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
SystemTransLink
OperatorBrisbane Transport
StatusOpen
Began service23 February 2004
Route
StartKing George Square
ViaGympie Road
EndKedron Brook
Stations13
Route map
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
←      →

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]

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]

Services

All services on the busway are operated by Brisbane Transport.[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". Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  3. "Two New Stations Help Make Busway The Smart Way To Travel". Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  4. "Commuters save travel time as INB officially opens". 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". Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  8. "Roma Street to become hub for bus and rail". Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  9. Alliance to Build Busway Queensland Government 26 October 2007
  10. Busways open for business in Brisbane Australasian Bus & Coach 24 July 2009
  11. "More than half a billion dollars worth of busway to open for business". Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  12. Queenslander's celebrate new busway Queensland Government 16 June 2012
  13. Busway's opening looms 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.
  16. Airport Link M7 & Northern Busway 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. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  19. Northern Busway TransLink
  20. "Northern Busway: Kedron to Bracken Ridge". Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  21. "Courier Mail Northern Busway may be Scrapped". Courier Mail. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  22. Busway plan under review Australasian Bus & Coach 4 July 2012
  23. "Northern Busway Network Map" (PDF). TransLink. 19 August 2019.

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