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Brisbane Transport is a business unit of Brisbane City Council, operating suburban and urban bus services under the TransLink integrated public transport scheme in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. For Singapore please go to Queen Street Bus Terminal. Queen Street Bus Station is the Brisbane CBD 's primary Bus terminus The Carindale Bus Station, at Westfield Carindale, is serviced by TransLink bus routes The Chermside Bus Station, at Chermside, is serviced by TransLink bus routes The Garden City Bus Station, at Westfield Garden City, is serviced by TransLink bus routes The Indooroopilly Bus Station, at Indooroopilly, is serviced by TransLink bus routes For the most up-to-date timetable and route information please visit the TransLink website at www Brisbane City Council is the governing council for Brisbane, which is the capital of Queensland, Australia. South San Jose (cropjpg||thumb|A suburban development in San Jose California. For a list of all TransLink services see the list of TransLink services. Brisbane ( is the state capital of Queensland. Brisbane is the third most populous city in Australia and the most populous city of Queensland Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern corner of the mainland continent For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Many of its services use the South-East Busway and the Inner-Northern Busway, which are grade separated from other roads and are served by large stations. The South-East Busway is a grade separated bus-only corridor running south from the Brisbane CBD to Eight Mile Plains, in South East Queensland The Inner Northern Busway (INB is a shorter 47km long counterpart to the South-East Busway. Grade separation is the process of aligning a junction of two or more transport axes at different heights (
Brisbane City Council's ferry services on the Brisbane River, including CityCat catamarans, formerly a part of the Brisbane Transport business, are operated by Metrolink Queensland, a joint venture between the council and French company Transdev since 1996. See also Merchant ship A ferry is a form of transport usually a Boat or Ship, used to carry (or ferry) passengers and The Brisbane River is situated in southeast Queensland, Australia, and flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton History The CityCat service runs along the Brisbane River between Apollo Road in the suburb of Bulimba in the east and the University of Queensland Metrolink Queensland is the operator of the Brisbane City Council 's ferry network since 1996. Transdev is a major international multi-modal transport group based in Paris, France.
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History
Trams
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For more details on this topic, see Trams in Brisbane. This article describes Brisbane 's Tram system which operated between 1885 and 1969 as well as ongoing proposals since the early 1990s to reinstate a functional tram network
Brisbane Transport's origins can be traced back to the Metropolitan Tramways and Investment Company, which established a small horse tramway under franchise from the Queensland government in Brisbane in August 1885. This company was purchased by the Brisbane Tramways Company, which electrified and expanded the tram system from 1897.
Brisbane's tram system remained in private hands until 1922 when the Queensland government established the Brisbane Tramways Trust, compulsorily acquiring the tram network and supporting infrastructure, then in 1925 creating the Brisbane City Council and transferring responsibility for the tram network to the council. Brisbane City Council is the governing council for Brisbane, which is the capital of Queensland, Australia.
Buses
The Brisbane Tramways Trust experimented with providing bus services in the 1920s but these proved impractical due to mechanical unreliability and Brisbane's poor road surface quality. The first permanent bus services were introduced in 1940 as a supplement to Brisbane's tram services.
In 1948 the council municipalized a number of privately-run bus operators and expanded its own fleet of buses. Municipalization is the transfer of Corporations or other Assets to Municipal ownership The first tram lines to close were the Lower Edward Street to Gardens route, and the Upper Edward Street to Gregory Terrace route in 1947, the latter due to the very steep grades on that line. Diesel-engined buses initially replaced tram services on these lines, however these were replaced by Trolleybuses on 12 August 1951. Diesel or Diesel fuel (ˈdiːzəl in general is any Fuel used in Diesel engines The most common is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum Events 1099 - First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon - Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid Year 1951 ( MCMLI) was a Common year starting on Monday. Events of 1951 January
The council also intended to introduce a trolleybus service to the new University of Queensland campus at St Lucia, and purchased enough trolleybus chassis from the United Kingdom for the route. The University of Queensland (UQ is one of Australia's premier learning and research institutions St Lucia is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia located 4km south-west of the Brisbane CBD. A chassis (plural "chassis" (ˈʃæːsiː ˈtʃæːsiː consists of a framework that supports an inanimate object analogous to an Animal 's The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located However, it was vigorously opposed by residents and the plan was abandoned. The council then found itself with surplus trolleybuses but no route on which to run them, so it decided to run the trolleybuses from Herston to Stanley Bridge, East Brisbane, commencing in 1952. Herston is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia located 3km north of the Brisbane CBD. East Brisbane is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia located 3km east of the Brisbane CBD.
Several other trolleybus routes were subsequently established in the eastern suburbs. The first of these replaced a tram route, along Cavendish Road, in 1955. Other trolleybus routes to Seven Hills and Carina did not involve tram route closures.
In the 1960s, trolleybuses ran on the following routes:
- 24 – Prospect Terrace, Herston, to Stanley Bridge, East Brisbane
- 23 – Botanic Gardens to Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill
- 8A – City to Seven Hills
- 25 – City to Cavendish Road, Holland Park
- 8C – City to Carina
The depot and workshops for the trolleybuses was located in Milton on Milton Road between Hale and Castlemaine Streets. Herston is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia located 3km north of the Brisbane CBD. East Brisbane is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia located 3km east of the Brisbane CBD. Spring Hill is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia located 2 km north of the central business district. Seven Hills is a suburb located on the inner eastern side of Brisbane, surrounded by the suburbs of Norman Park, Morningside and Carina. Holland Park is a suburb of Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, Australia, that is situated approximately 8 km south of the Brisbane central Carina is an eastern suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia about 7 kilometres from the Central Business District Milton is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia, located approximately two kilometres west of Brisbane's Central business district. The former depot was demolished to make way for the redeveloped Suncorp Stadium.
Tramway closure
The tramway closure was notable for the speed with which it was carried out. Several hundred replacement buses were purchased from British vehicle manufacturer Leyland, at the time the largest single bus purchase in the world. The sudden acquisition of so many buses was to have repercussions in later years. Initially the Leyland Panther buses proved unreliable, and as a result, older front-engined mounted buses such as the Leyland Mk III Regals, dating from the 1940s, were retained well past their normal replacement date. Once the problems with the Panthers were ironed out, overall fleet numbers and maintenance requirements were reduced. Nevertheless, the fleet retained many older buses from the 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1975, the Whitlam Labor federal government made $80 million available to the Bjelke-Petersen National Party Queensland state government, intended to be passed on to Brisbane City Council for the purchase of new, replacement buses. Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC (born 11 July 1916 known as Gough Whitlam (ˈɡɒf goff is an Australian former politician and 21st The Parliament of Australia or Commonwealth Parliament is the legislative branch of government of Australia. Sir Johannes "Joh" Bjelke-Petersen KCMG (13 January 1911 &ndash 23 April 2005] New Zealand -born Australian Politician, was the longest-serving The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party. The Government of Queensland is commonly known as the Queensland Government. The government refused to transfer the funds to the council, instead using the money to restore Parliament House and construct the Parliamentary Annexe building. Parliament House in Brisbane is the seat of the Parliament of Queensland, housing the Legislative Assembly.
Ageing fleet
As the replacement bus fleet aged, their maintenance requirements steadily increased, at a time when labour and spare parts costs had risen sharply. Further, as the tram replacement buses started to wear out at about the same time and needed replacement, the council was faced with another large capital outlay. Subsequently in 1976, the council was able to negotiate federal funding, enabling them to purchase Volvo B-59M buses, its first fleet acquisitions in seven years.
Patronage on the buses continued to decline, despite the best efforts of the Department of Transport hampered by rising fuel and labour costs, together with tightening budgets, leading to further cuts in services. An ageing bus fleet, some of which had been in service since the 1940s, made the service increasingly unattractive.
A further hindrance was the council's own aggressively pro-car 1964 City Plan, requiring all developments to include car parking, but did not require the provision of any facilities that might advantage public transport. By the 1980s, bus patronage had dropped to approximately 40,000,000 passenger journeys per annum.
However, this was not to say that the council completely failed to invest in public transport. New depots were constructed at Carina and Toowong, with modern workshops also constructed at the Toowong depot with the former tram workshops at Milton decommissioned. Carina is an eastern suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia about 7 kilometres from the Central Business District Toowong is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia which is located 5 km west from of the Brisbane CBD. A network of express routes were introduced called "CityXpress", using buses with comfortable, high-backed seating, bolstered patronage, particularly in outer suburbs, and the underground Queen Street Bus Station opened in 1988 to facilitate passenger movement. For Singapore please go to Queen Street Bus Terminal. Queen Street Bus Station is the Brisbane CBD 's primary Bus terminus The department's administration was relocated to the Brisbane Administration Centre (BAC) along with most of the council's other administrative units. The Brisbane Administration Centre, or BAC served as the administrative headquarters for the Brisbane City Council. Slowly the decline in patronage was halted, although costs continued to outstrip ticket revenue.
Post-corporatisation
In the 1990s, Brisbane City Council corporatised its transport services to form Brisbane Transport, a council-owned commercial businesses managed at arm's length from the council and providing consultancy services back to it. Corporatization is a more precise term for what often is called Privatization, for it almost always refers to a process by which formerly public assets or functions are sold Brisbane Transport's ferry services were contracted-out to private operator Metrolink Queensland, a joint venture with French company Transdev. Metrolink Queensland is the operator of the Brisbane City Council 's ferry network since 1996. Transdev is a major international multi-modal transport group based in Paris, France.
The fall in patronage has been reversed in recent times by the introduction of a single integrated ticketing system for all of South East Queensland's public transport operators, known as TransLink. South East Queensland (SEQ is a region of the state of Queensland in Australia, which contains approximately two-thirds of the state population For a list of all TransLink services see the list of TransLink services. The construction of grade-separated busways and the introduction of several high-frequency express routes, known as bus upgrade zones, has also seen patronage rise substantially for the first time in decades. The BusWay is a Bus rapid transit line operating in the city of Nantes, France. Bus upgrade zones, commonly abbreviated to BUZ, are a feature of Brisbane 's Public transport system According to a press release on 3 July 2006, patronage on bus services rose 24% in a two year period, from 46 million in the year prior to the introduction of TransLink, to more than 57 million in its second year of its operation. Events 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The success of Translink, along with the rise in petrol prices and greater environmental awareness, is making public transport a more attractive option, financially and consciously, for many commuters. In turn this has led to problems such as overcrowding, particularly during morning and afternoon peak hours. [1]
Depots
Brisbane Transport operates its services from seven different depots around the Brisbane City Council area. Many of these depots can share routes with other depots in overlapping areas.
Generally, each of Brisbane Transport's buses are allocated to a particular depot, and displays a letter prefix for that depot before its bus number on at least the front and rear of its body, and occasionally rooftops.
- Bowen Hills ("A") – serves some northern routes and operates all routes between New Farm and West End. Bowen Hills is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia, located 3km northeast of the Brisbane CBD.
- Carina ("C") – serves all eastern routes and some south-eastern routes from Garden City to Wynnum and Bulimba. Carina is an eastern suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia about 7 kilometres from the Central Business District
- Garden City ("G") – serves south-eastern routes from Browns Plains and Sunnybank, to Wishart and Coorparoo. Mount Gravatt is the name of both a major suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and a prominent hill in this suburb This depot is also the location of Brisbane Transport's head office.
- Larapinta ("L") – a satellite depot of Carina and Garden City depots, it shares southern, western and eastern services. Larapinta is a suburb located in the southern regions of Brisbane, on the edge of the Logan shire Larapinta is also a temporary bus depot until the new depot in Willawong opens that will feature a bus workshop that is much comparable to the Toowong one.
- Richlands ("R") – a satellite depot of the Toowong depot, it shares services on western routes, and some services to Parkinson and Browns Plains. Richlands is an outer suburb of Brisbane, Australia. It is 16 km south-west of the CBD
- Toowong ("T") – serves South Western and North West Routes from Brookside and The Gap, to Inala and Forest Lake. Toowong is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia which is located 5 km west from of the Brisbane CBD.
- Virginia ("V") – serves the majority of northern routes from Nudgee Beach and Brighton, to Brookside and the Gap. Virginia is a suburb in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is located 10 km north of the Brisbane central business district.
The Garden City, Toowong and Virginia depots are equipped with compressed natural gas refilling facilities for gas-powered buses. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG is a Fossil fuel substitute for Gasoline (petrol Diesel, or Propane Fuel.
Former depots
- Bracken Ridge ("B") – only ever considered a short-term depot by Brisbane Transport, it was closed in 2001, several years after the Virginia depot had opened. Bracken Ridge is a northern suburb of Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, Australia.
- Cribb Street, Milton – never a formal depot, this area of land was occasionally used by the council as temporary storage for buses owing to its proximity to the Milton bus and tram workshops. Milton is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia, located approximately two kilometres west of Brisbane's Central business district. Last used in 1983.
- Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba – shared with trams, buses parked in the depot forecourt and at the rear (eastern end) of the tram sheds. Woolloongabba is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia located 1km south of the Brisbane CBD. Between 1969 and 1974, the depot was used solely by buses. The site was subsequently sold by the Brisbane City Council for commercial redevelopment. One bay of the depot building was dismantled and re-erected at the Brisbane Tramway Museum at Ferny Grove. Brisbane Tramway Museum is a transport museum which preserves and displays Trams and Trolley-buses most of which operated in Brisbane, Queensland Ferny Grove is a recently developed residential suburb in north-west Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
- Light Street, Newstead ("L") – closed for commercial redevelopment, first used as a transport depot in 1885 when it was the main tram depot for Brisbane's horse tram network. Newstead is a riverside suburb of the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Until 1968, the depot was shared with trams with buses parked along the western (Wickham Street) frontage and north of the tram shed. When the tram shed was demolished, buses were parked where the shed once stood.
- Milton – shared with trolleybuses and closed when the trolleybus network was abandoned in 1969. Milton is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia, located approximately two kilometres west of Brisbane's Central business district. The former depot site is now part of Suncorp Stadium.
Fleet
Brisbane Transport's fleet is steadily being replaced with low-floor compressed natural gas buses, such as 217 Scania L94UB models with 180 new MAN 18. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG is a Fossil fuel substitute for Gasoline (petrol Diesel, or Propane Fuel. Scania AB is a European Manufacturer of heavy Trucks ( British English: lorries) Buses and Diesel engines MAN AG is a German engineering Company based in Munich. MAN is one of Europe's leading manufacturers of engineering equipment 310 low-floor gas buses to come and a further option for 120. New MAN NG313F articulated buses are being delivered to the Garden City depot every fortnight. It currently operates just over 800 buses and provided 53. 1 million passenger trips in the 2004/2005 financial year, reportedly the highest since 1974.
Services
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For more details on this topic, see TransLink (South East Queensland) services. For the most up-to-date timetable and route information please visit the TransLink website at www
Brisbane Transport operates a number of different public services. Most of them runs to the Brisbane central business district, while some services operate as feeder services to train stations. The Brisbane Central business district (CBD or 'the City' is located on a point on the northern bank of the Brisbane River. It also provides school bus services which are usually similar to normal routes with variations to/from schools. They also have routes to and from stadiums before and after matches and concerts, and during major exhibition such as the Royal Queensland Show.
Route numbering
Routes are numbered according to TransLink bus route numbering system:[2]
- Brisbane north – routes 193, 195, 196, 197, 199, 300-398, 470
- Brisbane south – routes 100-199
- Brisbane east – routes 200-236
- Brisbane west – routes 100-110, 115, 122, 123, 402-476
- Brisbane inner city – CBD Loop, routes 66, 109, 199, 197, 196, 193, 195, 323, 470
- Loop – a free weekday service running two routes (clockwise and anti-clockwise) in the central business district from approximately 8am to 5pm every 10 minutes.
- Great Circle Line – two circular routes, 598 (anti-clockwise) and 599 (clockwise), connecting major suburban shopping centres without going through the Brisbane central business district. The Brisbane Central business district (CBD or 'the City' is located on a point on the northern bank of the Brisbane River.
- NightLink – late-night services on Saturday and Sunday mornings between 12am and 6am. Run on various established routes, although starting in Fortitude Valley, all NightLink services have the prefix "N" before the route number. Fortitude Valley, also known simply as The Valley is a suburb of central Brisbane, Australia immediately north-east of the CBD. Some routes are operated by other private bus operators for TransLink.
References
- ^ [1] TransLink bus patronage booms in the South-East, TransLink, 5 July 2006
- ^ Translink Bus Services retrieved 8 December 2006
- Brimson, Samuel, "The Tramways of Australia", Dreamweaver Books, 1983. For a list of all TransLink services see the list of TransLink services. Events 1295 - Scotland and France form an alliance the beginnings of the Auld Alliance, against England. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room the second public library of Europe. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ISBN 0-949825-01-8
- Brisbane City Council Annual Reports (various between 1925 and 1974)
- Clark, Howard R. and David R. Keenan, "Brisbane Tramways - The Last Decade", Transit Press, 1977 (Reprinted 1985). ISBN 0-909338-01-9
- J. R. Cole, "Shaping a City: Greater Brisbane 1925-1985", Brisbane 1984
- R. Deskins, P. Hyde and C. Struble, "Slow at Frog - A Short History of the Brisbane Trolleybus System", Brisbane Tramway Museum, 2006. ISBN 0-9597322-2-5
External links
- Brisbane City Council – Buses
- The Enthusiasts Guide to Brisbane Transport Buses
- Brisbane Bus Operators
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