Northern Busway, Brisbane

The Northern Busway is a bus-only road running north from the Brisbane central business district to the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital in Queensland, Australia. The first section of the busway opened on 23 February 2004 with one station at QUT Kelvin Grove. In December 2005, Normanby and Herston stations opened.

Northern Busway
Overview
System	Translink
Operator	Transport for Brisbane
Status	Open
Began service	23 February 2004
Route
Start	King George Square
Via	Gympie Road
End	Kedron Brook
Stations	13
Route map Legend to Chermside Cremorne Road Sadlier Street Gympie Road Kedron Brook Kedron Brook Lutwyche Truro Street via Airport Link Windsor station Roblane Street Federation Street Lutwyche Road Enoggera Creek RBWH Herston QUT Kelvin Grove Normanby Roma Street King George Square South East Busway This diagram: view talk edit ←      →

The Northern Busway extension opened in stages with the Herston to Windsor section opening in August 2009, and the Windsor to Kedron section opening in June 2012.

History

Workers continues the tunneling works for the Airport Link project during the night

The first section of the Northern Busway, from the intersection of Roma Street to Herston, opened on 23 February 2004 with only one station, QUT Kelvin Grove.^[1] On 14 December 2005, two new stations, Normanby and Royal Children's Hospital Herston, were opened on the existing section.^[2][3]

The second section of the Northern Busway, also known as the Inner Northern Busway, officially opened on 19 May 2008.^[4][5][6] This section connects the first section of the Northern Busway to the South East Busway with stations at King George Square and Roma Street. To make room for the Inner Northern Busway, the lower floors of King George Square carpark were removed, and one rail platform at Roma Street railway station was removed.^[7][8]

In October 2007, an alliance of Abigroup and SMEC Holdings were selected to build the 1.2 kilometre Royal Children's Hospital to Windsor section with a new station at Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital.^[9] This opened on 3 August 2009.^[10][11] On 18 June 2012, the Windsor to Kedron section opened.^[12][13]

Route

King George Square to Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital

RBWH busway station roadway

The Northern Busway starts in a tunnel underneath Albert Street in the Brisbane central business district adjacent to the Queen Street bus station, previously the terminus of the South East Busway. Many northbound services using the Northern Busway originate at the Cultural Centre busway station on the South East Busway. It then proceeds north-west to the King George Square busway station, a large interchange with several stops on each of its two underground platforms. It then surfaces near Roma Street railway station and follows the alignment of the main city train lines. Roma Street busway station is adjacent to the train platforms and is on the same level. Platform 2 is shared by both trains and buses, although the only train to currently use Platform 2 is NSW TrainLink's daily XPT service to Sydney.

The busway then continues north alongside the Exhibition railway line and then north-east through the Victoria Park Golf Complex, with stations adjacent to the Normanby Fiveways, the Queensland University of Technology campus at Kelvin Grove and the Royal Children's Hospital. The busway then turns left and on to a bridge structure alongside the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital precinct over Butterfield Street.

Windsor to Kedron

The three kilometre Windsor to Kedron section was built by a John Holland/Thiess consortium opening on 18 June 2012.^{[14][15][16][17]} The route rejoins Lutwyche Road after crossing Enoggera Creek. The route travels via bus lanes and local bus stops until it reaches Truro Street, where it enters into a dedicated 1.5 kilometre underground busway tunnel. After passing through Lutwyche and Kedron Brook busway stations and crossing Kedron Brook, the route rejoins Lutwyche Road at Stafford Road (southbound/inbound) and Sadlier Street (northbound/outbound).^[18]

Future extension

The final stage of the busway is planned to be built from Kedron to Bracken Ridge.^[19] A series of draft alignments in order to identify the corridor for preservation have been released, however no final route has been selected.^[20] Provisions for this extension were pre-built at the Kedron Portal of the Busway.

A past state government (the Newman Government) had indicated an intention to revisit the alignment for this project.^[21] Their primary points of departure from the policy of the previous government were a preference not to build the full busway option, nor to take the busway all the way to The Prince Charles Hospital. These changes were predicated on the perceived high expense of the previously published preferred options. The current government's stated preference now is for bus or transit lane level priority along the highly congested Gympie Road corridor.^[22] In August 2024 it was announced Brisbane Metro would be extended using Northern Transitway as well as a new busway tunnel as part of a new Gympie Road bypass tunnel would be built north of Chermside and the existing Northern busway between RBWH and Kedron Brook bus stations would be used for a Metro extension on the Northside of Brisbane, completing the Northern Busway.

Services

All services on the busway are operated by Transport for Brisbane.^[23]

References

1. Odgers, Rosemary; Heywood, Lachlan (23 February 2004). "Busway to reduce commuting times". The Courier-Mail (1 ed.). p. 7.
2. "Beattie opens new $135 million busway". Archived from the original on 16 April 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
3. "Two New Stations Help Make Busway The Smart Way To Travel". Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
4. "Commuters save travel time as INB officially opens". Archived from the original on 16 April 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
5. King George Square station TransLink
6. Inner Northern Busway - Queen Street to Roma Street Archived 18 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine CIMIC Group
7. "Premier inspects Inner Northern Busway progress". Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
8. "Roma Street to become hub for bus and rail". Archived from the original on 11 March 2009. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
9. Alliance to Build Busway Archived 18 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine Queensland Government 26 October 2007
10. Busways open for business in Brisbane Archived 18 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine Australasian Bus & Coach 24 July 2009
11. "More than half a billion dollars worth of busway to open for business". Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
12. Queenslander's celebrate new busway Archived 18 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine Queensland Government 16 June 2012
13. Busway's opening looms Archived 18 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine Australasian Bus & Coach 16 May 2012
14. "Windsor to Kedron". Translink. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
15. "Northern Busway sneak peek". Campbell Newman. Department of the Premier and Cabinet. 13 June 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.^{[permanent dead link]}
16. Airport Link M7 & Northern Busway Archived 23 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine John Holland
17. Airport Link, Northern Busway (Windsor to Kedron) & Airport Roundabout Upgrade Archived 18 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine Thiess
18. "Planning bus services for the Northern Busway (Windsor to Kedron) Fact Sheet March 2010" (PDF). Translink. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 October 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
19. Northern Busway TransLink
20. "Northern Busway: Kedron to Bracken Ridge". Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. Archived from the original on 24 August 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
21. "Courier Mail Northern Busway may be Scrapped". Courier Mail. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
22. Busway plan under review Archived 18 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine Australasian Bus & Coach 4 July 2012
23. "Northern Busway Network Map" (PDF). Translink. 19 August 2019.

External links

Media related to Northern Busway, Brisbane at Wikimedia Commons