Brisbane City Council is about to start its staged review of Brisbane’s bus services but is being met with resistance from the state government.
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The review of the city’s bus services is part of the council’s 10-point public transport plan which it revealed in September 2016.
Public and active transport chairman Adrian Schrinner said the council wanted to start with a review of bus services in the Jamboree ward, but Translink had declined to jointly fund the review.
“When we contacted Translink last year they declined to be involved because they were focusing on the Commonwealth Games so we contacted them again since the Commonwealth Games and unfortunately they have also once again declined to be involved,” Cr Schrinner said.
“It’s got to the point now where we’re proposing to conduct our own consultation with residents and to lead the charge.
“It would have been ideal obviously to have Translink involved but they declined that offer on a number of occasions.”
Transport Minister Mark Bailey said the negotiations with the council were still ongoing because the state government was still waiting to see the detail of how the council’s Brisbane Metro would impact services.
The last Brisbane bus network review in 2013 assessed 235 routes and resulted in nine routes being scrapped and 80 services changes, including 46 timetable changes, 34 route changes and three route amalgamations.
Cr Schrinner said the 2013 review was a learning experience and a region by region approach would now be taken for reviewing services.
“This will be a learning process for the council and Translink as well,” he said.
“So the idea is to do some consultation with residents on the improvements they would like to see, then for Transport for Brisbane [the council-owned bus operator] to actually cost the reality of those improvements.”
Cr Schriner said any transport changes need to be approved and funded by both the council and the state government because of a funding agreement.
The council received four petitions with 356 residents from residents in the Jamboree ward and surrounding suburbs calling for the council to review the bus services and provide the review to Translink for implementation.
Cr Schrinner said the community consultation in Jamboree would start within a matter of weeks.
“We would love to be able to provide feedback to Translink by the end of this year,” he said.
