Queens Wharf Bus Changes - Opportunity Lost

Due to the closure of William Street for the construction of Brisbane's new Queens Wharf Casino  complex, there have been many changes to Brisbane's bus routes through the CBD. These are listed on TransLink's website here. Some buses have also been re-timed to take into account changing road conditions (i.e. different journey times). The latter is not much of a surprise as some timings were almost impossible even if driving a Ferrari through red lights (Brookside to Enoggera in 4 minutes anyone?)

Unfortunately, the changes do not go far enough. So what is wrong with the changes, or lack of them?

• More bus congestion through Cultural Centre and Victoria Bridge - Brisbane's infamous bus jam will only get longer as yet more hourly bus services that should go nowhere near the CBD have been re-routed through the Inner SE Busway. 
• Multiple routes along the same corridors - these still exist with up to 8 different bus routes (instead of 1 or 2 at the most), with minor route and stopping variations all travelling along the same transport corridors. This causes inefficiency, confusion, and longer effective waits for buses. 
• Multiple CBD bus stops - despite changes to CBD bus stops, there is still the bizarre mix of different routes to the same destination, departing from different locations in the CBD. Again, this causes confusion, inefficiency, and decreases effective service frequencies.

Bus flavoured Jam

What should have been done is a large scale re-design of Brisbane's bus network, as follows:

• Turn the Victoria Bridge into a Green Bridge (bus, cycle, and pedestrian only) to decrease bus congestion. 
• Consolidate bus routes along the same transport corridor to a maximum of just 2 routes (all stops and express). 
• Infrequent "welfare" bus services to terminate outside of the CBD and connect with high frequency bus services or train services. 
• Consolidate CBD stop locations so that all bus services along a particular transport corridor depart from the same stops. 
• Re-use resources to add high frequency bus routes to public transport black holes such as Centenary Suburbs and Old Northern Road corridor. 

The changes that have been made by Brisbane City Council and their bus subsidiary Brisbane Transport are (as we have come to expect) half-arsed, resulting in Brisbane continuing to have Australia's most inefficient and confusing bus network. 

BrizCommuter is also concerned that re-timed bus routes will result in more buses running early during the off-peak, passing through bus stops before the passengers have arrived at the bus stop. This is already a chronic issue on the inbound Northern Busway.