South East Busway Extension

[timh]

FYI the survey for the planning for the extension of the busway to Loganholme is now open.

You can fill it out here: https://www.yoursay-projects.tmr.qld.gov.au/daisyhill-logan-motorway

Note though you need to create and login with a TMR account first before you can complete the survey.

If anyone else wants to hop on and help submit some pro-busway answers, it would be much appreciated

[Jonno]

What a biased survey!!  Look everyone says it's great...because that is the only option!!!

[nathandavid88]

It doesn't fill me with hope when they've misspelt the name of the road the current park n ride is located on ("Nujaloo Road" should be Nujooloo Road) but I like the general proposed concept. However, I'm not completely sold on a station at Chatswood Road. Loganlea Road and Chatswood Road are only a few hundred metres apart and I'm not convinced that two stations that close are completely necessary.

As for the "Up to 5 lanes", it will largely be a 4 lane road, matching the northern GC stretch of the M1, and the current Eight Mile Plains to Daisy Hill stretch under construction. The only time it hits 5 lanes is when an additional on-ramp or off-ramp lane is added, hence the "up to 5 lanes." 

[Gazza]

Closer to 1.75km between the proposed sites.
It's kinda like the Loganlea Rd station is the badly placed one we are stuck with because of the decision to build the P+R there years ago, but i think Chatswood Rd is fine but it needs a footbridge to ikea.

[nathandavid88]

Fair call regarding the distance, but the Loganlea Road Station is the more important one due to providing direct links down Loganlea Road through to the Griffith University campus, Logan TAFE campus,, Logan Hospital and trains.

The Chatswood Road one doesn't really provide as much connection potential, and nothing that couldn't be achieved using the Loganlea Road Station. If the Chatswood Road Station will be where I think it will be, it might be a bit too far for a footbridge to IKEA...

[verbatim9]

Fair call regarding the distance, but the Loganlea Road Station is the more important one due to providing direct links down Loganlea Road through to the Griffith University campus, Logan TAFE campus,, Logan Hospital and trains.

The Chatswood Road one doesn't really provide as much connection potential, and nothing that couldn't be achieved using the Loganlea Road Station. If the Chatswood Road Station will be where I think it will be, it might be a bit too far for a footbridge to IKEA...

I agree that a combined station with an underpass or overpass in between Chatswood Road and Loganlea Road would be a good compromise. This would provide better access to IKEA and the Homemaker Centre for both workers and visitors that travel by bike, on foot or Public Transport. Probably be a cheaper alternative as well and ensure end to end travel times along the busway are not compromised by building unnecessary stops and stations.

[AnonymouslyBad]

^ Yeah, in a perfect world you'd rip up the park and ride (it never should have been built in the first place) and go with a single station closer to Chatswood Rd.

Alas, the park and ride exists and it's way too fresh to do anything except try and service it.

I don't like having two stations so close but I do get Chatswood Rd because it's the much better catchment IMO. Loganlea Rd is the more important thoroughfare but unless the local network suddenly improves ten-fold this isn't very meaningful.

[Gazza]

Theoretically, if you build a pedestrian bridge over slacks Creek and over the M1, you could pick up the residential areas on the western side of the M1.

[verbatim9]

A M1 pedestrian/cycling bridge or underpass at Chadstone Road Station is a good idea if they keep both of the proposed stations.

[AnonymouslyBad]

Theoretically, if you build a pedestrian bridge over slacks Creek and over the M1, you could pick up the residential areas on the western side of the M1.

Yeah. By a strict definition the walking catchment on the western side is still limited, but I think in practice it would be well used and transformative to the area.

It's certainly more useful than the Loganlea Rd bridge to "rescue" the Slacks Creek park and ride

A lot of it will depend on detailed design - if the Chatswood Rd station is near Paradise Rd, which it should be, pedestrian access from both sides is doable with some amenity improvements. Of course the M1 is still a huge psychological barrier that needs provision to have a footbridge in future.

(Can't believe the M1 upgrade's been through so many iterations that we're still here in 2020 without a detailed design!)

[Gazza]

The main thing that is surprising me is the fact this is being upgraded at all.
The Loganlea Rd Interchange is still very modern and was only done a few years ago!

[nathandavid88]

Been a long time since this thread has been updated, but with construction well underway on the Busway extension to Springwood (as part of the M1 upgrade), Mick DeBrenni's latest newsletter has included a new map to better illustrate the changes going ahead.



I've split it up to try and make it a bit more legible.









As the days get longer coming into Summer, I should hopefully be able to get some photos of the progress on my way home from work.

[Gazza]

If the busway gets extended south, I hope they build an 'on line' station on the current Fitzgerad ave offramp they are recycling. They would need to build additional structures beside it to have 4 lanes, and then build an extension from the current footbridge over to the busway.

[nathandavid88]

The busway will be extended south to the Hyperdome, that is part of the next stage of M1 works from Daisy Hill to the Logan Motorway. However, I can't see them rebuilding Springwood station. If they were going to, they would have done it as part of the current works. As the station has to act as both a through station for the 555, and a junction for westbound services (550, 551, 554, 561) and Via Daisy Hill services (572/3 and 574/575), I think it has been put firmly in the too hard basket.

Honestly, I'm not too concerned. As long as improved access into and out of the station is implemented (as it looks like it will be), I can live with the extra 30 seconds it takes to do the station loop.

[Gazza]

The reason they wouldn't do it now is because inbound buses coming from places like Hyperdome will still be using the lanes on the other side of the M1 so have to loop around to get onto the bus way anyway, so there is no advantage in providing it yet.

However in the future busway services will be staying on one side of the M1 the whole way.

When that happens you use the ground level interchange for terminating and local services from the other places you mentioned and you use the high-level platforms for through services

[nathandavid88]

^^ It would be a hideously expensive, massively disruptive rebuild that would only be of limited benefit for the massive cost. To build it, the current Springwood Station would have to be completely demolished, as would the existing offramp that they plan on annexing for the busway, for the new elevated platforms and road.

This is why I am certain that they aren't planning on doing it - they would not promote the extension of the busway to Springwood only to then demolish the last mile of it and the station in the next stage of works.

[Gazza]

No you wouldn't you'd do something like this.

Forget the old plan from the 2000s where it had an elevated station and spiral down to ground level.
Just build the platforms by widening the 'offramp' and a new footbridge to the old station, which is left as is.

[Cazza]

Ideally, you wouldn't have the platforms on a curve but you could straighten it out by widening the bridge.

[SurfRail]

It's not ideal, but I think Springwood is probably staying basically as it is.  The online platforms would be at something of a remove from the rest of the station, and the walkable catchment (limited though it is already).

The thing that really kills Springwood in its current form is all the faffing around for 555s to get back onto the motorway in both directions, which the busway will pretty much resolve - especially when it pushes all the way to the Hyperdome.

A stack of Logan routes could vanish once it hits the Hyperdome (566, 569, 571, 573, 575, 577, 579, 581 and 582 that I can think of) and be replaced with more frequent local feeders.  Brisbane Metro or at least a 555 service run with 100% artics would then provide the spine service.

[nathandavid88]

No you wouldn't you'd do something like this.

Forget the old plan from the 2000s where it had an elevated station and spiral down to ground level.
Just build the platforms by widening the 'offramp' and a new footbridge to the old station, which is left as is.

I don't think this concept would be possible, especially the platforms on the western side of the overpass. The vegetation on that side of the offramp I believe is part of the highway's retaining structure - I don't think it is ground on which you could build.






As SurfRail says, the real issue at Springwood isn't the loop of the station, it's the gymnastics the buses have to perform to get into the station and back onto the highway. Doing a loop of the station is a 20-30 second delay at worst, while getting back onto the highway to go southbound can take 3-4 minutes if the traffic light gods aren't in a good mood. As long as they get rid of the larger delay, I don't think anyone would mind the station loop remaining.

[Gazza]

Retaining walls are routinely rebuilt as part of widening works.

[SurfRail]

I don't think its a question of non-constructability, just that I think the main issue is resolved by hooking the busway up (especially once it's there in both directions).  It's just going to be like some of the Northern Busway stations in Auckland (eg Constellation) that aren't the main side platform format used elsewhere on the network here.

[Gazza]

Concidentally, Constellation is being upgraded to a thru station with an overpass and platforms in both directions

https://www.nzta.govt.nz/media-releases/major-upgrade-of-constellation-bus-station-begins/

[nathandavid88]

Retaining walls are routinely rebuilt as part of widening works.

Yes, except the highway is being widened towards the west, not the east. The plans show this area as remaining largely unchanged. Again, it comes down to being a hideously expensive, disruptive project to save all of 20 seconds.

[Jonno]

It's not ideal, but I think Springwood is probably staying basically as it is.  The online platforms would be at something of a remove from the rest of the station, and the walkable catchment (limited though it is already).

The thing that really kills Springwood in its current form is all the faffing around for 555s to get back onto the motorway in both directions, which the busway will pretty much resolve - especially when it pushes all the way to the Hyperdome.

A stack of Logan routes could vanish once it hits the Hyperdome (566, 569, 571, 573, 575, 577, 579, 581 and 582 that I can think of) and be replaced with more frequent local feeders.  Brisbane Metro or at least a 555 service run with 100% artics would then provide the spine service.

The whole area is completely unwalkable and needs to be redesigned/de-engineered.  The motorway is such a poor outcome for the area.....the Great Divide.   Doesn't mean the area around the station can be retrofitted but it makes it bloody hard.

[ozbob]

[Jonno]

^

more accessible if you have a car.  every one has a car right?

[SurfRail]

It's been a long time since I checked, but is the Rochedale Urban Village still happening?  Or has it gone the way of most of the TODs in this state?

[minbrisbane]

I don't see anything new on it, apart from a developer's website saying it's part of it.

What's disappointing to me is the extension of the problem of car dependency by adding a massive park and ride.  This isn't how we solve the problem.  Sure it gets people on the buses, but at what cost...

[nathandavid88]

If the Urban Village is what they now seem to call the Rochedale Town Centre, this bus station is a considerable distance away from that area (which is up off Miles Platting Road).

While the Station is still inside the suburb of Rochedale, it is right at the southern-most edge of the suburb, closer to the Logan suburb of Rochedale South.