War of words rages on between Brisbane City Council, Transport Minister over bus funding split after failed negotiation

The launch of Brisbane Metro services could be delayed until next year amid a funding standoff between the state government and city council.

The standoff between the council and Transport Minister over the funding split for Brisbane’s bus network has fired up, after last week’s meeting failed to resolve the disagreement.

Brisbane City Council wants to see more money in this year’s State Budget, but the Transport Minister said “it is not the state government’s job to fund Council’s poor decisions”.

Brisbane’s TransLink buses operating near the South Bank interchange. Photo: David Clark.

If the dispute drags on, it threatens to delay the start of Brisbane Metro services into 2025, with the Council hoping to launch the project in December this year, but unable to start services until the Brisbane public transport funding agreement is renewed.

Residents have already waited eight years since the Brisbane Metro concept was first announced and seen the project’s cost blow out from $944m to $1.7bn.

Last month, Brisbane City Council transport chairman Ryan Murphy said the council had been doing the heavy lifting on the public transport network for a decade.

“Council has lifted its (funding) subsidy, over the last 10 years our subsidy has grown by 117 per cent and it’s set to increase this year to just shy of $200 million,” he said.

“The state government’s growth funding has stood still in that same time. We fund 25 per cent of service, the state government funds 75 per cent.”

The Council calculates Brisbane commuters have 82,000 fewer bus services now, compared to a decade ago, with the River City’s bus fleet delivering 3,152,350 regular TransLink-funded services in 2012-13, compared to 3,070,122 services in 2022-23.

Mr Murphy met with State Transport Minister Bart Mellish on Thursday and continued his funding campaign when asked on Sunday whether the meeting resulted in a resolution.

“I restated what we already know, that the state government has for the last 10 years starved Brisbane public transport and Brisbane buses of funding,” Mr Murphy said.

“We don’t think that is good enough or defendable in the eyes of the public, and that we will not be signing the contract to operate Brisbane Metro services until we have renegotiated a new deal that provides growth funding for Brisbane bus services.”

Civic Cabinet Chair for Transport, Councillor Ryan Murphy. Photo: Matthew Poon

Mr Murphy said no other city in the country had seen a lack of state investment in the bus network than what Brisbane has experienced in the past decade.

“Minister Mellish talked about Cross River Rail and the investments they are making … but I reminded Minister Mellish that still two-thirds of public transport commuters in this city catch a bus and it is not fair for them to have received no growth funding in 10 years,” he said.

“Minister Mellish could not and did not defend that, he said he would go away and have discussions with colleagues. I’m grateful for him having those discussions.

“But what we need to see in the lead up to the State Budget (on June 11) this year is a reconfiguring of that funding, and growth funding being provided for Brisbane bus services.”

Mr Murphy said another meeting had not been scheduled with Mr Mellish as yet.

But Transport Minister Bart Mellish fired back, referring to Brisbane Metro’s cost blowout and saying “it is not the state government’s job to fund Council’s poor decisions”.

“If Brisbane bus commuters are not satisfied with the current level of service, they should ask why Adrian Schrinner poured so much money into a single, costly metro project, which is now impacting council’s ability to deliver services,” Mr Mellish said.

“Instead of investing in local bus networks, the Schrinner council chose a bespoke product which is proving to be very expensive and years behind.

“It’s clear that during an election campaign the Schrinner council would rather pick fights with the state government than own up to its own budget mess on Metro.”

Aspley MP Bart Mellish took over as Minister for Transport and Main Roads during the Cabinet reshuffle in December, replacing Mark Bailey. Photo: John Gass.

Mr Mellish also accused Mr Murphy of “mischaracterising” their discussion.

“The Miles Government will continue to fund public buses including the new Metro services, via usual contract negotiations, as we do with all operators,” he said.

“It’s disappointing that Mr Murphy would rather mischaracterise discussions with myself than knuckle down and sort out the cost blow outs on the metro project which he has overseen.”

A Department of Transport and Main Roads spokesman previously said TMR and BCC are working to a proposed schedule to sign contracts well before Metro is due to operate.

“Negotiations have already commenced on the new service contracts. TMR sees no reason why these contracts would not be executed well before Metro officially opens,” he said.

“TMR has continued to fund (Brisbane bus) services over the last decade, including investment into the reliability of existing services, and new and upgraded services including numerous additional school services, a greater span of hours for services to UQ, a new service to the growing suburb of Pallara, and funding to increase the Route 60 CityGlider from standard buses to large articulated buses.

“TransLink has continued to invest in services for the growing South East Queensland region, with bus service improvements recently implemented in Redlands, Logan and on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.”