Boosting inner city bus/PT capacity

[Mr X]

If we are to continue on this present ideal of every bus from the suburbs going to the CBD then we should improve the inner city bottlenecks. I believe we should construct an inner city busway under Adelaide St connecting from Newstead to Fortitude Valley (terminus for all current city-valley services), ANZAC Square to connect with Central Station then some sort of bus tunnel/bridge across the river to a new multi-platform Cultural Centre, linking with the busway and Melbourne St services.
Of course this wouldn't be needed if we didn't have as many buses continuing into the CBD however with the peakhour delays in Adelaide St I believe it may be required. The busway would need to be fully underground as well and I imagine it would be quite expensive.

Alternatively, we could do what the rest of the world does and simply turn the entire busway network into a metro with very high frequencies, full door boarding etc. I imagine on the southside we could have a southern line going along where the current busway is, with bus-metro interchanges at Garden City, Griffith University etc. The southern metro could cross the Brisbane river at the CCB into the CBD. The eastern busway could go along OCR and then serve the current inner-city busway from Mater Hill - Cultural Centre. Both lines should intersect at Woolloongabba, connecting with the CRR.

I imagine this might not be needed in our current stage however in the future we will need to boost the capacity of our PT system as it's quite clear that our bus system is at capacity.

[Golliwog]

I think that something more than just busways will be needed in the medium term, but that busway upgrades should be able to work in the short term, provided smart network decisions are made (ie: reducing the number of direct buses). I do think however that some form of rail will be needed (more than likely light rail/metro).

[#Metro]

ntire busway network into a metro with very high frequencies, full door boarding etc. I imagine on the southside we could have a southern line going along where the current busway is, with bus-metro interchanges at Garden City, Griffith University etc. The southern metro could cross the Brisbane river at the CCB into the CBD. The eastern busway could go along OCR and then serve the current inner-city busway from Mater Hill - Cultural Centre. Both lines should intersect at Woolloongabba, connecting with the CRR.

MAXIMUM CAPACITY!!!

[O_128]

Busway conversion is good, though something would need to be done through sunny bank to browns plains as there are to many people for a bus interchange. Light rail from new stead to UQ via west end with a boundary street bridge would be great as well.

Rail wise CRR and Cannon hill to indoorroopilly via UQ would take a great deal of stress off the buses.

[Jonno]

Busway conversion is good, though something would need to be done through sunny bank to browns plains as there are to many people for a bus interchange. Light rail from new stead to UQ via west end with a boundary street bridge would be great as well.

Rail wise CRR and Cannon hill to indoorroopilly via UQ would take a great deal of stress off the buses.

+1

[SurfRail]

I would not be surprised to see an extension of the Queen Street Bus Station - ie a 'D' and 'E' platform located at the GPO/ANZAC Square, with maybe 6-8 bays per side and a portal coming out onto Creek Street.  This could accommodate all the current Queen and Edward St terminating routes, and a lot (if not all) the through-routed Adelaide Street services.

Obviously the aim should be to reduce the number of bus movements required to move the same number of passengers, but we are stuck with busways for now.  The only other solution I see is the Adelaide (and former BCC tramways) solution of through-routing more services so they terminate outside the CBD frame.

[O_128]

I would not be surprised to see an extension of the Queen Street Bus Station - ie a 'D' and 'E' platform located at the GPO/ANZAC Square, with maybe 6-8 bays per side and a portal coming out onto Creek Street.  This could accommodate all the current Queen and Edward St terminating routes, and a lot (if not all) the through-routed Adelaide Street services.

Obviously the aim should be to reduce the number of bus movements required to move the same number of passengers, but we are stuck with busways for now.  The only other solution I see is the Adelaide (and former BCC tramways) solution of through-routing more services so they terminate outside the CBD frame.

good point but where do you push them to? Maybe a Good solution would be a Bus station at the RNA with a layover area etc or bowen hills station.

[Gazza]

I'd have thought you could pair high frequency routes to cross the city, and just use headway maintenance.

[dwb]

I would not be surprised to see an extension of the Queen Street Bus Station - ie a 'D' and 'E' platform located at the GPO/ANZAC Square, with maybe 6-8 bays per side and a portal coming out onto Creek Street.  This could accommodate all the current Queen and Edward St terminating routes, and a lot (if not all) the through-routed Adelaide Street services.

Obviously the aim should be to reduce the number of bus movements required to move the same number of passengers, but we are stuck with busways for now.  The only other solution I see is the Adelaide (and former BCC tramways) solution of through-routing more services so they terminate outside the CBD frame.

Do you mean convert Anzac square basement carparking into a busway station? Like King George Square?

[somebody]

I voted other.  Just run the network properly.  There is plenty of capacity that no more bus infrastructure is needed around the CBD - except for removing the loop between Buranda/W'Gabba and the Captain Cook Bridge inbound.

CRR is needed to lift rail capacity of course.

I would not be surprised to see an extension of the Queen Street Bus Station - ie a 'D' and 'E' platform located at the GPO/ANZAC Square, with maybe 6-8 bays per side and a portal coming out onto Creek Street.  This could accommodate all the current Queen and Edward St terminating routes, and a lot (if not all) the through-routed Adelaide Street services.

Obviously the aim should be to reduce the number of bus movements required to move the same number of passengers, but we are stuck with busways for now.  The only other solution I see is the Adelaide (and former BCC tramways) solution of through-routing more services so they terminate outside the CBD frame.

Do you mean convert Anzac square basement carparking into a busway station? Like King George Square?

I think he was thinking further to the west of that.

I for one do not think such plans would see the light of day any time soon.  The advantage is somewhat less that the KGSBS bit, but the cost isn't.  The way I see it.  Few routes actually need to go through the Valley to reach the city - really just the Toombul routes, and there aren't many buses/hour there.

[dwb]

I voted other.  Just run the network properly.  There is plenty of capacity that no more bus infrastructure is needed around the CBD - except for removing the loop between Buranda/W'Gabba and the Captain Cook Bridge inbound.

Would you please elaborate on this loop removal you suggest?

[somebody]

I voted other.  Just run the network properly.  There is plenty of capacity that no more bus infrastructure is needed around the CBD - except for removing the loop between Buranda/W'Gabba and the Captain Cook Bridge inbound.

Would you please elaborate on this loop removal you suggest?

I just meant to have a direct path to get from the busway to the Captain Cook Bridge without needing to encounter traffic lights.

[O_128]

I voted other.  Just run the network properly.  There is plenty of capacity that no more bus infrastructure is needed around the CBD - except for removing the loop between Buranda/W'Gabba and the Captain Cook Bridge inbound.

Would you please elaborate on this loop removal you suggest?

Agreed other than sorting out the CC centre the busway network is totally fine, condense the routes into something sensible, build CRR, get rid of single track constraints and ramp up the rail frequency and you would actually have a world class network.