Opinion: Brisbane 2032 success will be underpinned by mass transit

Beyond the superhuman athletic feats, the spectacular venues, festive crowds and army of volunteers, one major factor underpinned the success of the Paris 2024 Olympics, writes Michelle Jablko.

Buses on Brisbane’s Victoria Bridge

Beyond the superhuman athletic feats, the spectacular venues, festive crowds and army of volunteers, one major factor underpinned the success of the Paris 2024 Olympics: its transport systems.

Transporting almost 10 million ticketholders to 35 venues over 19 days was a colossal challenge.

Paris met the task, earning praise for its efficient and easy-to-use transport options.

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In less than eight years, it will be Brisbane’s turn to be featured on the world stage as the city

hosts the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2032.

It is an unprecedented opportunity to show off all that’s great about South East Queensland, but also for Brisbane to be recognised as a truly global city.

And like Paris, one of the major factors that will determine its success is how well we can move hundreds of thousands of athletes, spectators and officials around the region.

But for SEQ, that challenge extends well beyond the Games.

This story is part of The Courier-Mail’s annual Future Brisbane series advocating for a focus on the right legacy outcomes from the hosting of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. You can read all our coverage here

In just over 20 years’ time, SEQ’s population is projected to grow by 2.2 million people to

about six million – an increase of more than 50 per cent.

Putting that into context, that’s like the entire population of Perth moving to SEQ in the

coming decades.

All tiers of government are working hard to prepare for this growth, with transport projects including the Cross River Rail, Brisbane Metro, Pacific Motorway and Bruce Highway upgrades and the Coomera Connector, to name a few.

In addition, our business, Transurban, is partnering with the government to develop plans to

widen the western section of the Logan Motorway to cater for the growing communities and

industrial hubs in that region.

Transurban CEO Michelle Jablko

The project is a great example of how the private and public sectors can work together to

help meet our region’s growing needs.

However, even with all these projects up and running, our traffic modelling suggests that congestion levels in Brisbane in a decade’s time will be almost 25 per cent higher than they are today.

Everyone’s time is precious. We all want to be doing the things that matter most, not sitting in gridlock.

So, now is the time to be asking – what more should the city be doing to cater not only for

the Olympics but for such huge population growth?

In the past, we’ve often relied on building bigger and better roads to address growing congestion, but today smart on-road technologies can help manage traffic flow and get more out of our existing road corridors to keep them moving safely and efficiently.

We also have sophisticated traffic management systems off the roads. For example, our 24/7 traffic control centre in Kedron uses artificial intelligence technology to proactively identify incidents and congestion so that we can take action faster.

The Olympics have often been a catalyst for host cities to accelerate much-needed transport projects, but they have also provided an impetus for innovative thinking about the best way to move people around.

Just look at Paris, where multi-modal journey-planning apps were used to move millions of people between venues comfortably. Or LA, which is planning to add an extra 2700 buses to transport people to venues in 2028.

We look forward to hearing about the outcomes of the new State Government’s 100-day review into Games infrastructure and the road map to 2032.

This is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to really get SEQ’s transport network right and provide a legacy that will serve the growing community long after the games have ended.

It’s time to go for gold!

Michelle Jablko is CEO of Transurban