Brisbane bi-articulated bus ' Metro ' - network review

[ozbob]

I have started this new thread to cover the actual bus network changes associated with the Brisbane ' Metro '.

Better to keep this separate from the general infrastructure, vehicle issues and so forth in the main thread in infrastructure.

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Council to open consultation on bus network changes within months

Brisbane City Council is preparing to launch community consultation on the first set of changes to the city's extensive bus network in almost a decade, before the rollout of its flagship Metro project.

A review of associated bus network changes, first flagged in 2016 under a 10-point plan to improve the city's public transport system pitched to include an overhaul of route numbering, was expected to start this year.

The last Brisbane bus network review in 2013 assessed 235 routes, with nine scrapped and 80 further services changes across timetable shifts, route alterations and amalgamations.

Responding to questions from this masthead about the status of the new review, council transport chair Ryan Murphy said it was "well advanced" internally and would soon be ready for community feedback. ...

[Jonno]

The good ol "we finalized our plan and will now ask for feedback which we will then summarize and ignore!!!

[SurfRail]

Well they certainly bloody listened to the feedback last time, and cancelled everything.

[Jonno]

http://schwandl.blogspot.com/2011/02/down-under-tour-2011-brisbane.html?m=1

Down Under Tour 2011: BRISBANE
Knowing that Brisbane and the Queensland government are obsessed by buses and the construction of busways it is actually surprising that it also boasts quite a decent suburban rail network. But a first stroll through the city centre reveals its "real face" - this is bus capital! You can't see them at first, only very few streets in the CBD actually have bus stops, until you come across a large square at the end of Queen Street, with a big hole which acts as a 3-lane ramp on which hundreds of buses enter or leave the underground bus labyrinth built beneath a huge shopping mall (the bus boarding platforms are integrated into a large food court). To provide more capacity, another underground bus station opened nearby beneath King George Square, in front of the Town Hall. This appears more to be a huge modern metro station. These two centrally located underground stations are just the centrepiece of a growing network of busways, but busways of the super-highway type, i.e. long sections of complete grade-separation, including tunnels and viaducts and full-scale stations. While busways may certainly have several advantages, I personally believe that the policy is going in the wrong direction.
The biggest advantage is without doubt the one-seat ride from the CBD to your home, at a speed which is probably higher than any other possible transport, at least as soon as the bus is on the dedicated busway. But to achieve this exclusive, almost taxi-like service, you need to provide an extremely large amount of different bus routes to reach every corner of the urban and suburban sprawl, which results in a network layout which is impossible to illustrate (at the Transit Information Centre they admitted that they cannot print a bus map because there are so many lines – anyway, they don't even print a map for the central area or for individual suburbs either....). As the enormous flux from the suburbs into the CBD and back home again occurs only during peak hours, I observed MANY buses leaving the central area almost empty during daytime hours. Of course, you cannot have 500 bus routes running every 10 minutes during the day, but if the frequency is not good enough, no occasional rider bothers to wait for that bus. So while regular CBD commuters will know which bus they take and from where, the "system" is useless for occasional riders (not to talk about visitors not familiar with many place names). Even on the busways it is actually not really clear where all these buses go to, as there are so many different lines passing through that even the experienced traveller loses control, inbound it is always easier as most go to the CBD. I don't know about costs, but I cannot really believe that paying the salary of all the necessary bus drivers is not a strong argument against this sort of transportation. In general, the bus fleet appeared more modern than for example in Auckland, and some buses were even powered by natural gas. Still exhaust fumes extraction from the tunnels must also be an important cost factor.
So while I admit that riding a bus on one of those bus-highways is a rapid form of transport, I think it does not help to create a proper system, as a "system" needs to be simple and understandable for everyone.