A huge thanks goes out to Councillor Ryan Murphy from the Brisbane City Council for taking us through the whole Brisbane Metro project! What do you think? Will the Metro service transform the public system in the city? Why or why not? What would you like to see in the city? Let us know and we might be able to go through some of your comments in a follow up video... :)
Am from Newcastle NSW. I think it’s really great news for the people of Brisbane. That will surely transform Brisbane transport system into a more modern, sophisticated, world class and as good as the Swiss public transport network! It’s high time for some genuine development as the transport system Australia wide is not very effective. But this will be a game changer for Brisbane!
My only problem with the whole system is that it runs in areas that all ready had good access to train, buses or in the inner cbd suburbs. . For this system to work at actually reducing vehicle movements is getting it as express as possible and out past the inner cbd suburbs
I could not agree more. It is waste of money for inner places. Further out like east west and especially north missing out. Look at chermside still no dedicated busway. Transit way is a joke as it steals a way from other road user.
The reason the busway was originally built was because of the many suburbs that didn't really have access to trains into the city, which continues to be the case today. It is also many of these suburbs such as Greenslopes, Holland Park, Kelvin Grove and Mt Gravatt without access to trains into the city that have the highest demand (and hence the largest need for high capacity services direct to the city). Another advantage of the whole project is that many of the existing buses that run on the busway will instead be moved to the suburbs which previously had infrequent access to buses.
Yep, the southwest between indro and Moggill is a public transport wasteland with a few buses and 1 main road with no trains. The lack of infrastructure is completely baffling.
Love not having to need a timetable and the next ervice will be there in three minutes. So tired of waiting at bus stops for half an hour if you just miss your bus by a minute (because your first bus was late…)
It's a trackless tram, the best of light rail, without the heavy infrastructure like the poles and wires, deliver a light rail like experience at a fraction of the cost. So.... It's a bus.
So the Electricity for this project is coming from where exactly ? Without this being addressed it just sounds like more Greenwashing / Virtue Signaling. Sounds hallow to suggest the whole project is perfectly Green, Whats the project battery life for these metro vehicles can they be recycled or refurbed or are they landfill ?
I get that it's quite an innovative move for Brisbane, but metro is such a misleading name. Isn't it technically a BRT (bus rapid transit) albeit it's longer than a regular bus, maybe it can be named a super BRT or trackless tram (light rail)
I saw a suggestion for BERT, bus electric rapid transit. And I'm kinda behind that so I can ride the bertie bus while eating bertie beetles from the ekka
It serves the metropolitan area. Therefore, it is technically a metro. Anyway, the names of transit systems don't matter in the end since locals will call it whatever it was originally named by the company. No one calls the NYC Subway a metro, no one calls the Muni Metro in San Francisco a tramway, no one calls the DC Metro a subway, etc.
Isn’t this the 111 and 60 service which already runs the same route at 5mins interval during peak (no need for timetable). I think the network needs more dedicated busways to keep buses consistently on time and out of traffic. I still spend way too much time waiting for buses in the cbd because they are stuck in traffic.
The project is definitely all about reducing congestion - primary cause is the Cultural Centre and Queen Victoria Bridge being too busy. Metro is designed to alleviate this thankfully!
If you noticed, he mentioned a shift to trunk and feeder bus system. it is already a proven system utilised in Asian urban centres such as Singapore. You dont need every bus to turn up into CBD. you use trains or in this case electric rolling stocks. this is brilliant.
This certainly looks like a well-designed BRT system. But as it is BRT it is not comparable to light rail in many aspects such as capacity and comfort. It looks like a relatively cheap and easy to install solution, but I'm not convinced on how future-proof it will be as it will be operating at pretty much the highest possible frequency from the beginning, so there is no room for improvement and the new buses are not that much bigger than normal articulated buses. In Switzerland we already have these exact vehicles in many cities running on normal (trolley-)bus routes and they are great - but at the end of the day, they're still "just" a bus.
I don't believe it is necessarily running at the highest possible frequency from the beginning. If they so desired they could follow the example that Istanbul has demonstrated to work and have the metro buses running up to 15 seconds apart (assuming no other traditional buses on the busway) which would allow up to approximately 48000 commuters per-hour, per-direction in peak-hour. That would be about double of what the busway will be doing at first following the metro project's completion. My feeling is that the busway would never need to reach that capacity until far into the long future.
Would definitely love this to be expanded further. A route to the airport is a must - getting out there is ridiculously expensive and the drop off pick up area is pretty bad.
Surely this will happen, at least in time for the Olympic Games - we will see a huge influx of visitors for that and the Metro will be hugely beneficial during that time. But hopefully the service is expanded well before then - that's still 10 years away!
Airport train is more than sufficient. Brisbane doesn't need more buses duplicating train services when other areas suffer with little-no service at all. What they need is for the Airport train to not cost a fortune like what Perth is doing with their train.
@@misterrocks3035 But first you need to live near the train network. Going from places like Carindale or Chermside which aren't near the railway network, it truly is a mess going to the airport
@@788dreamliner Then improve the links to the rail from those areas - successful public transport networks the world over rely on interchange between *frequent* services instead of relying on one-seat journeys the way Brisbane does. The complexity of the bus network right now is precisely because it's organised to prioritise one-seat journeys to the City and a handful of other places (like UQ Lakes) versus offering frequent, cross-town services that link the busways, railways and other large patronage generators together.
Yeah i live in the states and too many cities do this. If you have the ability to put in rail...do it. Nobody wants another huge glorified bus that sits in a bus lane. Do rail and place it on thru ways thats not paralel to regular streets and motorways.
A real metro would have been much better. Particularly a proper east west connection. But of the publem that this doesn't address but almost re-enforces is that BCC and QR compete for passengers rather then integrate. Cr Murphy's comment about wanting to expand the "metro" to the airport again shows this. There is already the Airtrain. Murphy even identifies that Brisbane transport needs to change to a truck and feeder system. He crashes face first into the point and still misses it.
I completely agree that building a whole new metro line to the airport would be a very bad idea (especially as the lease on the Airtrain will be lapsing in about a decade finally bringing it into public ownership). However I disagree that the BCC and QR compete for passengers. Apart from Cultural Centre, South Bank, Roma St, Buranda, Woolloongabba and Boggo Rd there is no train station within "competing range" of a bus station. All the stations listed above are inner-city stations and the last two are new stations being integrated together in the CRR and Metro projects. These few stations listed aren't competing though but are integrated, allowing for people to take full advantage of both systems. There is no suburb beyond the 3km range of the CBD where it is feasible to say "I wonder if I will use the train or bus station today". Take my suburb of Greenslopes for example. Prior to the existence of the busway the only way I could have used the trains would have been to drive to a station and park. Now I can use the trains without driving because I can catch a busway bus to Buranda, South Bank or Roma St depending on which train line I want to use. An East-West busway would have been perfect but there are so few options available currently. UQ has deliberately blocked any progress beyond UQ Lakes station. Campbell Newman sold off most of what we needed to build the Eastern busway. The Tennyson corridor is too sparsely populated to be profitable (hence the train-line there having little purpose). Most other corridors would be extremely expensive and would be derided for "competing" with trains.
@@PyroManZII they are just the stations you know. But if you follow the Cleveland line you will see every station has bus stops that ferry people into the city following basically the same stops as the train line. Buses should feed people into train lines where possible as it's much more efficient. eg fit more people and quicker
@@jskelton90 Yeah but those are just bus stop, not bus stations. They won't be received by metro buses at any point and these bus stops are just intended as low capacity services that compliment any gaps in train services along the lines. I doubt anyone is choosing these buses over the train during peak-time unless they really needed to because the traffic would be insane. If you are referring to the eventually planned Eastern Transitway that will improve bus capacity between the busway and the Eastern suburbs, the only trains station that will be anywhere close to this transitway is the Coorparoo station which is not 100% ideal but it much better than having endless traffic jams on Old Cleveland Rd that could never be solved by the trains alone (without investing tens of billions into a whole new train line).
@@PyroManZII I'm not talking about just Metro or Busway. A huge proportion of buses run from suburbs into the city. This is terribly inefficient when we have a train system that does the same thing. Suburban buses should funnel commuters to train lines. But instead most are wasted stuck in traffic going into the city on normal streets.
I am so proud of Brisbane's planners and those of you who are seeing walkability and sustainability as a priority. The current busway system was a huge step forward to moving people about: this "Metro" plan is even more so! I'm a passionate "Not Just Bikes" fan - he promotes the advantages of urban planning in the Netherlands over car-dependent surburbia - and to see aspects of those advantages being woven into Bribane's planning for the future is very exciting!
if you are so excited, can you answer this, how many bike ways in Brisbane? have they distributed evenly in all suburbs? if the answer is no, don't get too excited, please.
@@BurningMad Light rail would be an extremely expensive and disruptive investment that would be unlikely to greatly improve upon the capacity of the busway, the commute times or its reach to the suburbs in such a manner that would be worth the cost. Sydney's South East light rail can carry about 13000 people per-hour whereas the Brisbane busway after the metro project will be able to carry about 44000 people per-hour.
@@Lifeistooshort200 It is quite difficult to measure the amount of bikeways in Brisbane (or any city for that matter) especially as so many new bikeways are being constructed reguarly. It might be worthwhile checking the BCC website for a visual map of the bikeways in Brisbane but even that site is outdated by about 4 years (in which time a lot of new bikeways have been constructed). It is mostly the outer suburbs receiving these new bikeways, and the veloway is being extended to Logan (and eventually the Gold Coast).
Great to have electric transport in Brisbane city. I hope that it will not cost too much to ride to the CBD, and I also hope it will expand to other suburbs as well. Excellent report.
I think the Metro is just a glorified infrastructure project remodelled for today's public. Will it enhance the ride into the city for those that can access and choose to access it? Sure. Will it put a dent into Brisbane broken transportation network...likely not. Unfortunately the council is just a piece of the broken puzzle when it comes to congestion and public transportation. I'd love to see a more holistic approach when it comes to this issue but unfortunately our broken political system across all levels of government will always produce inadequate outcomes. The fact that there are just too many cars on the road network in peak times and bandaging or adhoc solutions will never work. More needs to be done to encourage car users to give up their vehicles a few new routes in the suburbs likely won't cut it.
@@dixnsons I'm wondering if the tram would've been a better investment as trams last much longer than buses and the Metro looks like a unique type of build so I'm wondering how it would age and if it is really more eco friendly than a tram.
LOL Sydney's new trams can take what 500 passengers per vehicle, now I'm not saying we need trams that big but this brisbane metro plan is short sighted, producing more lithium batteries is worse for the environment and increases the risk of failure, where as a tram running on overhead or 3rd rail power can draw its power from sustainable power sources and can also provide more capacity safely where as these buses and yes they are buses need extra facilities to turn around, don't actually attract new riders a light metro system can, I mean look at Vancouver with its sky train similar population count with 2 car light metro trains and can move more people + brisbane has a sprawling heavy rail system when improved correctly could be world class, instead we live in a city which keeps sprawling creating this car dependency which we see today, its all well and good to do this for people in the inner city but what about people in the outer suburbs where bus frequencies are 1h at best and stop around 5pm leaving people stuck this is not sustainable in the slightest, stations are bad at best terrible if we're being honest. This is a terrible project and it won't serve brisbane in the long term. Please stop supporting these terrible projects and advocate for sustainable and truly walkable and livable neighbourhoods, cars or vehicles with rubber tyres are not the solution for urban life and never have been, its all well and good to have a car if your travelling outside of the city to a place that isn't served by long distance rail but if we have the option of using rail and a decent public transport system Wether it be for urban transport of long distance it provides a better environment for us all to live in, I mean 2 trains full of passengers can provide enough capacity to deal with the traffic issues on the M1 in either direction. It's time to think smarter Brisbane
Trams are better option imo. They been proven effective in other states. New technology is always shown to have issues. Long term reliability of heavy use battery powered systems have yet to be proven
Its not very relevant to compare these buses with the old *minority* of 15 metre Melbourne trams that are being phased out. The standard minimum size for a modern tram nowadays is 30 metres and over 200 passengers, with flexibility to expand to 60 metres and over 400 passengers, or any size in between (the Gold Coast trams, for example, are 45 metres and carry 300 passengers). They may have thought it great to save the cost of tram infrastructure with this Metro project, but unfortunately the consequence is that it has a hard capacity ceiling on it that one day Brisbane may come to rue as the population grows, whereas a tramway has huge scope for capacity expansion. In the very long term, I can see the Brisbane busways being converted to tramways (for which I understand they were designed with that possibility in mind).
Hopefully as battery tech continutes to evolve and get better this will mean that this type of vehicle will also get better and be able to carry more passengers and have a larger range, and as you said, maybe the busways will be converted into tramways in the future and then this dedicated metro way could also be converted. Will be interesting to see how it all comes together.
If we look to the Istanbul busway it seems possible (given enough large-capacity buses have been bought to support said capacity) to have up to 48000 commuters per-hour, per-direction. Anything above this figure and a light rail or tram becomes more advantageous, but it seems like it will be a long time away before reaching this limit ever becomes a possibility (given the 15000 commuters per-hour in peak hour, we would be expecting a tripling in the local population to bring about such a possibility).
I am a former resident of Brisbane and am still angry that the once proud and effective tram system was so carelessly demolished in 1969. The proposed metro buses, dressed up in trams will convey 170 people we are told. The former FM and drop centre tramcars carried 110 each, not much less! Indeed with 2 hooked together, a practice used in Sydney and Adelaide, you carry 220. Melbourne has the so called "bumblebee" trams with several articulations that carry many more than that. It would have been better to keep the trams and make modifications, retaining the visibility of the services so it was easy to join, rather than grope your way through bus tunnels or have to find obscure locations in the city to get on a bus Remember, almost all tram services travelled along either Adelaide or Queen Streets, and it was so easy to find and board your service. I fear Brisbane has stuffed it again.
They shouldn’t call it a metro it isn’t a metro, it makes it sound like they’re trying to pull a fast one on us and mislead us about the benefits of the service. We should be building light rail instead. It doesn’t provide any extra coverage or significant extra capacity compared to the current system which uses banana busses which carry a similar amount of passengers. The weight of the electric busses’ batteries will wear down infrastructure faster and are incredibly energy inefficient when fast charging is used like it will be in Brisbane, and the batteries are a fire risk. The only marked benefit of this project is electrification of the corridor which is cold comfort when it comes using slave labour cobalt in the materials of the batteries and any perceived lower cost to the system is offset by long term maintenance as compared to the cost/benefit of light rail.
They should of built the cultural centre station underground like they originally planned. The exit of the busway tunnel onto Melbourne st and the intersection at Grey st, will still be a bottleneck for the system. So it’s just bigger buses and not much else.
The whole Cultural Centre is getting a massive overhaul as part of the project. I think in conjunction with Cross River Rail, this will open up a few bottlenecks for the city.
@@melpikos8533 they still have to stop for traffic lights twice. Is what they are doing better then now, of course, but the system is only as good as it’s weakest link. This wouldn’t have been a problem with the original plan. With the time it’s taken to get this far I don’t expect any upgrades before the olympics.
@@justinb7451 agreed!! I wish they took that all underground there like planned similar to KGS station. Hope they give metro priority at those intersections - ie no red lights / delays. I complained to The northern transit way project team as well as they are ending the outbound leg of that at Chermside a few hundred metres shy of Hamilton road going by the map, forcing the buses to turn right with regular traffic which during congestion can take a few sets of light changes, instead of giving a bus priority lane all the way into the Chermside shopping centre station.
I like The Brisbane Metro, but I think we should of chose a light rail or a subway. Bi-Articulated Buses are good, but buses are designed to be flexible and spread out. The Metro is clearly not attempting to be this, rather being a fixed root rapid transit system. Which defeats the purpose of rubber wheels; as that is the purpose of rail, as well as defeating the purpose of battery vehicles. When you're on a fixed root you can have an electrified system, rather than having to drag a heavy battery around which are vulnerable to weather patterns and also aren't as environmentally friendly as they are marketed. Light Rail doesn't need heavy batteries, also doesn't produce a lot of tire waste and can still reach high speeds; as well as reaching very high speeds. Metros/Subways are just underground or are elevated above the streets, so completely avoid road infrastructure all together. By no means is this metro bad, Bi-Articulated Buses are good. But it shouldn't be used as Brisbane's rapid transit solution. Light Rail/Subways just win on this regard. And no Cross River Rail isn't a subway, it is still a suburban rail system.
Brisbane, Brisbane, Brisbane NOT everyone wants to live and/or commute to Brisbane, Queensland is a huge state and why is ALL the money being concentrated in a 5-10 kilometer radius of the Brisbane CBD especially when regional areas provide most of the finances to build these structures.
biggest load of shit, the only issue is simply "EVRY" single bus has to go through a chock point at Cultural centre - remove the bus stop - close off Melbourne st between Grey & Merivale st make use of only buses (400s stop in grey st) - it is ONLY location of the Cultural centre bus stop - during peak there's "BUSSES" clear across Victoria bridge,,, but you get rid of cars
@@JamesFFiT with the "longer" busses not going to make a difference - you got to also remember cars & trucks have limited crossing (2) where pedestrians will have seven (not including ferry
glorified bus? They will need real Trams before the games. Remember, they want people off the roads...What? to ride on roads made of Oil based waste products, waste tires instead of steel ones. Brisbane Metro looks like a real messy polluting infrastructure...Give or take a decade or two.
The so called Brisbane METRO is simply a double articulated double ended vehicle when it SHOULD have been a GUIDED bus, allowing FIVE CAR trains, not the three car vehicles that is being introduced. Cutting out a number of the current bus services and shortening others, will cause major OVERCROWDING on the METRO! These days, five car trackless trams that can be powered by batteries for part of the journey and overhead 750 v DC for most of the route. Over a BILLION dollars spent, for little gain!
This is a gadgetbahn. There’s plenty of videos on RU-vid explaining why these projects are more expensive and less efficient at moving people than light rail. I’d argue Brisbane needs to extend the Northern and Eastern busways as planned but with priority. Construct light rail along with a Brisbane rail loop. Connect SEQ via high speed rail from Maroochydore to Coolangatta with a western link to Ipswich.
I disagree with it being this cut and dry. The entire busway network including this new metro project have altogether cost about $6B over a 20 year history from what figures I can find. This has built about 40km worth of dedicated busway which will have a capacity of about 22,000 per-hour per-direction following the metro project. On the other hand the most popular Sydney light rail line cost about $4B for 13km of track that gets stuck at many traffic lights and transports about 6,500 per-hour per-direction. It takes about 50 minutes currently on average to travel these 13km compared to the 20 minutes it takes a bus on the busway. I can't see any metric the Sydney light rail has won out on here (and believe me, if they wanted to extend the light rail to North Sydney much like what the busway does, costs would blow out far beyond the figure above for Sydney). Even the G:Link which has been significantly less expensive (about $4B for the currently planned 28km worth of track) and isn't as hindered by traffic (with 40 minute travel across the whole track) still lacks significant capacity at just about 3,000 per-hour per-direction. They would have to double the size of each tram and run them every 1 to 2 minutes just to even compare to what the Brisbane busway achieves. In general there are very few light-rails in the world capable of exceeding 20,000 per-hour per-direction. Studies done by the BCC indicated that replacing the whole busway with light-rail would improve capacity from 22,000 to 25,000... at a cost of around about $10B at least. I agree with some of your other points though: Maroochydore spur is needed and ideally with a light rail that connects the rest of the Sunshine Coast, Coolangatta extension is needed alongside the G:Link to Coolangatta, Springfield to Ipswich rail extension is needed, Beaudesert spur is needed while the Inner Rail project is being constructed, and extension of the Ipswich line to Toowoomba is needed while the Inner Rail project is being constructed. In addition the Northern and Eastern Busways (not Transitways) need to be built and the Southern Busway to Loganholme as well. There also needs to be a Western Busway continued from St Lucia. I would estimate that all these projects combined could be completed at about the same cost as converting the entire busway to light rail.
@@PyroManZII thanks for the time taken with your response. It’s refreshing to have a discussion with somebody in good-faith, where the argument isn’t hijacked by political ideology. Definitely agree what you’ve suggested is much more achievable in the current climate. It is a shame that the cost analysis is never weighed against potential economic benefit. Queensland would be a powerhouse if we invested linking SEQ into a true megalopolis.
Born and bred Brisbanite and I've lived in many parts of the city over the past 5 decades. The new Metro will service areas that already have good public transport into the City. The most congested part of Brisbane is actually the westside where many roads become a car park even before 7am -- Corro Drive, Milton rd, Moggill rd, the Centenary, the Western Freeway, the Warrego, the Ipswich Highway and Ipswich Rd they all get significantly congested. Dedicated buslanes and the new Metro would do well in the Western suburbs, say if they ran from Rosewood or Marburg into the City along the Ipswich and Western freeway.
yeah, but everyone on the west and north don't like public transport and more of the jobs taken up by those residents require a work car. In addition, everyone over their prefer driving.
Usually I wring my hands and point my head to the sky shouting "What nitwit did this", however on this occasion I think council is on the right track. The tram/train/bus thing has real potential and variability. This is, for sure, going to have its teething issues and unforeseen problems but give credit where credit is due. I wish the project all the best for the future
I would have to agree that this project and theSouth-East Busway to begin with seemed to be pragmatic decisions made without politicians going on about crazy white elephants to impress the voter base or approving projects with no consideration. I am sure the tempting decision would have been to rip up the busway and completely replace everything with rails for tens of billions of dollars and decades of construction just like in Sydney for limited results, but calmer heads proposing this more efficient option got through.
brisbane bus metro is only short term relief as it suffered from the same induced demand. busses can’t handle the fluctuations the same as trains and trams.
It's also for all the infrastructure - on route charging, end of trip charging and upgrades to the dedicated busway and roadways - not just for a "a bus". Then in the future when there are advancements in batteries and range of these buses/vehicles, it won't cost as much then to add new ones to the system
@@MelPikos Transportation innovations are economic game changers if they make travel faster, cheaper or more convenient to end users and generate More travel. An electric bus on dedicated route with less range than a diesel bus...is not innovative. The Infrastructure Principle holds that any transportation technology that requires its own dedicated infrastructure will not be able to compete against highways, airlines, and freight railroads because the cost of building enough infrastructure to make the technology useful and the risk that the technology will fail to cover its costs will both be too great. Investments in fixed infrastructure over long timeframes are risky ventures..Because NO one can predict what technologies will emerge to compete against it by the time it's ready. Any Transportation technology or invention, costs factored by what it utilizes and operates with. Any Transportation technology, no matter how gee whiz or futuristic; Should it require new infrastructure to be built, is usually destined to fail, because there's no way it can compete against other technologies that use existing infrastructure.
If we want to be serious about cutting traffic before the Olympics then we Bne, needs to re-new rail lines to (Rail loop) to Samford; (Rail loop) along the Touts Rd route picking up all suburbs Alderley to Castledine; Rail line to Canungra; Rail line to Beaudesert looped to Boonah and back to Amberley and Wulkuraka; Rail line along the edge of Brisbane valley hills to Harlin then loop to the east.
Great video and the Brisbane Metro looks great. As a Gold Coaster I'd love to see more direct to Gold Coast trains and maybe some higher speed trains with services that don't stop anywhere between Park Road and Ormeau. (Obviously there will be other services from Park Road to Beenleigh and this will be after Cross River completion). This means that Gold Coasters who have further to travel can be mostly seated and that the journey from Brisbane CBD to Varsity lakes - and one day Palm Beach - can be done in about 50 mins.
The QLD state govt did announce recently that they were upgrading the Bris/Gold Coast rail lines - doubling the track in some places where it's only a single track currently, upgrading stations and removing level crossings. So while it's not a "high speed rail" system, it will hopefully reduce congestion on the tracks, increase the number of services and make the commute down/up the coast a lot faster!
Look, I think the idea of the metro is great, but I think building everything overseas to cut costs (which will inevitably backfire like every other overseas built PT project by a LNP gov or council) isn't the way to go. Would be good to have it all locally built.
Agreed, would be great to have it all locally built, and hopefully after seeing this built there will be more incentive/motivation to get manufacturing happening here!
It may never happen to but what Brisbane should consider is a monorail system something that won’t be subjected to bottlenecks but allows traffic below to run freely and the system to be fast not to mention an icon for the city
wait what!? why is it 1.8Billion with a capital B!? sound like someone is scamming the government. even with th e cost overrun for sydney’s light rail coast us over a billion dollars
Just build a light rail if you already have a right of way sorted. In the long run they spur more development and recoup a lot of their higher initial cost with lower ongoing running costs. This is just another gadgetbahn.
List me any light-rail system that could replace the busway for less than $15B (let alone the ~$5B it has cost to build the entire busway system and the metros to date thus far). Also list me any light-rail system that consistently supports greater than 22,000 commuters per-hour per-direction. I am unaware of any light-rail systems that meet the first criteria, and I think there are only a handful of light-rail systems that meet the second criteria mostly dedicated for mega-cities (and there are definitely none in Australia). Research showed that replacing the whole busway with light-rail would have improved capacity from 22,000 to 25,000 and if we use the cost of the Sydney light-rail as a benchmark we could expect it would have cost at least $15B to achieve (for almost no net benefit). Sure, calling it a metro isn't as accurate as calling it a BRT, but I think calling this project a gadgetbahn is heaping a bit too much praise on the idea of a light-rail system as a "silver bullet" solution to everything. It is also worth mentioning that keeping with the BRT system allows for a "metro-like" network at the same time as allowing for buses from the suburbs to use the busway to avoid congestion as well.
Mel could we please update us all on the latest suggestion regarding Olympic main stadium. I agree with your suggestion of being built above Wooloongabba cross river station. It seems a no brainer as one the cross river station and the bus way. The other issue is the Brisbane quarry at Mt Cootha and Mt Gravatt. What going to happen with them. Sorry one more the redevelopment of Brisbane airport and extension of the Brisbane Port and current road structure. Currently it is an embarrassment.
Interesting video. Thanks for sharing. It will be interesting to see how the Metro bus system works. Unfortunately, Brisbane closed it's former tram system back in 1969, which if retained, could have been converted to a large modern light rail system. With the Metro buses sharing with other buses, this may still be a problem, being blocked by other buses. It is great to see the railways being further improved. Hopefully, it all works out well.
Ok.. I dont see bike racks on any of these vehicles. Why is that...? If I am going to be a whizie around Brisie I would want to have my bike with me....
Won't be faster than a bus if it is travelling behind one on the busway. Also, will the cost to travel be as high as we are paying now because if it is more that will not encourage people to use it. Brisbane needed an above ground system that would lessen the congestion on our already gridlocked roads
There will be less yellow busses on that busway section as they will be feeder services from the suburbs on normal roads to these busway stations for the metro so you can change and jump on a metro service at say RBWH and they will go every few mins along the 2 routes so it’s turn up and go! No waiting ages to transfer.
@@JamesFFiT It on takes 1 normal bus to slow down the new ones. From 3pm in the afternoon and 6 am in the mornings our roads are gridlocked, what is normally a 5min drive can take up to 20mins. I still think an above ground system would be better.
The so called Brisbane METRO illustrates POOR PLANNING and will be of some benefit. . . . . .but a guided system woud have allowed FIVE CAR vehicles instead of the a double articulated bus! SAD, really.
What they forget to tell you in the intro is that by any metric,,, public sector investment in, and outcome of arterial road construction has NOT come close to matching pace with population growth, thus a huge part of the Brisbane and GC problem of THEIR making. Be honest
Q. When is a Metro not a metro? A. When it's in Melbourne or Brisbane. Seriously though, an attractive short-term improvement? Yes. Comparable with an actual automated metro? No. Just how do you guarantee 3 minute frequency without a dedicated pernanent way and automation?
Exactly! Bigger, electric, more comfortable buses. But still buses. How, I'm not sure, but the construction costs for rail needs to be addressed nationally, yes labour is and will be expensive but surely things can be meaningfully optimised. Optimise bus routes, build dedicated busways, build meaningful walking and bike infrastructure all you want but the best cities in the world all are going to have actual LRT/metro systems. Oh and also, especially when automation is involved, surely the running costs are significantly less for rail systems? I can't imagine the cost for Brisbane to run it's bus network is particularly cheap.
@@electro_sykes"Metro" is just a contraction of "metropolotan" (literallly "of mother city") so in that sense it's okay to call any city's transport system Metro. However, I can't help thinking that it's being used to suggest a more capable and efficient solution - such as an automated high-frequency train service - than what is actually there.
Biggest advantage of a conventional METRO is minimum waiting time and no traffic congestion.. How can Brisbane METRO achieve the goal of no traffic congestion when they are sharing the road space with other traffic and subject to traffic light stop? They should stop abusing the name METRO if they cannot achieve this goal.
Let’s not have overcrowded buses going from where people are to where they want to go. Let’s get off the jerky old suburban bus, and lineup to get onto the Hytech stretchy bus. Sounds convenient and efficient. Have you ever had to change planes in Atlanta?
That's only the top up at terminals, which can disrupt the operation. There's also overnight charging in the depot. Hess also produces a trolleybus version of this bus that can run continuously with no downtime.
I missed the bit where it mentioned how many 6 minute charges it would take to complete the route. 6 minutes is not long unless your in a hurry to get somewhere and if it's stopping for 6 minutes more than once on the route, that could be a game changer.
The councillor correctly stated that a trunk and feeder system is the best way to move the largest amount of passengers. However, the trunk of the system already exists, that's Brisbane's heavy rail network. The buses should feed into that network, not feed from one bus to another, longer bus. A single train has vastly more capacity than this new electric bus.
I see you guys and girls wearing a karate uniform when you are doing kung fu. That's alright, what's being taught is what matters. Belts are a 💰 money maker. That's alright, pays the rent for the school. Communities need places like yours. After work we go to train. Better than the pub.
Calling it "Metro" is a really poor choice.....Metro implies some sort rail based transport (this is how the word is used all through the western world). The project should be renamed so people know it is a bus (with different routes)
train or underground metro is the answer, as it walks on dedicated railway, so not affected by the congestion roads ,learn from melbourne ,nothing beat train especially in long distances
This most likely to be BRT - Bus Rapid Transit bus lane it has tyres and steering wheels so it Electric Bus and tram is LRT - light Rail Transit no wheel on lane just rail line were MRT - Mass or Metro Rail Transit as heavy Rail line as Train.
Brisbane metro is a start in the right direction but it needs to go further north than Chermside.. It needs to go right out to Bald Hills. If they plan it right it should also snake out to the suburbs that don't aren't near train lines which would make working in the city more viable for people who live further out. However, Brisbane metro on its own isn't enough .. they need to vastly expand the cross river rail to as many areas of the city as possible. The other thing they need to do is make it a 24/7 service. It's 2022 and our public transport system doesn't work for shift workers at all.. they are forced to drive cars.
There's a land corridor from Enoggera along Trouts Rd which goes all the way to Bald Hills near Bunnings. The corridor is a bit narrow to build a freeway I think, but a busway might have a good cost-benefit.
Are you out of your mind, of course not. Instead a road tunnel will be built because according to a recent transport study conducted by council about travel habits, most people on the northside said that they would prefer to drive to work regardless of whether their public transport was improved or not. Meanwhile, Southside residents who were more likely to take public transport and many more of them supported better public transport..
@@wytreeey3645 Instead a road tunnel will be built because according to a recent transport study conducted by council about travel habits, most people on the northside said that they would prefer to drive to work regardless of whether their public transport was improved or not. Meanwhile, Southside residents who were more likely to take public transport and many more of them supported better public transport..
I think that the existing train network leaves many gaps in suburbs between lines. Even the busses running do does not connect to the decently fast railway network. How could they fix this? More track branches? Busses to stations?
I would like to see some improved public transport options out here in The Gap. Waterworks Rd is the only way in and out from the city. I thought Legacy way might have given us a nearby option, but no.
Hopefully the buses that the Metro will replace will be spread amongst the most needed suburban routes. Agree Waterworks Road can be pretty packed during peak hour!
$1.8 billion for a fleet of 60 buses er metros works out to $30 million per vehicle, each bus carries 170 passengers maximum (the HESS Lightram it's based on has a maximum capacity of 150 of which only 40 are seated), but you're paying, best case scenario, ~$176 000 per passenger- and the vast majority of the passengers will have to stand. For comparison, the state government is spending $7.1 billion to purchase 65 NGR trains, build a manufacturing facility in Maryborough and a new maintenance facility in Ormeau, *and* that cost factors in ongoing maintenance. That works out to ~109 million per train, each train seating 454 passengers with space for another 510 standing passengers (964 in total), which works out to ~$240 000 per seated passenger or $113 000 per passenger with both standing and seated capacity- again, including the extra features and maintenance that isn't factored in to the cost for the 1.8b spent on the bus metros. I don't even want to imagine what those maintenance costs for the buses ends up being. They're heavy as shit and road resurfacing costs scale logarithmically the heavier the vehicles constantly running over it. This is all besides the fact that these vehicles are, in fact, buses, and will be constantly stuck in traffic so your actual commute times will be much less predictable than by train. So it would have been nice if some of that enormous waste was highlighted, and sure it's not all BCC's fault, they don't control QR after all, but I guess this video is more of an ad for the LNP than an honest assessment of the metro project
Only about $300M actually goes towards the purchasing of the 60 buses. All the remainder of the expenses go to the tunnels, stations and other infrastructure being built in this project. The metros will just be using the busway (at this current time) so are not going to be stuck in traffic.
There is talk in the video of running them in future in road lanes. I don't think this is possible as double-articulated buses don't comply with national heavy vehicle regs. They can only operate in their own dedicated busway. The current on-road testing with the prototype would be done under a special permit only.
I assume that any future "on-road" use of the metro would be done with specially painted/segregated bus-lanes (not necessarily a new stretch of busway). Therefore you could quickly paint a lane of a road to be a bus-lane, and depending on the regulations (which I am not too in touch with) you would be able to run the metros on there.
As someone who has had a lot of involvement contracting to CRR - I hope this is delivered a LOT better. CRR is going to be a case study of what not to do in the coming decades.
My mate tells me that all brisbane needs for the Olympics is just Cross River Rail and Brisbane Metro. We all know that we need a lot more public transit lines than just that
Instead a road tunnel will be built because according to a recent transport study conducted by council about travel habits, most people on the northside said that they would prefer to drive to work regardless of whether their public transport was improved or not. Meanwhile, Southside residents who were more likely to take public transport and many more of them supported better public transport..
I think a northern busway would be good. There was some talk/issues around the north brisbane transport corridor recently, I'll have to double check what was said about that but I do seem to recall something about a north Brisbane tunnel
@@MelPikos Instead a road tunnel will be built because according to a recent transport study conducted by council about travel habits, most people on the northside said that they would prefer to drive to work regardless of whether their public transport was improved or not. Meanwhile, Southside residents who were more likely to take public transport and many more of them supported better public transport..
I’ve watched quite a few of your videos and like you content. I recommend you ask a few more hard questions the people you interview, especially those from BBC :)
