Brisbane City Council's "not broken" bus network

Brisbane's bus network review by TransLink (which was largely positive) has been canned, with responsibility moved to Brisbane City Council (BCC) who own bus operator Brisbane Transport.  Lord Mayor Graham Quirk appears to be in denial, stating that Brisbane's bus network "isn’t broken and doesn’t need a radical overhaul like the one proposed by Translink". Here is a list of reasons why Brisbane's bus network is broken, grossly inefficient, confusing to use, and urgently needs a radical overhaul!

CBD Stop Locations

Confusion

Only in Brisbane can multiple bus routes heading in the same direction stop at different locations in the CBD, and take different routes in and out of the CBD. Some even take different routes at different times of the day. Most confusing!

Routes P129, 130, 131, P133, 136, P137, 138 towards Sunnybank and beyond take 4 different routes through the CBD. Routes 450, 453, 454, P456, P457, P455, P458, P459 towards Centenary Suburbs also take 4 different routes through the CBD. This is obviously annoying to passengers if you miss a bus, and then have to cross the CBD to catch the next bus to your destination. In fact, the CBD bus stop locations are so confusing that casual travellers often have difficulty even finding which stop to catch their bus from.

Brisbane needs consolidated CBD "super stops" for buses travelling in similar directions. Also, bus stop locations (and associated routes and destinations) need to be well signed. 

All routes to the CBD

Inefficiency

As per the above two examples, Brisbane operates an (almost) all routes to the CBD bus network. Whilst this avoids passengers having to change buses, it is grossly inefficient, results in empty buses travelling into the CBD, and significantly adds to busway congestion through Cultural Centre. It also results in a confusing number of bus routes serving the same transport corridor with only minor variations. Brisbane has one of the world's highest ratios of bus routes to population. Despite this, many parts of Brisbane such as Centenary Suburbs, Wynnum Road, and North West Suburbs are public transport black holes.

Brisbane needs a trunk and feeder network, where low to medium frequency feeder routes feed very high frequency trunk routes. Arterial road corridors serving residential areas should be served by a high frequency bus routes where possible. All other areas should be served by buses feeding the high frequency routes. Changing buses is a fact of life in efficient public transport systems.

Duplication of other bus and train routes

Duplication

BCC's bus routes also duplicate each other, as well as train routes. For example, the P88 duplicates the frequent Ipswich train line, and SE Busway services. The Maroon CityGlider duplicates much of the route 385, but bizarrely serves different stops. Even travelling from Chermside the the CBD is served by at least 7 different routes.

An integrated public transport system should not have train and bus services competing with each other, but working together. It would also help if train services were frequent in the first place! Multiple bus routes serving the same corridor should be consolidated into a single very high frequency route. 

Other assorted rubbish

Aaaargh!

There are other fine examples of other waste. The 314 runs twice a day on weekdays only, and serves low density areas between Deagon and Shorncliffe. Most of this route is within walking distance of multiple train stations. The 338 runs between Chermide and Strathpine, or Brendale, or Eatonvale. In fact there appears to be at least 6 different route 338 variations, most of these serving schools which are within walking distance of the main route anyway.

Bus networks should not be designed to serve every possible journey. Aside from elderly residential developments, and larger primary schools, making some passengers walk a few hundred metres to a bus stop is really not a big issue.

It is very sad to see the sorry state of the SEQ Bus Network Review, especially when Auckland has embraced its well designed bus network review. Incidentally, the Auckland bus network review was designed by a Brisbane based company - you couldn't make it up! Leaving Brisbane City Council to fix to money wasting mess that they created in the first place is laughable. Its like a leaving an alcoholic to reform liquor licensing laws!  It is time to take public transport in SE Queensland out of the hands of local councils. Network planning should return to TransLink (Department of Transport and Main Roads), and Brisbane Transport should be privatised.

More of Brisbane City Council's "not broken" bus network
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/more-of-brisbane-city-councils-not.html

Brisbane = public transport Hicksville?
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/brisbane-public-transport-hicksville.html

Crikey Blog on Brisbane's bus changes:
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2013/03/25/is-the-qld-government-missing-the-bus/
Human Transit Blog on Auckland's network design:
http://www.humantransit.org/2012/10/auckland-how-network-redesign-can-transform-a-citys-possibilities.html
Human Transit Blog on transit design goals:
http://www.humantransit.org/2013/03/abundant-access-a-map-of-the-key-transit-choices.html