Huge jump in passengers for Metro’s first week
Passenger figures for Metro’s first week has proved Brisbanites love it, with patronage surging, but ongoing issues with delays are likely to continue. Here’s why.
QLD News
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Record numbers of passengers have flocked to try out Metro in its first week, but the promised 15-minute weekend services have been hit by delays likely to last for months.
A total of 51,928 people climbed on board from the January 28 kick-off for the M2 route, until Monday this week.
That was one-third more than the 39,563 passengers who used standard council buses on the 66 service in the same period last year.
The 66 followed the same route as Metro “M2”, from the UQ Lakes stop at St Lucia to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
Thursday last week was the busiest day, with 9932 patrons, followed closely by Friday with 9332.
Patronage was much lower last weekend, at about 2200-2500, but was still a whopping 52 per cent higher than the same weekend last year.
However, commuters reported delays with some buses turning up at intervals of 20 minutes or more, compared with the promised 15 minutes.
“Yes, it’s Saturday, but the 333 I was on earlier this morning was packed,’’ one patron said on a social media page.
But council said M2 was just the first stage, with services to be improved further during the year when more metro services, the new bus network and major infrastructure would come online.
Transport chair Ryan Murphy also told the first council meeting of 2025, On Tuesday, that queues on Victoria Bridge and the Melbourne St portal were partly responsible for delays.
That would be resolved after the second quarter of this year when the Adelaide St Metro tunnel was finished and other changes made.
Metro would then go from five minute intervals on weekdays to three minutes, with more regular services late at night and on weekends.
“The service has already been hugely popular, with a massive 31 per cent jump in patronage compared to last year on what was already the city’s most popular bus route (the 66),’’ Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said.
“The introduction of M2 services between the University of Queensland and Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital is just the first stage.
“Our new bus network and Adelaide Street tunnel will be critical to breaking the bottleneck.
“These improvements will significantly boost bus service reliability, allowing us to remove regular buses and increase the frequency of metro services.’’
Congestion at the Cultural Centre Station was also affecting all busway services, not just Metro.
Some patrons have complained about lack of seating, with the design including more standing room than standard buses.
However, that was because Metro was designed to move large numbers of people and could take more passengers than a “bendy’’ bus.
Council forecast Metro would increase capacity on the old route 66 by up to 3.4 million seats a year.
New school services would be introduced in line with the start of the school term as part of the first stage of Brisbane’s New Bus Network, including nine new school routes and 17 services with route changes.
By the second quarter of this year Metro would replace route 111 and 160 bus services, becoming the permanent “M1” Brisbane Metro service.
It would run at five-minute frequencies between Eight Mile Plains and Roma Street.
The second stage of the new bus network was also due to start, including: five new bus routes; four new all-day services; 12 combined bus routes for improved efficiency; three divided routes for better reliability; and capacity for an extra 55,000 students to UQ, QUT and Griffith universities.
By the third quarter of this year, or about September/October, Metro services would switch from using the Queen Street Mall tunnel to the new Adelaide Street tunnel.
This would free up capacity on surface streets and allow frequency to increase to three minutes, once all 60 Metro buses were on the road.
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