50 new buses announced to tackle overcrowding as 50c fares loom

Fifty buses will be added to south-east Queensland’s bus fleets, the state government revealed on Monday, a fortnight before its six-month trial of 50-cent fare trips begins.

Premier Steven Miles and Transport Minister Bart Mellish made the announcement as they marked the completion of a tranche of new buses built at the Volgren Buses factory at Eagle Farm.

In the driver’s seat of a public transport revolution in the south-east: Premier Steven Miles and Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner.Credit: Annette Dew

Thirty-seven of these new buses, they said, would go towards boosting capacity when 50-cent fares come to Queensland’s south-east.

Another 13 would be contributed from the eight bus companies operating in the south-east, including Brisbane City Council’s Transport for Brisbane.

Some of the buses have been used to move passengers between rail stations while major upgrades are underway.

Premier Steven Miles said the deal was the result of talks between Brisbane City Council, Translink and the Department of Transport and Main Roads.

He described the plan to offer 50-cent fares for public transport trips throughout Queensland, which begins in two weeks’ time, as “nation-leading”.

“The countdown is on, and we’re ready to roll,” Miles said.

The state’s biggest bus service provider, Brisbane City Council, warned two weeks ago that the popularity of the discounted fares would overcrowd routes, leaving thousands of passengers behind at bus stops across the city.

According to Brisbane City Council’s modelling, a 10 per cent increase in passengers each weekday would mean more than 12,000 passengers would not fit on buses on more than half of Brisbane’s routes.

“Residents face the spectre of being left at busway stations [and] bus stops all around the city because there is not enough capacity in our bus network to cope with the demands,” the council’s transport committee chair Ryan Murphy said at the time.

Transport Minister Bart Mellish said extra passengers would not overwhelm the system because patronage was still below pre-pandemic levels.

“But these locally manufactured rail replacement buses will ensure additional services provide even greater service for our customers,” Mellish said.

“Customers who travelled on rail replacement buses during the recent train track closures may have already spotted these buses out and about because they were used to keep people moving during this period.”

The Volgren buses are among 200 new vehicles to be built in Queensland under a plan announced in December. The first were put into use in April.

Brisbane City Council will receive 18 of the 37 new buses. Caboolture, Clarks and Transdev buses will each receive four buses, three will go to Thompsons, two to Hornibrook Bus Lines and one each to Park Ridge Transit and Westside Bus Company.

The Queensland Government added a one-off $75 million to Brisbane City Council to cover demand for 50 cent fares and a new deal for Brisbane City Council for the Brisbane Metro bus fleet.