Dangerous Brisbane bus routes revealed by Rail, Bus and Tram Union

Dangerous bus routes have been revealed by the bus drivers’ union in a bid to convince Brisbane City Council to make a full list of high risk services public.

DANGEROUS bus routes throughout Brisbane have been revealed by the bus drivers’ union in a bid to convince council to make a full list of high risk services public.

Rail Bus and Tram Union Queensland secretary Tom Brown has named and shamed Brisbane’s most dangerous bus routes and interchanges, as reported by member drivers.

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He said one stood out as the worst: the Spring Hill Loop.

“We’ve had a bus driver stabbed on that route, that was probably a year ago,” he said.

He said there was regularly “rowdy and upsetting” behaviour on the free service and it was the only bus with its own dedicated security guard.

The Rail Bus and Tram Union Queensland secretary has shared the worst bus routes for safety, as reported by member drivers. Picture: Peter Wallis

The Bracken Ridge 330 bus has been followed by a security car between Chermside to Bracken Ridge on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for “several years”.

Mr Brown said the recent opening of the Bracken Ridge skate park had lead to an “upsurge of fare evasion and unruly behaviour” on the bus.

He also named the Inala 100 and 110 routes, which have previously been outed as the genesis of a chroming problem on Brisbane buses.

“This route is constantly coming up for fare evasion, driver abuse and assault,” he said.

He said the most dangerous interchange was Carindale and he “wouldn’t put Chermside on the same level” as the southeast Brisbane station.

Mr Brown said members had repeatedly requested the council reveal an official list of high-risk routes to no avail.

A Brisbane City Council spokeswoman has denied a “formal determination” of high risk routes but said there were “high risk areas”.

She said the council had spent $3.3 million since 2017 to enhance safety on Brisbane’s bus network, including upping the number of emergency response vehicles and security guards.

The 100 Inala to Forest Lake BUZ is “constantly coming up for fare evasion”, the RTBU says. Pictures: Jack Tran

Chroming at Browns Plains bus station Alleged chroming incident at Browns Plains bus station.

Opposition Public and Active Transport spokesman Jared Cassidy said there should be a list available to the public to ensure better targeting of council’s safety measures.

“We’ve been asking for years and every time they say there’s no such thing as a high risk route — well there are high risk routes,” he said.

He said buses on high risk routes should have full encapsulation to protect drivers — not the part-barriers the council decided to roll out.

“The argument’s always been that it’s too expensive to retrofit our 1200 buses with full barriers but that should never have been part of the question,” he said.

“It’s all about targeting those high risk routes.”

Brisbane City Council Buses in Adelaide St CBD Photographer Philip Norrish

A council spokeswomand said route 330, 110 and 110 had response vehicles allocated to them at certain times, and there was a static guard at the Inala station.

The Spring Hill Loop also had a guard that hops between both loop routes while Carindale Interchange was on the response vehicle patrol.

She said guards were stationed at the Inala, Browns Plains, Indooroopilly and Chermside interchanges, while Carindale was on the response vehicle patrol.

NightLink guards were at Chermside, Eagle Street, George Street, Warner Street and Brunswick Street on Friday and Saturday evenings.

She said TransLink, a State Government body, was responsible for providing security on public transport.

“Council — with the support of the RTBU — has repeatedly asked for 50 additional officers to deal with security concerns,” she said.

She said those requests had been ignored by the State Government.