Brisbane: Bus Electric Rapid Transit (' Brisbane Metro ')

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Top firms jostling to construct $1b Brisbane Metro

BRISBANE'S $1 billion new Metro public transport system is a step closer, with the City Council shortlisting three consortia to construct the massive infrastructure project.

The groups include leading Australian and overseas firms.

They are vying for a contract which includes a new tunnel under Adelaide St from North Quay to King George Square, a new underground station at the Cultural Centre and revamps of Melbourne and Grey streets, South Brisbane.

The shortlisted consortia are TransForm BNE, led by McConnell Dowell Constructors Pty Ltd; Brisbane Move, headed by the Australian wings of global giants Acciona and Arup; and METRO4BNE whose members include CPB Contractors Pty Ltd and Brisbane-based Seymour Whyte.

The final contract is expected to be awarded late next year.

Brisbane City Council has also shortlisted three firms to build the fleet of 60 Metro vehicles, carrying 150 passengers each.

They are Gold Coast-based bus builder and operator Transit Australia Group, HESS AG from Switzerland, and Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific Pty Ltd. The winner will be announced in mid-2019.

"Brisbane Metro services will commence in 2023 and revolutionise the way we travel," Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said.

"It will get residents home up to 50 per cent faster on a high-frequency service, reducing bus congestion in inner-city streets and ensuring our city continues to thrive as a great place to live, work and relax."

The $944 million system will operate initially on 21km of existing busways. One line will run from Eight Mile Plains to Roma St and a second will run from the University of Queensland to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

The Courier-Mail's Future SEQ action plan calls for later extensions to Bracken Ridge, Springwood, Capalaba and the Centenary Suburbs.

The current council is committed to the expansion but 2020 Labor mayoral candidate Rod Harding is "sceptical" of the benefits, instead favouring a light rail system.

[verbatim9]

https://twitter.com/brisbanecityqld/status/1078183769083924480

https://twitter.com/verbatim18/status/1079531641201029120

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Schrinner/status/1095809282296098816

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Brisbane City Council goes to tender for Metro depot

Brisbane City Council will soon go to tender for the design and construction of the Brisbane Metro depot at Rochedale, bringing the new public transport project one step closer.

At Tuesday's council meeting a significant contracting plan was approved to manage the procurement of the new depot, which will house and service the Metro vehicles.

The $944 million Brisbane Metro will stretch 21 kilometres, from Eight Mile Plains to Roma Street Station, and from the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital to UQ Lakes busway station.

Out of the project's budget, $196 million has been set aside for the depot, fleet and systems, $557 million for infrastructure and project management and delivery costs $189 million.

Deputy mayor Adrian Schrinner said he was particularly excited that the project was going ahead.

"This is a depot that is essential for facilitating the Brisbane Metro project, you can't have a Brisbane Metro without a depot that goes with it," Cr Schrinner said.

"We have already well under way the process to acquire the privately owned parcels of land required for this depot, there's a mixture of private land and state government owned land."

Cr Schrinner said the private land resumptions had been finalised and were waiting final gazettal by the state government.

State land currently being used for the upgrade of the Gateway to M1 merge will be purchased once the land is no longer being used, he said.

Opposition leader Peter Cumming said he welcomed signs of progress on the Metro project.

"The depot is required, we will be supporting it," he said.

A successful tenderer will be required to design and construct the depot, after extensive consultation with Transport for Brisbane created a concept plan, a submission made to council said.

The high-frequency public transport is designed to address Brisbane's future congestion, with turn-up-and-go transport at each station.

The route will also close Victoria Bridge to vehicles.

The depot will include a fleet of Metro vehicles, maintenance equipment and staff. The depot will also include an administration building, operator facilities, yard, garage and fuel pumps.

Council predicts between five and 10 expressions of interest submissions will be made for the contract, mostly from the south-east Queensland.

The depot contract is expected to be released to market in late March, ahead of a final contract signed in September.

Cr Schrinner said the project tied in well with the state government's Cross River Rail to deliver a better transport system for Brisbane.

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Brisbane Metro's new super-buses may be electric: deputy mayor

Brisbane's new Metro transport service could be run by 60 electric vehicles when it begins in 2023.

The choice of vehicle to make up Brisbane Metro will be made by mid-2019, Brisbane's deputy mayor Cr Adrian Schrinner said on Wednesday.

"At the moment we are considering all options for power trains," Cr Shrinner said.

"We are looking at everything from fully electric through to more traditional power trains," he said.

"That includes hybrid power trains as well."

"We want to make sure that the new [Rochedale] depot is set up to accommodate the future charging requirements for a future electric fleet as well."

Three companies have provided designs for the Brisbane Metro bi-articulated buses.

Those businesses are joint venture Transit Australia Group and Van Hool of Belgium; Hess Ag of Switzerland, and Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, Germany.

"We have shortlisted to three different companies that are in the running for that vehicle and those three different companies are offering different power trains," he said.

"So, there are three different options on the table at the moment.

"By the middle of this year we will choose the preferred supplier of the Metro vehicles."

A pilot vehicle will be built first by the winning tender for evaluation around Brisbane's busways.

"That pilot vehicle will come here for testing on the network to make sure that it meets our specifications," he said.

"Once we are satisfied with the pilot vehicle, we will order the remaining 59 to make that full fleet of 60 vehicles."

"We are planning for up to 90 vehicles down the track," he said.

"We need room to grow as Metro expands. We are already looking at the opportunities for the state government's busway to be expanded down to Springwood as well."

"So this depot needs to be future-proof. It must be ready to expand as Metro expands."

Brisbane City Council on Wednesday morning outlined the issues behind the proposed 4.5-hectare depot for the Brisbane Metro super-bus vehicle fleet on School Road.

Two other large contracts in the Brisbane Metro project were set to be announced later in 2019.

A tender would be awarded for the construction of an underground busway station near the Brisbane Cultural Centre at South Brisbane.

The new depot at Rochdale was described as the third piece of the Brisbane Metro project "infrastructure jigsaw".

The contract to build the Rochdale Brisbane Metro depot goes to tender on March 27 and the winning tender was to be announced later in 2019.

The depot on School Road would have vehicle fuelling and recharging facilities, "wash down" facilities, an administrative centre and parking for 270 cars.

[timh]

"We need room to grow as Metro expands. We are already looking at the opportunities for the state government's busway to be expanded down to Springwood as well."

Really happy to hear something about the planned extension, to me it's ludicrous they're not building it concurrently with the M1/M3 merge fix they're doing at the moment. Be nice to get a concrete time frame, but state seems to be dragging their feet/crying poor...

[verbatim9]

BCC hints at rechargeable electric vehicles for Brisbane Metro

Brisbanetimes--------------------------------->https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/brisbane-metro-s-new-super-buses-may-be-electric-deputy-mayor-20190320-p515s2.html

Brisbane's new Metro transport service could be run by 60 electric vehicles when it begins in 2023.

The choice of vehicle to make up Brisbane Metro will be made by mid-2019, Brisbane's deputy mayor Adrian Schrinner said on Wednesday.

The latest design image for Brisbane Metro.
The latest design image for Brisbane Metro.CREDIT:BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL

"At the moment we are considering all options for power trains," Cr Schrinner said.

"We are looking at everything from fully electric through to more traditional power trains.

"That includes hybrid power trains as well.

"We want to make sure that the new [Rochedale] depot is set up to accommodate the future charging requirements for a future electric fleet as well."

Three companies have provided designs for the Brisbane Metro bi-articulated buses.

Those businesses are joint venture Transit Australia Group and Van Hool of Belgium; Hess Ag of Switzerland, and Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, Germany.

"We have shortlisted to three different companies that are in the running for that vehicle and those three different companies are offering different power trains," he said.

"So, there are three different options on the table at the moment.

"By the middle of this year we will choose the preferred supplier of the Metro vehicles."

A pilot vehicle will be built first by the winning tender for evaluation around Brisbane's busways.

"That pilot vehicle will come here for testing on the network to make sure that it meets our specifications," he said.

"Once we are satisfied with the pilot vehicle, we will order the remaining 59 to make that full fleet of 60 vehicles."

"We are planning for up to 90 vehicles down the track," he said.

"We need room to grow as Metro expands. We are already looking at the opportunities for the state government's busway to be expanded down to Springwood as well."

"So this depot needs to be future-proof. It must be ready to expand as Metro expands."

Brisbane City Council has outlined the issues behind the proposed 4.5-hectare depot for the Brisbane Metro super-bus vehicle fleet on School Road.

Two other large contracts in the Brisbane Metro project were set to be announced later in 2019.

A tender would be awarded for the construction of an underground busway station near the Brisbane Cultural Centre at South Brisbane.

The new depot at Rochdale was described as the third piece of the Brisbane Metro project "infrastructure jigsaw".

The contract to build the Rochdale Brisbane Metro depot goes to tender on March 27 and the winning tender was to be announced later in 2019.

The depot on School Road would have vehicle fuelling and recharging facilities, "wash down" facilities, an administrative centre and parking for 270 cars.

[verbatim9]

^^I still prefer overhead wiring to power the proposed Metro vehicles. But I guess second best is rechargeable.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Team_Quirk/status/1108170443020656640

[ozbob]

Couriermail 23rd March 2019 page 4

Metro going nowhere

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1109170356638474240

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Schrinner/status/1109183103803621376

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Schrinner/status/1109193612909146112

[SurfRail]

Isn't this going to have to be operated under contract to TransLink anyway?

If I was the State I would have taken it out of their hands long before now.

[timh]

Isn't this going to have to be operated under contract to TransLink anyway?

If I was the State I would have taken it out of their hands long before now.

Why would you have the state take over? They seem to have no vision at all with the current Busway, and don't seem to be doing particularly well financially. If anything I'd prefer to see the Busway infrastructure in the hands of council. It would make this whole process a lot easier and council (particularly Schrinner) seems to at least have vision to do something about it.

[HappyTrainGuy]

Problem is state government and council. Using anything pt related for votes and political scoring. A few years back Translink was looking like it finally had the balls to actually do something with public transport in SEQ and they showed incentive of changing things.... then Newman got in. And things went down the shitter when everything was merged back into tmr.

And council should not have any control over major pt infrastructure. We have seen the sh%t fighting that goes into getting other pt operators to use KGSBS/QSBS.

[SurfRail]

Isn't this going to have to be operated under contract to TransLink anyway?

If I was the State I would have taken it out of their hands long before now.

Why would you have the state take over? They seem to have no vision at all with the current Busway, and don't seem to be doing particularly well financially. If anything I'd prefer to see the Busway infrastructure in the hands of council. It would make this whole process a lot easier and council (particularly Schrinner) seems to at least have vision to do something about it.

Because BCC does not give a sh%t about anything outside its boundaries, and SEQ is much bigger than their little patch.  We can't go on having multiple agencies responsible for the same stuff, especially across multiple levels of government.

[timh]

Isn't this going to have to be operated under contract to TransLink anyway?

If I was the State I would have taken it out of their hands long before now.

Why would you have the state take over? They seem to have no vision at all with the current Busway, and don't seem to be doing particularly well financially. If anything I'd prefer to see the Busway infrastructure in the hands of council. It would make this whole process a lot easier and council (particularly Schrinner) seems to at least have vision to do something about it.

Because BCC does not give a sh%t about anything outside its boundaries, and SEQ is much bigger than their little patch.  We can't go on having multiple agencies responsible for the same stuff, especially across multiple levels of government.

Agreed, they don't care about what's outside their boundaries, but the Metro project and the busway infrastructure is entirely inside their boundaries. so to me it makes sense for them to have control. Forgive me for my ignorance (or please correct me otherwise) but I don't understand the problem :/

[James]

^ the problem is the state government is doing nothing. If they actually did something, perhaps council wouldn't be so easily able to run around and do what they want.

Bus network reform and fixing QR would be a nice start, unfortunately with the State Gov stalling on both, BCC is taking the lead - not a good message to be sending to an organisation which should only be providing PT, not planning it.

[red dragin]

Whilst the Metro is within BCC boundaries, it affects services from outside the BCC region.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Team_Quirk/status/1109237435710365696

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/9NewsQueensland/status/1109369461587369984

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/7NewsBrisbane/status/1109372106750328833

[kram0]

Would have to agree with the council. They (the state government) don't move at anything more than a snails pace. After speaking with Bailey on a number of occasions, I have come to the conclusion he is weak as pi$$ and has little to no idea. Definitely a duck out of water.

[ozbob]

Would have to agree with the council. They (the state government) don't move at anything more than a snails pace. After speaking with Bailey on a number of occasions, I have come to the conclusion he is weak as pi$$ and has little to no idea. Definitely a duck out of water.

Our transport Minister's decided lack of inertia on the things that matter is becoming a major issue sadly.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Schrinner/status/1110409092755939328

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Team_Quirk/status/1110397459795066881

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> City Hall, George Street in stoush over Brisbane Metro project

Brisbane City Council's LNP councillors have called on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to "intervene" and give approval to early Brisbane Metro work, accusing Transport Minister Mark Bailey of deliberately "playing politics" to favour a Labor candidate for council.

Mr Bailey described the claim as "ridiculous" and Labor councillors decried the accusations of "playing politics" as an "appalling" attack on a state employee.

Cr Quirk said council had attended more than 200 meetings with state government officials while developing the $900 million Brisbane Metro plan — a proposed high-frequency bus rapid transit system — and had been told the officials had "everything they need" to begin approvals.

Cr Quirk said the Transport Minister was "not able to deliver the timetable that is needed for this project" and urged the Premier to intervene.

The approvals in question were for the gazettal of land needed to be purchased for the Brisbane Metro project and the beginning of other work.

Cr Quirk said the council was frustrated and disappointed the major public transport project was not yet under way and accused the state government of delaying deliberately.

"We have gone to the nth degree to make sure they have everything they need to make a decision and the confidence going forward to make the approvals," Cr Quirk said.

"This has to be done, let's get on with it."

Deputy mayor Adrian Schrinner questioned why Mr Bailey had not committed to the project late last week, and whether it was to give a boost to ALP-endorsed Holland Park Ward candidate Karleigh Auguston, who is running for the March 2020 council election.

"I hope that this is not what's happening here, I sincerely hope, and I sincerely hope that we can get this project on track but I've got to say it doesn't look good for the Labor state government," Cr Schrinner said.

Mr Bailey dismissed the comments, saying Brisbane Metro was a major project with a final proposal submitted only in October last year.

"If only Adrian Schrinner's talents for conspiracy theories extended to his management of council's infrastructure program," Mr Bailey said.

"To suggest a billion-dollar transport plan is being delayed by me or the Palaszczuk government to manipulate City Hall is ridiculous.

"Council announced timelines for this project knowing that a number of critical decisions for Metro would be out of its hands.

"They may be keen to build it, but it is Queensland taxpayers who will pay to run it for decades to come."

The deputy mayor moved an urgency motion that the council call on the Premier to intervene and make the approvals necessary to start the project within its planned timeframe.

Opposition deputy Jared Cassidy said the LNP council had a track record of failing to deliver major projects, such as the Kingsford Smith Drive and Brisbane Metro.

ALP councillor Steve Griffiths (Moorooka) said Cr Schrinner's comments were "appalling".

"I thought the deputy mayor's speech this afternoon was one of the most appalling that I've heard in a long time," Cr Griffiths said.

"If we have a council officer attacked in this chamber, all hell breaks loose, but it's okay to attack a [state employee].

"[These are] very serious accusations against a state government employee who can't defend themselves, who isn't here, I think that slur is astounding and it just shows the gutter level that you are at."

Cr Schrinner denied that he had made accusations about a state employee, noting Ms Auguston was now a political candidate and open to public commentary.

Cr Griffiths was formally warned about "disorderly conduct" for criticising acting chair Ryan Murphy's chairing of the meeting.

Mr Bailey said the Brisbane Metro project "needs to be done right".

"Council still hasn't chosen the vehicles it will run on new routes or explained how its Metro banana buses will integrate with the broader bus network and operate outside of Brisbane City Council's boundaries," he said.

"The construction of this project will also have major traffic impacts on businesses, commuters and the CBD, including the plan to turn Victoria Bridge into a car-free bridge.

"Add to that the not insignificant challenge of redesigning the heart of South Brisbane's cultural precinct to accommodate a new station and stops; it is clear these are substantial matters that Brisbane's commuting public expect to be properly resolved."

Phase one of the Brisbane Metro project is expected to deliver dedicated busways between Eight Mile Plains and Roma Street, and Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and University of Queensland.

[ozbob]

This state is rooted !   

[timh]

^^ That's just infuriating to read. A few months ago the state was all on board, going on about how Metro and CRR were an integrated solution, now they're just whinging about every detail and playing politics with it. What changed?

The lack of Cooperation between the two levels of government continues to annoy me, as well as what appears to be putting political career interests before the interests of the public.

[ozbob]

^^ That's just infuriating to read. A few months ago the state was all on board, going on about how Metro and CRR were an integrated solution, now they're just whinging about every detail and playing politics with it. What changed?

The lack of Cooperation between the two levels of government continues to annoy me, as well as what appears to be putting political career interests before the interests of the public.

+1 

Ms Trad and Mr Quirk did joint press conferences suggesting how wonderful it all was the integration between CRR and Brisbane ' Metro '.

Bailey is playing polyticks.  Time Bailey went IMHO.

[techblitz]

Mr Bailey said the Brisbane Metro project "needs to be done right".

"Council still hasn't chosen the vehicles it will run on new routes or explained how its Metro banana buses will integrate with the broader bus network and operate outside of Brisbane City Council's boundaries," he said.

"The construction of this project will also have major traffic impacts on businesses, commuters and the CBD, including the plan to turn Victoria Bridge into a car-free bridge.

"Add to that the not insignificant challenge of redesigning the heart of South Brisbane's cultural precinct to accommodate a new station and stops; it is clear these are substantial matters that Brisbane's commuting public expect to be properly resolved."

gee that's rich.....asking quirk to erase all uncertainty on the project.......now if only he could apply that same mantra to cross river rail and its uncertainty on being able to achieve proposed frequencies and making sure there is enough rolling stock. 

[verbatim9]

Wait! I thought the vehicles will be dedicated to the Busway and will not run on roads unless there is a dedicated corridor. I also thought many will need to change to metro services as most bus routes running along the Busway will be truncated.

I would be concerned too and not hastily sign off on the project, unless I knew the vehicle type is future proof for the next 15 years and has no local emissions. Can run quietly, efficiently and fast at 80kph. That means Electric or Hydrogen cell which most jurisdictions are still testing.

[verbatim9]

Mr Bailey said the Brisbane Metro project "needs to be done right".

"Council still hasn't chosen the vehicles it will run on new routes or explained how its Metro banana buses will integrate with the broader bus network and operate outside of Brisbane City Council's boundaries," he said.

"The construction of this project will also have major traffic impacts on businesses, commuters and the CBD, including the plan to turn Victoria Bridge into a car-free bridge.

"Add to that the not insignificant challenge of redesigning the heart of South Brisbane's cultural precinct to accommodate a new station and stops; it is clear these are substantial matters that Brisbane's commuting public expect to be properly resolved."

gee that's rich.....asking quirk to erase all uncertainty on the project.......now if only he could apply that same mantra to cross river rail and its uncertainty on being able to achieve proposed frequencies and making sure there is enough rolling stock. 

Jackie Trad and probably a few other Mps use the Victoria Bridge to get to the Parliamentary Precinct. Hence traffic issues for some

If we had a proper active transport strategy and a segregate two way Bike lane running the length of George from Alice to to Roma Street and later beyond when CRR is completed. Pollies could catch PT or cycle to the parliamentary precinct.

[timh]

I attended one of the "Get to Know Brisbane Metro" sessions recently, and got to speak to the people there about some details of the project. The guy I spoke to was quite knowledgeable on the project and was able to give me some clarification on a few things we've been speculating about:

1) BUZ Routes (ie. 130, 140, 150 etc.) will definitely not be truncated. Their thinking is that it's pointless emptying a full 130 at Griffith only for those same passengers to chock up a metro vehicle. And yeah that makes sense. I just still worry about the number of buses going into the inner city at peak times remaining an issue. He did say though that other routes that are more suburban in nature may be truncated and turned into suburban feeder style routes. Didn't get exact route numbers though

2) The only routes that will definitely be cut are the 111, 160 and 66 therefore (just replaced by Metro vehicles).

3) Overhead catenary-run electric vehicles are out of the question. They will either be battery or diesel powered. However supposedly even if diesel is chosen as the vehicle type, the depot will be built in such a way to accomodate battery vehicles in the future. ie space for charging stations or something I'm assuming.

3) Dutton Park Place was not serviced by Metro routes due to their being no grade-separated pedestrian crossing between the platforms. It was feared that sending Metro vehicles to stop at that station would cause increased patronage beyond what the current station can cope with, and having no grade separated crossing would mean lots of people just running across the busway, which isn't good obviously.

4) Cultural Centre Station will supposedly be able to remain open during construction, just operating at a limited capacity. I have no idea how this would be done considering the extensive tunnelling involved but apparently that's the plan. He did say there will be some routes that may divert over the Captain Cook bridge during construction though to help make this work.

5) The State is still dragging their feet over the land acquisition and being a right pain. No update from them yet.

6) I spoke to him about the "Missing Link" in the Northern busway (Truro Street to Federation Street). It seems council's planners are just as annoyed that it exists as we are (and rightly so). He did acknowledge that tunneling through that section is difficult due to the closeness to the Airport Link, but hoped that a solution could be found in the near future. I brought up the idea that if the state kept dragging it's feet on this, would it be possible for Council to step in and build the infrastructure instead, much as they are doing here with the Cultural centre station. He said it was definitely possible, but not preferred as obviously it should be the State's job.

Most of this is probably stuff you guys already knew or had worked out for yourself. I just thought it was good to actually hear it from an official source since I haven't been able to find anything in writing from them stating these bits of information.

I did however forget to ask about pax capacity for the vehicles, and how off-board ticketing would be implemented (fare gates, the little train station go card reader thingys, etc.) so maybe I'll head to another one to ask about those bits...

[STB]

I attended one of the "Get to Know Brisbane Metro" sessions recently, and got to speak to the people there about some details of the project. The guy I spoke to was quite knowledgeable on the project and was able to give me some clarification on a few things we've been speculating about:

1) BUZ Routes (ie. 130, 140, 150 etc.) will definitely not be truncated. Their thinking is that it's pointless emptying a full 130 at Griffith only for those same passengers to chock up a metro vehicle. And yeah that makes sense. I just still worry about the number of buses going into the inner city at peak times remaining an issue. He did say though that other routes that are more suburban in nature may be truncated and turned into suburban feeder style routes. Didn't get exact route numbers though

2) The only routes that will definitely be cut are the 111, 160 and 66 therefore (just replaced by Metro vehicles).

3) Overhead catenary-run electric vehicles are out of the question. They will either be battery or diesel powered. However supposedly even if diesel is chosen as the vehicle type, the depot will be built in such a way to accomodate battery vehicles in the future. ie space for charging stations or something I'm assuming.

3) Dutton Park Place was not serviced by Metro routes due to their being no grade-separated pedestrian crossing between the platforms. It was feared that sending Metro vehicles to stop at that station would cause increased patronage beyond what the current station can cope with, and having no grade separated crossing would mean lots of people just running across the busway, which isn't good obviously.

1 - That makes sense, it wouldn't surprise me however if those routes are diverted via the Captain Cook Bridge full time, with those accessing Mater Hill, Southbank and Cultural Centre going via the Metro services.  It'll be interesting to see what happens to all of the peak hour routes and Logan City Routes (peak and off peak), with route 555, I doubt that route can be removed or truncated, as most of the patronage originates at Springwood - and it's often full, standing room only - not on the busway itself, so my guess is that it'll follow the same logic as routes 130, 140 and 150.

2 - I actually wonder if in say 20-30 years or so, trams might make a return on the busway only with full conversion - apparently there are some parts of the busway that would have to be rebuilt, including Victoria Bridge to allow the extra weight that comes with the trams, but having the room to have that ability at the depot I guess might make it viable at some point, and the bridge will have to be rebuilt at some point as well.

3 - Eh, just beef up the 192 and instead of catching it from Dutton Park Place, catch those services on Gladstone Road - no real loss there to be honest, I've never been a fan of that stop, seems a bit pointless when you've got a stop already on Gladstone Road which is actually closer to housing.

[aldonius]

Thanks for asking all those questions, timh!

Dutton Park Place is not a heavily used stop. As long as there's still a full-time non-Metro service that can cover it, she'll be right. (And on weekdays, the 29 has it covered even better.)

(As a massive aside, does anyone think it would be worthwhile introducing a Yeronga-UQ service? Naturally, it would be numbered 109.)

[Mr X]

I can't see why such a route needs to exist. Can't they take a 104/105 and switch at Boggo Rd?

[achiruel]

Wait! I thought the vehicles will be dedicated to the Busway and will not run on roads unless there is a dedicated corridor. I also thought many will need to change to metro services as most bus routes running along the Busway will be truncated.

I would be concerned too and not hastily sign off on the project, unless I knew the vehicle type is future proof for the next 15 years and has no local emissions. Can run quietly, efficiently and fast at 80kph. That means Electric or Hydrogen cell which most jurisdictions are still testing.

I believe Transit Systems are currently operating 10 hydrogen fuel cell buses in London. BCC would be mad of they didn't invite them to tender on similar technology for "Metro"

[Paul B]

When is Gilchrist Avenue going to be closed? pre or post metro? (the busway intersection after rbwh)