<p>Brisbane Metro</p><p>Factsheet – March 2017</p><p>In 2016, Brisbane City Council announced the Brisbane Metro concept, a high frequency rapid transport connection designed to cut travel times and reduce CBD bus congestion.</p><p>The concept was developed to address the current challenges facing Brisbane’s bus network, which has reached capacity at many inner city locations. Council has completed a range of technical assessments of the project and conducted extensive consultation with the community and key stakeholders.</p><p>Listening to the community and stakeholders</p><p>Last year, around 1500 residents had their say on the Brisbane Metro concept through a city-wide engagement program. There was strong support for additional high frequency public transport in Brisbane, and high awareness of bus congestion issues in the CBD.</p><p>Other issues included the need for a more reliable network with ‘turn up and go’ services running to more locations, and concerns about impacts to the busway during construction.</p><p>Engagement with government stakeholders also identified the need for the project to avoid impacts on the GoPrint site at Woolloongabba, and to ensure Brisbane Metro complements the proposed Cross River Rail project.</p><p>Evolution of Brisbane Metro</p><p>Following the work completed last year, the Brisbane Metro concept has evolved to an expanded network of high frequency services.</p><p>Brisbane Metro will now run over 21 kilometres linking Eight Mile Plains, RBWH and UQ Lakes busway stations using existing busway infrastructure. The project now features two new high capacity Metro lines:</p><p> Metro 1 – Eight Mile Plains busway station to Roma Street busway station  Metro 2 – RBWH busway station to UQ Lakes busway station.</p><p>It will also introduce a new fleet of around 60 trackless, rubber-tyred Metro vehicles, each with the capacity to carry up to 150 passengers.</p><p>More services to more places</p><p> High frequency services as often as every 3 minutes  Extends Metro services to the inner city and suburbs  Boosts capacity of the busway network to carry up to 22,000 people per hour in the AM peak  Connects key health, knowledge and entertainment hubs  Provides more buses for the suburbs.</p><p>Improved travel times and reliability</p><p> Fixes key bottlenecks at Cultural Centre, Victoria Bridge and North Quay  Reduces the number of buses in the CBD  Introduces ticketing improvements to speed up boarding Provides more opportunities to transfer between bus, rail and Metro. A better solution for Brisbane</p><p> Avoids impacts to the GoPrint site at Woolloongabba  Complements the Queensland Government’s Cross River Rail project  Allows Metro to use the existing busway along with other regular bus services  Busways generally remain open during construction. Project timeline Following engagement with key stakeholders and the community, Council will undertake further technical assessments and investigations to inform a preliminary business case for Brisbane Metro, which is on track to be delivered in May 2017. Council is committed to keeping the community informed as the project develops and will provide updates on opportunities for residents to have their say. For more information</p><p>To find out more about these upgrades you can:  phone 1800 692 333  email [email protected]  write to Brisbane Metro project Brisbane City Council GPO Box 1434, Brisbane QLD 4001  visit www.brisbane.qld.gov.au</p>