Plans for a new Brisbane Metro bus service to the airport for the 2032 Summers Olympics have been earmarked for greater funding urgency.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner told the most recent meeting of city council that the project has been flagged as ‘high priority’ by Infrastructure Australia (or IA); click here to learn more about IA.
“Brisbane Metro continues to go from success to success; we’ve seen over the last two years a 27% increase in bus patronage, including a 10% increase just since the middle of last year,” he told council.
“If we’re going to move the large number of people that we need to move as we head towards the Olympics Games, we need more of Metro.
“We need more bus rapid transit,
Brisbane Metro-style public transport.”
Currently the city operates two such services; the M1 (Roma Street to Eight Miles Plains) and M2 (Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital to UQ Lakes).
The plans will see the express service roll out to the airport, go north from the hospital to Carseldine, go further south to Springwood (Logan council) and out east to Capalaba (Redlands council): click here to learn more about Brisbane Metro.
There are no current extension plans for western Brisbane according to the IA website.
Cr Schrinner describes IA’s decision to list the extension as ‘high priority’ for Queensland as “one of the most important projects” in the country.
(Canberra has already given $50 million for a final business case for the project, IA says.)
“We want to see more extensions rolled out across the city,” Cr Schriner says, calling the listing “an important step” in ensuring continual support from the state and federal governments.
NO METRO OUT WEST YET
When asked by Councillor Chong Wah why a western Metro service isn’t part of the plans, he said the region lacks the necessary busways and transitways.
“When it comes to Metro services, there needs to be a busway or a transitway for Brisbane Metro services to run,” he told her.
“There are plans to expand where there are proposals for busways or transitways; these have generally been in areas of the city that have no rail line,” he said.
The Lord Mayor said the state government is looking at such a service given that some of the transport corridors are owned by the state, not council.
“If they (government) want to have a look at introducing busways or transitways in the western suburbs, we would love to explore a Metro-style solution.”
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