Two-hour round trip to get to controversial Olympic stadium choice

After Premier Steven Miles decided to push ahead with a $1.6 billion upgrade to QSAC stadium in Brisbane’s south, the Courier-Mail decided to time the trip. SEE THE VIDEO.

• Funding fail: How do we get there?

A round trip to Premier Steven Miles’ controversial stadium choice for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games will take at least two hours for most Brisbane spectators.

After Mr Miles decided to ignore former lord mayor Graham Quirk’s independent Olympics venues review and push ahead with spending $1.6 billion to upgrade the Queensland Sports Athletic Centre the Courier-Mail decided to hop on public transport and time the trip.

The stadium at Nathan, west of Mount Gravatt, has limited access to public transport, a bone of contention for many who don’t support the Premier’s decision.

A Translink screenshot showing the almost one-hour trip from Bowen Hills to Nathan.

A Google map showing the 19 minute drive from Bowen Hills to QSAC stadium.

Park Road station, on the route from Bowen Hills to Nathan.

Reporter Andreas Nicola started his journey from Bowen Hills to Nathan just before 11am and it took about an hour, one-way.

ANDREAS’ TRIP:

It’s a route I know all too well having grown up near Sunnybank. As soon as I turned 17, I made it my mission to never catch public transport again, because of how long it takes from the area compared to going by car.

And for this journey it wasn’t just one bus that was needed.

The trip began on the train, then a connecting bus, then walking to the stadium.

The 10 minute walk to the train station was the easy part, followed by getting onto the train at Bowen Hills Station.

Waiting for the bus at Dutton Park.

As I passed Fortitude Valley Station, Central Station and Roma Street Station I knew I would be on the train for a while.

From the moment I got on, it took 20 minutes to Park Road Station, which wasn’t too bad. But it meant it had already been 30 minutes compared to the 20 it would take in the car.

After about 10 minutes, because the bus was delayed, I finally got on the next bus which was the tail end of the journey.

The bus itself took about 15 minutes and as I arrived in Sunnybank the first thing I saw before the stadium was a cemetery.

QSAC Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre, Mount Gravatt.

The large Mount Gravatt Cemetery and Crematorium sits adjacent to QSAC.

For me, it is a sight I know all too well as I used to drive past it almost everyday, but for many it will be a shock sight on the way to an Olympics event.

As soon as I got to the Mains Road Park n Ride bus stop I was finally relieved that I could see the stadium and it was a less than a five-minute walk.

But the only concerning part was that I’d have to do it all over again to get back to Bowen Hills, taking at least two hours out of the day.