient transfers.’’

Military veteran Judy, from Moorooka, said she frequently was in hospital and was unable to afford taxis or ride shares.

“I travel all over Brisbane and I’m not happy at all. I push myself to keep moving but there are a lot of people who just won’t be able to do this,’’ she said.