South East Busway


The South East Busway is a grade separated bus-only road running south from the Brisbane central business district to Eight Mile Plains in Queensland, Australia. The busway was completed to Woolloongabba in September 2000 and to Eight Mile Plains in April 2001. An extension of the busway to School Road at Rochedale was completed in 2014.

History

Busways were considered as one of the options when the Queensland Government developed the 25 year Integrated Regional Transport Plan. Other methods such as light and heavy rail were also considered. It was recommended that a network of busway corridors to complement the existing Queensland Rail City network would suit best.
Busways would allow buses to serve low-density communities and bypass peak hour congestion. Busway stations could be developed at key nodes to serve major activity centres, and combining different routes would create high frequency services.
In 1995, plans for a network of five busway corridors were conceived, linking with the rail network to improve public transport connectivity across the city. The busways would improve the operation of the bus fleet, reducing maintenance and running costs and maximising the effectiveness of the region's investment in buses.
In August 1996, the Queensland Government approved the South East Transit Project to manage the construction of both the northern section of the Pacific Motorway between Mount Gravatt and Logan City and a dedicated 2-lane, 2-way road for buses between the Brisbane CBD and Eight Mile Plains.
The first section of busway between the existing Queen Street bus station and Woolloongabba was opened to services on 13 September 2000 to coincide with the start of the 2000 Olympic football tournament, for which some matches were held in Brisbane. It initially opened for outbound services only, with inbound services commencing on 23 October 2000. The second section of busway between Woolloongabba and Eight Mile Plains opened on 30 April 2001.
Construction of the Eight Mile Plains to Rochedale extension to the Busway commenced in late 2012 and was completed in March 2014. The extension was funded by the Queensland Government and formed part of the Federal Government's Gateway Upgrade South project. The busway extension passes under the Gateway Motorway and terminates at School Road, Rochedale. No new busway stations were added by this extension.

Route

The busway commences at Queen Street bus station beneath the Brisbane central business district, crossing the Brisbane River via Victoria Bridge to the Cultural Centre busway station, then paralleling the rail lines to South Bank railway station before passing beneath under Stanley Street. It then runs parallel to the Pacific Motorway to Eight Mile Plains.

Services

and Clarks Logan City Bus Service operate services along the full length of the busway while Mt Gravatt Bus Service and Transdev Queensland operate services between Griffith University and Eight Mile Plains.

Future extensions

Currently, the Pacific Motorway enables better connections between the South East Busway, Springwood and Loganholme with additional stations in between at Underwood and Paradise Road, for the benefit of Logan City Bus Service services travelling to the city.
As part of the Main Roads Pacific Motorway Transit Project, plans have been made to extend the South East Busway as far as Springwood bus station, including construction of the proposed Rochedale busway station.

Passenger information

Real Time Passenger Information is displayed at each station, with fixed LED signs suspended above each platform. These signs present four lines of real-time estimated bus departure times, with data provided by Brisbane City Council's RAPID system.