ABC #398

IN FOCUS
BRISBANE BUSWAY
BRISBANE
BUSWAY
CELEBRATES
20 YEARS OF
OPERATION
There were no
elaborate celebrations
as Brisbane’s South
East Busway marked
20 years of operation
by simply ‘getting
on with its day-today
utilitarian task’
of providing a safe
and efficient mass
transport corridor, says
its operator, Translink.
The opening of the South East
Busway in 2000 was the beginning
of a busway network that has
become an example of best
practice for public transport around
the world, says head of Translink, Matt Longland.
“During peak periods, the busway can move
up to 18,000 customers every hour, compared
with up to 1,600 bus passengers an hour in
general traffic corridors,” Longland explained.
“That’s one bus every 12 seconds passing the
busiest point of the South East Busway inbound
of Woolloongabba Station.
“This is one of the reasons Brisbane’s
Busway receives so much interest from national
and international public transport providers,”
he added.
The first section of the South East Busway
between Queen Street Bus Station and
Woolloongabba opened in September 2000,
in time for the Brisbane Olympic Games
Football Tournament, as part of the Sydney
2000 Olympic Games.
The next section to open, in April 2001, was
Woolloongabba to Eight Mile Plains.
There are now more than 30km of
busway, which includes 27 stations and 20
tunnels. More than 72 million trips are made
on its busways each year, it states.
“The busway stations have been
developed at key suburban nodes to serve
major activity centres. This allows buses
to serve low-density communities, collect
passengers from local roads and then join
the busway for a faster trip into the city,”
Longland said.
“The busways feature real-time safety
and security incident management, with
more than 750 CCTV cameras monitoring
the infrastructure, tunnels and assets 24
hours a day, 365 days a year. Real-time
bus information is displayed at all stations,”
he stated.
SUCCESS STORY
Translink staff work alongside Brisbane
City Council staff to provide real-time
network coordination through the Busway
Operations Centre, including close
collaboration with the Queensland Police
and emergency services to ensure the
safety of the busway network, it says.
“Busways continue to be a great success
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ABC October 2020 busnews.com.au