Brisbane City Council is currently seeking feedback on proposed changes to its bus network. Most of these changes relate to the inner-city and southside, and are connected to the fact that the Brisbane Metro project will replace many of the bus routes that currently run along the South East Busway. Not much is changing in other parts of the city, but for the southern suburbs and inner-city, this represents the biggest suite of bus route changes in at least a decade.
You can find heaps of information about the new bus network via this page and this interactive map. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to give your feedback via the online survey at this link, which closes on Wednesday, 14 December.
In Brisbane, public transport is mostly funded by the State Government, and the State Government collects all the ticket revenue (more detail at this link). This means that generally speaking, if BCC wants to improve bus services in one area, they have to take drivers and vehicles off another route, unless the State Government agrees to increase its overall funding contribution.
Most of the changes in this proposed ‘New Bus Network’ are focused on removing partially duplicated services that run all the way into the city, and instead creating better bus connections from various suburban pockets into the main Metro lines that run along the busway.
It will be impossible for the council to please everyone when the state government is failing to increase its overall funding commitment. Personally I think there are many logical, positive changes proposed as part of this bus network review, but I’m disappointed that there are also a lot of missed opportunities.
Among other things, I think we’re overdue for a conversation about how the 198 service can be rerouted to provide more direct connections between the southern end of Highgate Hill and the various other destinations it services. The current route is far more circuitous than it needs to be.
Improving the 192 bus operating hours
My biggest concern though, is that the council still isn’t proposing to improve the operating hours of the 192 bus service. The 192 is the major connection between UQ Lakes, Dutton Park, Highgate Hill, West End, South Brisbane, and the city centre, and services many more stops along Montague Rd than the Blue Cityglider does. But it doesn’t run at night or on weekends, which means residents who live along corridors like Dornoch Terrace can’t even catch a bus to the shops on a Saturday morning.
The council has proposed extending the coverage of the 192 further south into Fairfield, Yeronga and Yeerongpilly, which means many more people will be using this service in future, so the case for it to run at night and on weekends is even stronger.
If you’ve already filled in the council's abovementioned online survey and highlighted the need to improve the 192, I would appreciate it if you can also email both Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, and the State Government Transport Minister, Mark Bailey, to emphasise that we really need the 192 to run on weeknights and weekends if we are to reduce inner-south side traffic congestion and encourage a shift away from car dependence.
Email the Mayor via [email protected]
Email the Transport Minister via [email protected]
This image shows the proposed new 192 bus route extending into Yeronga and Yeerongpilly