Brisbane Metro

Brisbane Metro is a high-frequency bus rapid transit system that services the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It consists of two routes that will eventually run through the Brisbane CBD every three minutes during peak times (20bph), transporting up to 3,000 passengers per hour in each direction. The Metro temporarily operated a trial service on the 169 between UQ and Eight Miles plains between 21 October and 17 November 2024. Metro route M2 commenced service on 28 January 2025, with the M1 route expected in the second quarter of the year.

It is serviced by 60 electric, bi-articulated buses that can carry 150 passengers, or 170 passengers during events. The system largely uses Brisbane's existing busway network infrastructure and stations, with a number of smaller infrastructure upgrades being built as part of the project. These include a new short tunnel underneath Adelaide Street in the CBD, an upgrade to the Cultural Centre bus station, the removal of vehicle traffic from Victoria Bridge, and various streetscape upgrades. The expected total cost of the project is $1.7 billion. Together with Cross River Rail, the project is intended to boost public transport reliability in Brisbane and alleviate congestion.

History

In January 2016, the Brisbane City Council (BCC) announced the Brisbane Metro to address the current constraints and challenges facing the city's current busway network, which had reached capacity at many inner city sections. This proposal incorporated the conversion of the busway from Woolloongabba to Herston into a rubber-tyred Metro with a single track to provide power and enable driverless operations.

In March 2017, while keeping the same name, the project was redefined with the project shifting to operating high capacity bi-articulated buses on the existing busway, reducing the cost by one-third. The new buses would operate two routes, with one replacing the existing route 66, and the other replacing routes 111 and 160. In November 2017 the BCC released its business case, detailing the benefits, costs and impacts of delivering the project. In November 2017, the project was budgeted to cost $944 million.

The BCC released a draft design report for the project in April 2018 with a project concept displayed publicly for community feedback, following the announcement that Brisbane Metro has been confirmed as a high priority project on Infrastructure Australia's priority list. In April 2018, the federal government agreed to contribute $300 million.

In June 2020, the project reduced the Cultural Centre upgrade from an underground station to an upgrade of the existing above ground station with an additional platform for local services heading towards West End. This was due to a disagreement between the state government, who owns the busway, and the council over what the optimal configuration of the underground station would look like. This disagreement resulted in the state government delaying approval to modify their property.

Subjects to approvals, the BCC expects the detailed design and construction of the project to commence in 2019 with services commencing by 2023. This was later revised to 2024. In October 2018 five consortia were shortlisted to bid for the building of stage 1.Companies bid to build Brisbane Metro as land resumptions finalised
''Brisbane Times'' 17 October 2018
*Brisbane Move Consortium: Acciona and Arup
*Lendlease Consortium: Lendlease and WSP
*MetroConnect Consortium: Laing O’Rourke, AECOM and Aurecon
*Metro4Bne Consortium: CPB Contractors, Seymour Whyte, Vinci and SMEC
*TransForm Bne Consortium: McConnell Dowell, John Holland and GHD

ADCO Constructions began work on a depot at Rochedale in October 2021.

On 23 January 2023, route 86 was introduced as a free bus loop, travelling anti-clockwise around South Brisbane and West End. Also known as the South Brisbane Loop and the Kurilipa Loop, this service was set to operate as a 12 month trial due to Brisbane Metro construction works in the area. This would later be extended to an 18 month trial.

By February 2023, the project's cost had increased to an expected $1.7 billion. A contributing factor was the inclusion of a new $450 million bus station to be built at Woolloongabba, in line with the existing busway. This plan has since been cancelled and the budget reduced to $1.4 billion.Simon Clark - First passenger ride experience - conversations with Project Director and operational staff. The Brisbane Metro Project Director said the following:
Services on M1 and M2 will not stop at Woolloongabba station, despite prior proposals. Services will begin operating at 5-minute peak frequencies, but they can still be increased to every 3 minutes if necessary (and possible considering that the services are likely to start before all 60 buses are delivered/ready for service.) 24-hour operation on 7 days a week. First operation will be on 169 because it will be a simple soft opening to allow for testing with real passengers on a route which will not be super busy for this time of year.

Also in February 2023, construction began on the 213-metre tunnel beneath Adelaide Street in the CBD, which will provide a connection between North Quay and the King George Square busway station. The tunnel would connect the South East Busway with the Inner Northern Busway and reduce the number of buses running on city streets. Construction was expected to take at least twelve months.

In October 2024, it was announced that Melanie Zanetti, the voice of Chilli Heeler from popular TV show '' Bluey'' would provide the voiceover for the passenger announcement system on the Brisbane Metro.

The Brisbane Metro vehicles began trial passenger service on the morning of 21 October 2024, operating on route 169 between Eight Mile Plains and the University of Queensland. This trial ended on 18 November 2024, with regular buses returning to the 169.

On 5 December 2024, it was announced that route M2 would begin full services on 28 January 2025. Initially services would operate at a maximum of every 5 minutes during peak. Frequency will be increased to every 3 minutes once the Adelaide Street tunnel opens, which is expected to happen in July 2025.

Despite community support for the continuation of route 86, it was announced that the Brisbane City Council would not supply further funding for the trial service beyond January 2025, and it was removed from operation on 28 January 2025, coinciding with the introduction of route M2.

Routes 66 and 86 ran their final services on the night of 27 January 2025. Route M2 began operations on the morning of 28 January 2025, with weekday frequencies of: every five minutes from 6am to 10am and 3pm to 6pm; every ten minutes from 10am to 3pm and 6pm to 7pm; every fifteen minutes from 7pm to 11pm; and weekend frequencies of every fifteen minutes from 7am to 8pm.

Routes

Brisbane Metro consists of two routes covering 21 kilometres, linking Brisbane's outer suburbs with the CBD. The network uses the existing busway infrastructure and was planned to provide high-frequency services with three minutes headways during peak times however this was later scaled back to every 5 minutes when the services begin operation. Once all 60 buses are delivered and sufficient drivers trained, 3-minute services can be introduced if passenger demand is appropriate.

The Metro routes M1 and M2 will curtail both new and existing bus routes bound for the City via the busway. Instead, some routes will terminate at busway stations outside the City, allowing for transfers with the Brisbane Metro, reducing bus traffic in busy inner-city stations. Most routes terminating at Queen Street bus station are set to remain, however.

Metro 1

Metro 1 will replace the route 111 and 160, connecting Eight Mile Plains to Roma Street, calling at 11 stations via the South East Busway. The route is designed to provide a new trunk route from the southern suburbs to the inner-city, servicing key destinations and providing interchanges to other Translink services. Metro 1 will commence services on 30 June 2025.

Stations

Below is a list of stations that Metro 1 will service and its available transport connections.

Metro 2

Metro 2 replaced route 66. It provides a key education, knowledge, and health corridor by connecting the University of Queensland with the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital, Boggo Road station and Princess Alexandra Hospital and the Queensland University of Technology's Kelvin Grove Campus via the Eastern and Northern busways.

Stations

Below is a list of stations that Metro 2 services and its available transport connections.

Vehicles

The project introduced 60 bi-articulated buses based on the HESS lighTram 25 with the capacity to carry up to 150 passengers in comfort mode and capable of using the existing busway infrastructure alongside regular bus services. In "event mode" the buses were announced as carrying up to 180 passengers, however this was subsequently revised to 170. The Metro buses will be 24.4 metres long and visually resemble a tram or light rail buses. Buses can travel 90 km/h. The buses have lithium-titanium-oxide batteries.

On 24 November 2019, the BCC announced a consortium of Hess, Volgren and ABB had been awarded a contract for 60 buses. The buses will be fully electric via pantographic overhead wireless charging that will charge at the end of each route for less than six minutes. The buses will be fully low-floor and have next stop displays and audible announcement of the next stop. In addition, they have onboard WiFi, USB charging points and four large double doors. A pilot bus was built and tested in Europe in 2021. Originally planned by 2020, the pilot bus arrived in Brisbane for testing in early 2022. Following successful testing an order for the further 59 was placed with delivers scheduled to start in late 2023 for operations in 2024. The 60 vehicles will cost $190 million an increase of $100 million compared to more traditionally powered vehicles.

Depot

A depot was built adjacent to the South East Busway at Rochedale. The 10-hectare site hosts stabling and maintenance facilities for the fleet. The design of the depot is based on sustainability. There are 2,300 solar panels in use. Rainwater harvesting and recycled water systems for vehicle washing are both used. Sixty 50 kW slow chargers are used during off-peak times.

During the 2024 Brisbane City Council Elections the LNP announced their intentions to build a Metro Bus depot and charging facility on the Bill Brown Sports Reserve at a cost of $125 million.

Future routes and extensions

There are proposed future extensions of the network to Carindale, Chermside, Springwood and the Brisbane Airport (subject to approvals).

In August 2024, Premier Steven Miles and Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced plans to extend the network to Springwood, Capalaba, Carseldine, and the Brisbane Airport in time for the 2032 Summer Olympics. As part of that announcement, it was confirmed that a conversion of the Doomben line to Busway for a Metro to Brisbane Airport was one of the two shortlisted routes, the other being a more direct alignment via the Airportlink tunnel with a depot on the site of the former Toombul Shopping Centre. The Northern Transitway as well as a new busway tunnel as part of a new Gympie Road bypass tunnel would be built north of Chermside and the existing Northern busway between RBWH and Kedron Brook bus stations would be used for a Metro extension on the Northside of Brisbane.

Name

The project being called a "metro" has been met with some criticism. Unlike a standard or rubber-tyred metro, the Brisbane metro is not on a rail track, and therefore, does not meet the International Association of Public Transport's definition of a “metro”.

In 2022, the project's name was criticised by a rail lobby group for having a misleading name that implied it was a rail system, but Brisbane City Council rejected the idea of changing its name. In late 2023, further complaints about the name were raised. A poll by the Brisbane Times revealed 71% of respondents thought that ''Brisbane Electric Rapid Transit'' (BERT) was a better name.

Robert Dowe of RAIL Back on Track said "They're very good buses, but that's what they are; they're not trains, they're not trams." The Chair of Brisbane Transport Ryan Murphy has admitted the name had caused "some confusion". The name Brisbane Metro may also cause conflict if Queensland ever builds a real metro service.

See also

*O-Bahn Busway, a guided busway in Adelaide, South Australia.
*Transport in Brisbane

References

External links

Official Website

{{Public transport in Queensland

Bus rapid transit in Australia
Public transport in Brisbane
Translink (Queensland)