Buz Off!

After an explosion at Virginia bus depot early Saturday morning 21/01/2012, Brisbane Transport has taken all of their natural gas powered buses out of service (approx. 50% of the fleet). This has resulted in the following high frequency bus routes (most of them branded as "Buz" routes), to be running at reduced frequency.

•     100 - Forest Lake to City
•     111 - Eight Mile Plains to City
•     120 - Garden City to City
•     130 - Parkinson to City
•     140 - Browns Plains to City
•     150 - Browns Plains to City
•     180 - Garden City to City
•     196 - New Farm to Fairfield
•     199 - New Farm to West End
•     333 - Chermside to City
•     345 - Aspley to City
•     385 - The Gap to City
•     412 - UQ to City
•     444 - Moggill to City
•     CityGlider - West End to Tenerife (another reason why the CityGlider wears a crash helmet?)

CityGlider wearing gas bus protective gear

As is to be expected from TransLink, there is some inconsistency on which buses are affected, with the 196 and 412 originally missing from the above list, and the 109, City Loop, and Spring Hill loop shown as having delays in the service alterations section of TransLink's website despite not running on the weekend. The above listed 15 minute frequency routes are likely to be reduced to every 30 minutes, which could at some times of day (even on a Saturday) result in full buses. However this is a better alternative than cancelling services in Brisbane's many infrequency (30 minute, hourly, or worse) bus routes. Update - unfortunately it seems that some less frequent routes have also had cancellations.

Taking the gas powered buses out of service is a sensible safety precaution, as gas explosions on a bus full of passengers could result in serious injuries, burns, and loss of life. BrizCommuter is glad to hear that no-one was injured in the explosion. Not surprisingly, many Brisbane commuters will now be wondering whether the gas powered buses will be safely entered back to service by Monday morning. With more than half of Brisbane's commuters using buses to get to work, and full buses being an issue at the best of times, travel chaos will ensue if buses are not back to normal by Monday am peak.

Update Saturday 21/01/2012 7:30pm

A normal service will be run on Sunday 22/01/2012 (probably due to a non-existent bus service on many routes on Sundays), with information about Monday's service being made available on TransLink's website at some time on Sunday. With more than 500 gas powered buses requiring checks, Monday's bus service is currently not looking good for many commuters!