r/BrisbaneMetro

I went down to the Gold Coast this week to visit the trams, and rather annoyingly I had forgotten just how nice they are. They are exceedingly charming. I had a lovely time. How dare they.

Obviously this led me to that eternal debate of BRT verses LRT. Long story short I have often argued that they both fill very similar public transportation needs, and both have their advantages and disadvantages. BRT and Brisbane Metro works here in no small part thanks to decisions made in the 60s to close our existing tram network, and again in the 90s opting to build the first portion of busway instead of an alternative tram proposal. It made best use of our existing infrastructure and could quickly be expanded to meet our city’s transit needs in time for the upcoming Olympic Games.

Hang on. What do you mean it won’t be finished in time?

Right, let’s go backwards a bit, and let me talk about what I liked and disliked about the G:Link compared to Metro.

First off, well, even if you know they do the same job as BRT, it’s hard to not get excited at the mere fact it’s a tram. Someone once said ‘trains are sexy, buses are not’, and it always stuck with me as a perfect summation of public attitudes towards transit. Driving to the Gold Coast, I can't help but get a big open mouth grin at the first tram I see trundling alongside the motorway. Yeah, there is definitely an element of novelty for me, not having that sort of thing back home, but there is some undeniable level of charm you get just by putting it on rails, all else being equal. Its hard to explain, maybe they just are that sexy.

Next, something that struck me pretty quickly was how the tram stations feel like they are often in the middle of the places they serve. Be forewarned, this paragraph is building towards a tedious play on words. You get off at Cavill Avenue, and you are already in the middle of a busy shopping and entertainment destination. Even riding between stations, you feel as though you are still in these places as you pass shops and restaurants. I believe it was Reece Martin, of RM Transit, who described trams as 'walking accelerators', and riding through town you can understand what he meant as you can sit back, exploring the area, and jumping off when something catches your eye. Metro and the busways feel very disconnected from the places they serve in contrast. The one main exception would be Cultural Centre, which does feel like a bit of the Queensland Cultural Centre complex, especially after its remodelling (#bringbackthecicada). The busway burrows under or builds above destinations, and I am hard pressed to think of anywhere outside of Victoria Bridge and the Cultural Centre that gives you a good opportunity to look out the window and spot something interesting. The trams feel a part of their surrounding, but the busway feels apart from its surroundings. I am so sorry.

The stations are pretty nice too. The bright orange shade sails on each platform are pretty distinctive, making it easy to identify. I noticed a few of them had little kiosks on the platform, occupied by small businesses like mini coffee shops, or street food vendors. I'm told by r/GoldCoast that some of them are local favourites, or money laundering operations. I think its a neat idea, hop off the tram and grab a little something right there, but it does sound like these small businesses can struggle being surrounded by other cafes and eateries. I would love to return one day in the morning before these kiosks are shut and see how much trade they can attract. Otherwise the stations are pretty slender compared to busway stations. The whole system is pretty compact. Eyeballing it with the scale in my phone’s map app, the G:Link right of way looks 8 meters wide, 15 at side platforms stations or 12 at narrower island platforms. The busway however, with its wide lanes and ample clearance looks 12 meters wide wall to wall, and about 26 at stations. Additionally, being able to drive them from both ends removes the need for turn around facilities at the end of the route.

Last key stand out is how comfortable the trams are to ride. I'm sorry to say, but in the wrong hands, the Metro is not a good ride, as you get thrown around the back seat. I think some drivers seem to forget how long the bus is, accelerating out of corners much too soon. In places, the busway too is a bit rough, and some bouncing is inevitable. The trams however never made me hang on for dear life, and the tracks are much smoother. Without measuring it, I don't think either is significantly noisier or quieter to ride, but the trams do make a bit of noise if you are seated in a bogie section, going over bridges with that empty space in the middle of the track for the noise to reverberate in. Also, while they have a heap more space for passengers, about 300 against 170, I was surprised the trams have space for only two wheelchairs, compared to the Metro's three. That said, the trams always stopping in the same position means great signage on the platform lining up with the accessible areas onboard, and only a slight gap that proved no obstacle for one wheelchair user I witnessed boarding unaided. Still, there are buttons on the door to alert the tram driver if you do require assistance.

One other difference I will briefly mention is frequency. The trams running every 7.5 minutes is great, but coming from Metro’s five minutes makes it feel incredibly slow. That gives the trams about 2,400 passengers per hour though, versus 2,040 on Metro, both at peak frequency. I don’t think either is an outright winner here, but I want to give a slight edge to frequency. If we ever see three minute frequency on Metro, its capacity would then overtake the trams at 3,400 per hour.

How much of what makes the trams so attractive could you replicate with busways and Metro?

Well, first off, Metro vehicles are really nice, but in making them as trammy as possible, they attract a fair amount of backlash saying they are pretending to be something they’re not, which certainly isn’t helped by its branding. Maybe it would be a different story if the M stood for Megabus. There’s probably another essay about the state government rolling back rail projects for ‘metro-like’ BRT in there somewhere too.

Giving Metro more of a sense of place I think is doable, but I don’t think on the existing routes and busway. Perhaps if a future route went via Fortitude Valley and the CBD on segregated city streets, making Adelaide Street fully bus only as an example. Footpaths could be widened as you remove road space, except for places where you put stations to provide a lane for non-stopping buses to overtake, unless you maybe do away with that feature, similar to the how the trams operate. Nice, maybe? Adelaide Street is almost bus only, and it doesn’t compare well to the almost tram only Surfers Paradise Boulevard, largely because of the buses I think. With the exception of a few token electric buses outside of Metro, they are noisy and fumey things, and as explored previously, take up more space, electric or not.

Now, I have previously said, and continue to say, that Brisbane Metro was the superior choice compared to an LRT alternative. It makes the best use of the existing busways, building on what we have. I also used to think that Metro’s job was to rapidly expand in preparation for the Olympics, and that post-games, the network ought to grow to a point that can facilitate sections of the network being unavailable for long periods for their strategic replacement with LRT. If we aren’t meeting our Olympic goals, then perhaps we can, or should, reevaluate the role of Metro post-games too.

I would focus current Metro expansion on the Southside of the city, pushing the M1 further south to Springwood, and the new route east to all those places that start with C. Honestly I am looking at the future expansion map right now and I had never noticed it before: Cooparoo Square, Camp Hill, Carina, Carindale, Chandler, and Capalaba. Hell, extend it further to Cleveland and Coochiemudlo Island. What were we even talking about. Anyway, Rochedale depot has been built to be expanded, with room to stable at least an additional 40 Metros in their main yard, with a second empty paddock out back just in case I guess. Keep building that network from the southern depot, and with the eastern Christchurch Metro underway (bugger, too far east, backtrack a little), perhaps we scrap the plans for a northern Metro depot and replace it with a northern tram depot on the same site?

Again, eyeballing it on my phone, the G:Link depot is about 500 meters by 250 (including what looks like empty land waiting for more tram stabling to be built on), and the Fitzgibbon depot site is just about that, give or take a few rows of trees. My first LRT route would be from there to the city, replacing the proposed northern Metro extension, following Gympie Road for the most part with the part time transit way lanes made a full time tramsit way. The isolated northern busway under Lutwyche would make a convenient bypass of the congested bottleneck road on the surface for buses and trams, continuing up the northern most end of the Inner Northern Busway to serve Federation Street and RBWH, for a same platform transfer to the M2 and other buses of course. From here it can head back down onto Bowen Bridge Road, into Fortitude Valley, and the CBD to terminate at the end of Queen Street Mall, at George Street.

Future stages could be replacing the Airport Metro extension, replacing the Doomben line with LRT instead of busway which for some reason to me feels much less disrespectful to the beautiful old neighbourhood in Ascot, and another route to sort of replace the Blue CityGlider from Teneriffe to West End. For this I would utilise the existing route through the Valley and City, but instead of continuing further from the Queen Street terminus, I’d turn up Albert Street to serve City Hall and Roma Street Station, and instead cross the river on the William Jolly Bridge. Fun fact, it’s the only extant bridge in the city that was designed to carry trams over the river, even though it never did. Check it out next time you’re there, you can see the mounting points for the overhead catenary on the concrete arches. LRT crossing Victoria Bridge will need the bridge to be extensively reinforced or even rebuilt, as it was expressly built to not support trams, hence my desire to avoid that and the major disruption it would bring. The William Jolly Bridge however can be closed for some time without severely crippling our transit network. Another extension could take the Queen Street terminus up George Street to serve the casino and Parliament, maybe even cross the river on a dedicated bridge to Woolloongabba. That could even be something of a springboard to shoot westward towards Toowong, Indooroopilly, and the other side of UQ,

It may take some time, but why rush? If we aren’t going to get it ready in time for 2032, maybe we take a deep breath, reconsider our plans, and set us on track for the best transit system, not just the quickest. This is not to say I want to create a new north/south divide, with BRT and LRT rarely crossing the river. Instead I see the two systems meshing and complementing each other all over the city. Some northern routes like the 345 to Aspley and 385 to The Gap I think would one day benefit from added capacity, but with how hilly those can be, are probably best served by BRT instead of LRT. On the Southside of the river, the 230/235 routes to Balmoral and Bulimba could be more ideal for a future LRT route, following the route of a former tram line. Again, my lack of familiarity with the Southside prevents me from coming up with any other recommendations. If you do live on the Southside, allow me to apologise, and say that I also believe the route you are thinking of would make an excellent BRT/LRT (delete as applicable) route.

Ultimately, it is about using the best transit mode for the given situation. Even on the Gold Coast, while I completely disagree with the scrapping of the tram extension to the airport in favour of BRT, I am not necessarily against their more recent east-west BRT announcements. Not intimately familiar with the region I don't want to say for certain if they are good or not, but definitely a mix of modes can better serve a region than a one-size-fits-most strategy. That's what we should be designing transit around, asking what makes the most sense right here, and perhaps most importantly, finding a way for me to become a tram driver when my wife won't let me move us down south.

PS: Don't forget to visit the Brisbane Tramway Museum in Ferny Grove to learn about and ride in some of Brisbane's transit history. https://www.brisbanetramwaymuseum.org/

Metro 169