Eastern Busway Extension / Western Busway (incl. UQ Connection)

[#Metro]

Green Team have a proposal for a Western Busway, and the original busway concept did have provision for a Western Busway.     

https://www.michaelberkman.com.au/western_busway

We need a Western Busway

Bus services in the west and southwestern suburbs are unreliable and largely infrequent. One important improvement I am pushing for is a "Western Busway" with dedicated bus lanes on the Centenary Motorway between Darra, Mt Ommaney, Indooroopilly and Toowong.

The Western Busway should eventually link up with dedicated bus lanes on Moggill Rd at Indooroopilly, continuing through Toowong to the CBD via High St and Coronation Drive, and with other dedicated bus lanes, busway or Brisbane Metro extensions on the west side, including an Inner West Transitway which I am also supporting.

[Old Northern Road]

I had to check but it's not quite April 1st

Billions of dollars for a busway that runs parallel to a four track railway

[Arnz]

There's a 4 track railway they could easily use for the vast majority of 4xx routes.  IMO, 412/444 should be the only routes that should continue through to the City on dedicated (in some cases reinstated) Transit lanes.

As pointed out by others previously, just need to upgrade certain stations such as Indooroopilly to allow interchanges.

[#Metro]

Hello Members,

What is being proposed is not in parallel to the Ipswich Line. I've provided an extract from Green Team's submission. You can see it would facilitate feeder buses into Indooroopilly.

(Click to Enlarge)



Source: https://assets.nationbuilder.com/maiwargreens/pages/2869/attachments/original/1678237374/2023-03-08_MB___EWB_joint_submission_to_TMR_re_Centenary_Motorway_Planning_Study_%281%29.pdf?1678237374

[Jonno]

I call it the L6 I head North from Toowong towards Aspley so if you want to go to the city you jump in the L3 or the rail at Toowong.  Depends on you final destination. I did think long and hard about the L3 going on Corro Drive but ultimately decided it wouldn't hurt.

Connecting SEQ 2031 - T, M, L & B - Full Colour

[#Metro]

"A connection running from Dutton Park, across the Eleanor Schonell Bridge, and onto Indooroopilly and/or Toowong will greatly enhance the level and quality of public transport services to and within the St Lucia campus," the master plan says.

UQ bus ban puts 'giant handbrake' on city's public transport, experts say
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/uq-bus-ban-puts-giant-handbrake-city-s-public-transport-experts-say-20230515-p5d8gc.html

I think there is some merit to this. The ask would be building a short ~ 900 m tunnel section, which could be constructed using techniques similar to those already being used under Adelaide Street.

The benefit would be that once open, you could get buses to flow to both Toowong (e.g. extend Route 402, 412 to PA Hospital) and Routes 209, across to Indooroopilly Shopping Centre.

Going from Indooroopilly to PA Hospital would be cut to about ~ 15 minutes travel time, assuming an average bus speed of 30 km/hr. That's good for patients and staff (and recruiting staff from a wider catchment too).

I haven't done a time-gap analysis comparing car trip vs bus trip, but I suspect that bus using this sort of link under UQ St Lucia would have an absolute time advantage over car on alternative surface routes, and therefore bus would be the preferred mode for this sort of trip.

[nathandavid88]

I think there is some merit to this. The ask would be building a short ~ 900 m tunnel section, which could be constructed using techniques similar to those already being used under Adelaide Street.

Keep in mind that the Adelaide Street technique is only viable for shallow tunnels under a road - it wouldn't work beneath buildings, etc.

[#Metro]

Could you use a different technique under the Student Union complex, for example mining and underpinning?

[nathandavid88]

^^ Yeah, the same sort of conventional tunnel method used for Clem 7/CRR/etc. It would have to be a much deeper tunnel to clear foundations, I would imagine.

[RowBro]

Could you use a different technique under the Student Union complex, for example mining and underpinning?

UQ has had plans for a while to demolish and replace the Student Union Complex. I'm not sure how serious they are with it and if it will happen anytime soon, but if it does happen it would allow a tunnel to be developed simultaneously. There's still the issue of getting under the Great Court, however I would imagine they'd just go around to the Eastern side to avoid that.

[RowBro]

Here's a link to the project page. Pretty minimal at the moment. It seems that it will be a partial demolition, so whether it would be a help really depends on the final design.

[nathandavid88]

There was a strong campaign by the UQU that opposed the demolition of the Student Union Complex, with UQ eventually scaling back their original plans. The partial demolition was the compromise reached with the union.

[RowBro]

There was a strong campaign by the UQU that opposed the demolition of the Student Union Complex

I'm not all that interested in the student politics at UQ but I would have thought a full demolition would result in better facilities for the Union in the long run. It's interesting that they were so adamantly opposed to it.

[nathandavid88]

^^ There is a lot of cultural history to the Union Complex and Schonell Theatre, to the extent that there were attempts to get the complex state heritage listed (it didn't succeed). IIRC, part of the issue is that what UQ was proposing for the site wasn't a direct replacement for the facilities being demolished, and it was proposed to be operated by the University administration directly, and not the UQU as has historically been the case.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

Could a 'Green Tunnel' under UQ St Lucia Campus link East and West buses?

20th May 2023

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) has called for the University of Queensland (UQ) Senate and Transport Minister Mark Bailey to investigate the merits of connecting East and West buses under the UQ St. Lucia Campus.

UQ is the second largest patronage generator in Brisbane, after the Brisbane CBD. As such, UQ is in a unique position to have an enormous impact on the uptake of sustainable transport and carbon emissions in Brisbane.

"We understand that UQ  has avoided allowing east and west buses to connect through its campus because of the perceived impact on its campus and St Lucia residents."

"However, this position presupposes that the impacts are wholly negative. They are not."

Bus surface through-movements can be minimised if bus services could travel under the campus using a short 'green tunnel' linking the Eleanor Schonell 'Green Bridge' and UQ Lakes busway station to UQ Chancellors Place.

"We think this is a very different proposition to buses running through campus on the surface."

Under this concept, such a tunnel could potentially be constructed using similar techniques to that being used to construct the Adelaide Street tunnel for the Brisbane Metro BRT bus project. This would keep surface impacts to a minimum.

A short, 900-metre tunnel would allow buses to travel from PA Hospital underneath UQ to Indooroopilly in about 20 minutes. This would be much more direct and compares very well to driving a car over the Walter Taylor Bridge in congested traffic.

It would open up enormous opportunities for passengers on the Beenleigh, Gold Coast, Cleveland Springfield and Ipswich lines to all connect without having to travel into the Brisbane CBD. A potential design could also look at how to incorporate cyclist access.

RAIL Back On Track calls on UQ and the Transport Minister to assess the merits of the concept further.

Reference:

UQ's cross-campus bus ban at odds with its master plan
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/uq-s-cross-campus-bus-ban-at-odds-with-its-master-plan-20230516-p5d8ot.html

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track https://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

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[ozbob]

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[ozbob]

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