Party Poopers

Cloudland

It's Christmas Party season again, and the time of year when people leave the party, only to find a wait of up to 59 minutes until their next train!

Whilst there are half hourly trains until around 1am on Friday and Saturday nights, during the week the late night train service is rather poor and inconsistent. Many train lines have hourly late night frequencies on Monday to Thursday nights. The Ferny Grove Line has an hourly gap before the last outbound train. There are x2 hourly gaps on the Cleveland and Shorncliffe Line, and there is also an hourly gap between the last inbound Shorncliffe services (a bit odd given that the Brisbane Entertainment Centre is near Boondall often requiring additional services). Given that the Beenleigh and Caboolture Lines have half hourly services until close, you would have thought that the Ipswich Line would have the same. But the Ipswich Line also has x2 hourly gaps late at night. Finally, spare a thought for anyone having some afterwork drinks and using the Gold Coast Line. This line has x3 hourly gaps starting from just after 8pm. 

With the exception of Buz services, Brisbane's buses are no better than rail late at night. Many bus routes become hourly, or even non-existent late at night. The added problems with buses occasionally running early means that it is not uncommon to get to a stop a few minutes early, and still miss the bus! The poor late night frequencies make public transport even more unattractive to shift workers, such as those in health, and hospitality jobs. 

Given Brisbane's drink driving issues, you would thought that in the "smart state" there would a half-decent late night public transport alternative. But as we know, Queensland's politicians are anything but smart!