Australia's Most Under-appreciated Rail System? | Brisbane's Transit Explained

[@RMTransit]

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[@SlowFi-TV]

As someone who spent 25ish years living in Brisbane, the public transport is pretty trash. Everyone has a car and just drives.

[@biopsiesbeanieboos55]

I think you should be an honorary Australian, if you aren’t already. You know more about most Australian things than almost every Australian.

[@YOuTBE000]

I hate Brisbane transport, if you go to farer stations that only provide 1 train route you’ll have to wait 30 minutes to get the next one. Also I think the pricing should be cheaper

[@joshuawoodbridge6267]

They recently made fees 50 cents a trip ​@@YOuTBE000

[@TheCrunchifiedOne]

Brisbane truly has 'made it'. Not because we have the Olympics, but because we got a RM Transit video about us!

[@joshcanhearyou]

perth got one first lololol

[@YeahIDontKn0wEither]

All of us five cities now got a video on this channe...wait...ah, so Adelaide is still being depicted as irrelevant to this day...

[@illiiilli24601]

​@@joshcanhearyoufeelsgoodman

[@nascara5cupseriesa5cubing18]

@@joshcanhearyouDude, Your state doesnt even have an underground railway😂😂😂😂

[@wwemario12345]

@@YeahIDontKn0wEither it is

[@gammmon]

As a Brisbane resident of over 30 years, this was a surprising video. Just goes to show what a third party/fresh pair of eyes brings to the table in terms of thinking and experiences!

[@matthewcarter2677]

Yeah definitely. Lived here my whole life and from the title alone I was ready to reply that our rail system is garbage. Glad I watched this.

[@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi]

Third party view from someone who doesnt have to deal with or pay rates for the travesty of crap public transport we have here. Utter joke.

[@gamerdrive5565]

@@Steve211Ucdhihifvshiticket prices are the real problem, public transport that’s tax funded should cost a lot less than it does.

[@Pyjamarama11]

sometimes, we do forget how lucky we are

[@Allen777Di]

This video makes no sense to me either. Brisbane has heaps to catch up for public transport.

[@corporalsilver6981]

I would just like to take the moment to say i appreciate you for taking the time to research how to pronounce every single suburb, location and important building. I've seen many fail to pronounce Brisbane correctly so yeah!

[@battlefieldsbjj]

Been Lee not Been Lay

[@phoebexxlouise]

Yeah only got Beenleigh wrong

[@kyledesilva1589]

Very good, except for Been-Lay

[@battlefieldsbjj]

I said it first lol

[@ceedee873]

@@battlefieldsbjj Everybody can see that, nobody was saying you weren't..

[@dominicrobertson7626]

Having lived in Brisbane for over 10 years, my biggest issue with the trains is the lack of services. I usually travel outside of peak hours and trains only run half-hourly (worse other lines). Otherwise it's great to travel by public transport. Another thing, the busways were originally built to be capable of carrying trams. The gradients, heights, and strength were all built for much heavier trams should thenday come where they need to be upgraded

[@sambalam]

Agreed. Transport options are okat close to the city, but to get to work on a bus at 6am Monday morning, Journey Planners says to leave Friday night :(

[@myles9330]

Facts, also how pretty much every fortnight the trains are out which pisses me off. Also if you miss your bus in a Sunday you got to wait an hour for the next one

[@Suicune-oz4ou]

​@@myles9330 that's IF the next bus even shows up. Which, knowing Brisbane buses, there is a 50/50 chance that it won't.

[@phoebexxlouise]

@@sambalam yep ridiculous. Or if you want to leave the valley at 2am Sunday morning, your only option is a taxi cause there's no trains til 5am

[@live1on1no1evil]

It was great just before covid when they standardised 15minute service across most lines but that all went out the window once Covid hit. :(

[@ThatGuyMagnum]

This was such a fun video to watch as a fun "where's that" game for me. Seeing my uni, local station, shots near mates' places and places I've worked frankly just as enjoyable as hearing just how great our public transit will be pretty soon!

[@carlfoster4309]

As someone who has always lived in Brisbane, I have always been a fan of the public transport network. The biggest issue we face now is the complete lack of outer city surburban design to utilise this infrastructure and the market capture from property developers.

[@markde9904]

It's a S***show here. You can't go anywhere anymore without a major headache developing.

[@icmull]

I worked on a dev site near a train station only a few stations from Roma. Couldnt get dispensation on carparks which had to be underground so it was never feasible instead of over 40 units its now 4 houses. Real shame thought it was a good project.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

The bats you saw in Brisbane are called flying foxes in the genus Pteropus! Flying foxes are in the genuses Acerodon and Pteropus. Flying foxes are megabats and they're among the largest in the world. The black flying fox, little red flying-fox, and grey-headed flying fox are found around Brisbane. The black flying fox in particular has the most impressive wingspan of the three as they have a wingspan of more than 1 meter (39 inches), though they're not the largest in the genus Pteropus as the large flying fox or Pteropus vampyrus of Southeast Asia has the longest wingspan of any bat species at 1.5 meters (4 feet 11 inches). There's a reason you may not see bats in Canada: The destruction of bat roosts, pesticide use, cave exploration, and habitat destruction have all contributed to bat population declines in Canada. However, a deadly fungal disease, White Nose Syndrome, is currently the most serious threat to Canada's bats. There are eighteen bat species indigenous to Canada, and of these bats, the little brown bat is the most common and widely distributed of Canada's bat species, though more prevalent in the eastern provinces than western. The largest bat in Canada is the hoary bat, which is found throughout most of North America, and within Canada can be found from southern Nunavut to Newfoundland.

[@f.g.9466]

When I heard him calling it bats I knew I would certainly find someone in the comments correcting it. Thank you for delivering all the taxonomic and conservation info.

[@futurecanadian]

I was in Adelaide for World Cup and walked to the Zoo and pass thru a park with trees with a lot of flying foxes (which were just hanging from branches). Both eireey and cool.

[@RandomStuff-he7lu]

And you shouldn't touch them because you'll die.

[@Tom-wy5up]

They are bats but you can be more specific regarding the type obviously

[@matthewmcintosh4925]

@avery the American of cuban decent. Hendra virus actually makes Ebola look like covid. 80%, seriously 80%. Wanna play, children in America are subjected to gunshot wounds at a 1 to 99.99999%.

[@a-dot-s-dot]

There are actually some other major projects that could be included in a future update: the Logan to Gold Coast Faster Rail project (which will massively improve that line...it takes 19 minutes longer to get from Loganlea to the CBD than it does to Varsity Lakes, which is much farther). Another is the Beerburrum-to-Nambour upgrade, as well as the Direct Sunshine Coast Line and the Southeast Busway Extension. There's also yet still more sitting on the shelf...the Salisbury to Beaudesert line, the Toowoomba-to-Brisbane line, Gold Coast line extension to Coolangatta, and the Ipswich-to-Springfield line.

[@TheCrunchifiedOne]

To add even further onto that: duplication of the Cleveland line, a new train line in the Trouts Rd/Northwest Transport Corridor, Eastern Busway extension to Carindale, GC light rail extensions inland, and bus network reform. To support all that transit expansion, there would need to be more trains and buses built, drivers trained, yards/depots extended, etc. Further, we need to densify around major transit stops for the sake of creating housing and walkable/cyclable neighbourhoods. SEQ has good transit bones but there is a long way to go before living car-free is an accessible lifestyle for many people.

[@tekartsu2051]

He did show the South East Busway extension to Springwood, presumably because it's under construction

[@a-dot-s-dot]

@tekartsu2051 Yes, I saw that one one his map, I should have been more specific--I'm referring to the further extension to Daisy Hill.

[@tekartsu2051]

@govaggie Yeah, might as well throw in Stage 4 of Gold Coast Light Rail

[@dingobonza]

Salisbury to Beaudesert will never be built.... they've talked about that since my dads family owned all of park Ridge which was still a single farm back then (their property). I grew up in Jimboomba, we heard this plan over and over and as of this year, the actual rail corridor (Beaudesert to Bethania) is in the process of being repurposed into a rail trail.

[@stevewright195]

Literally watching this while taking the train home in Brisbane ❤

[@joshuahumphrey1202]

I live in Brisbane and I've always been a huge supporter of the public transport network we have here. So often do I hear people throwing slander at it, and unsurprisingly (as it is with most things), the people who have the harshest views on the network are those who have either never use or very rarely use it and "have heard it from a friend of a friend". It's really quite refreshing to hear that someone else from out of town approves of the network

[@crowmob-yo6ry]

Same in many US cities. The people who hate public transport are car-addicted suburbanites who always drive everywhere. That or they've only tried public transport once and are too stubborn to give it another chance. These same people are also usually addicted to the sensationalist fear-mongering news media and have the false assumption that public transport is "not safe.".

[@ahkl77]

Wishlist: Brisbane Orbital Line Need another underground train tunnel to connect eastern suburbs to northern suburbs, forming a part of a future bypass line away from the city centre, to connect Cleveland through to Airport, Nundah, Chermside, Stafford, Alderley. Stage 2 of this orbital line could continue south towards Ashgrove, Paddington, Auchenflower, West End, Highgate Hill and complete the loop back to the other rail lines at Park Road This proposed line will service those who can’t drive with an option similar to the Gateway bridges (currently too steep to retrofit for rail services).

[@bruceismay5440]

See what I was thinking is build a tunnel from the doomben line to the disused bulk base branch line, and run trains from doomben to central, to the Tennyson gap line to park road and back to. Doomben, that way you create a loop that saves about 30 minutes in 2 directions and Barkly need to build anything (besides a hideously expensive tunnel)

[@ahkl77]

@@bruceismay5440 yeah, would serve Eagle Farm and Tradecoast on the way to airport 👌

[@EvilParagon4]

I would love just about any transport, though a bus would be the most obvious answer, that ran like this: Moorooka Station, Tarragindi at Toohey Rd, Holland Park West on Marshall Rd (not a lot of space, probably some new space built over Glindemann Creek?), a stop near Whites Hill Reserve, stops along Boundary Road in Camp Hill, and either going through Seven Hills to Morningside Station or Bennetts Road to Morningside Station. Throw in a few more stops, but don't make it one of those insufferable busses that drives through every backstreet. Call it the 126, in reference to Annerley for the 1, Camp Hill for the 2, and 6 for Holland Park. It is so inconvenient on the south side to loop around the city rather than go in and out of the city. I just wish there were more orbit services rather than this spider web wheel spoke design. I imagine the same is true for the North.

[@AnUncleanHippy]

This, would love a rail line that could get me to Browns Planes or Mt Gravatt in 30 minutes, instead of what it currently takes me on the bus, which is upwards of an hour.

There did actually used to be a station at Highgate Hill. There definitely needs to be better lateral/orbital connections

[@sams3015]

Delighted to see Brisbane being covered. My aunt lives there so it’s usually our base if we visit Australia. I was always fascinated by the BRT & taxi system there

[@RMTransit]

Thanks for watching!

[@dingobonza]

We hate the BRT in all of its versions (including the new "metro" which is just BRT). I'm a born and bred, trains all the way... wish we had way more trains like Sydney does.

[@lindinforester]

@@dingobonza I've lived in both cities and Sydney's trains can be fantastic at their best but absolutely catastrophically dismal at their worst. It really doesn't take that much rain to ruin the entire operation and strikes and mortalities are way, way more common than Qld.

[@ElusiveTy]

​@@leo1933We like our trains here, it's just that they're garbage, comparatively. That's why Brisbane is considered a 'bus city' through and through, and why people usually prefer the bus.

[@dingobonza]

@@leo1933 that's exactly it, you simply visited Queensland. In public discourse, the metro is loathed. We were promised a proper metro, we re-ellected the council on that promise and then they changed the plans into a BRT metro using banana buses. It's considered a joke. You'd need to be living here and talking/reading/listening to local's discourse to get why I said what I said. Saying that, my dislike of using buses has travelled with me to Sydney which is where I live now as of very recently. If I was to catch a bus to work, my commute would be 40 minutes longer than the train.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Suncorp Stadium is not the main stadium of the 2032 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, it's the Gabba you mentioned before it as the Gabba will host the ceremonies and athletics events. And the reason why Brisbane 2032 is using venues in Gold Coast is because Gold Coast previously hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games, so they have plenty of experience hosting a big event with different sports. And Q1 isn't just a tall skyscraper, it's a residential building! And from 2005 to 2011, it was the world's tallest residential building! The reason they ran an Exhibition loop service was to convey passengers during the Royal Queensland Show/the Ekka in August and other special events held in the showgrounds. But as you brought up, the loop is no longer a thing as the line was realigned as part of the Cross River Rail project in what was described as one of the longest and most complicated pieces of track work ever undertaken in southeastern Queensland, and this included a new 150-metre bridge outside the Brisbane Showgrounds. This means that a newly upgraded Exhibition station will provide rail services all year round.

[@australianemergencyvehicles505]

An interesting fact about the Ferny Grove line, it used to run all the way up the mountain to Dayboro, until a train came off the tracks along the way in Camp Mountain in 1947 killing 16 people. The line now stops at the Ferny Grove station

[@damodazza9282]

Bit of a misconception that the line was closed due to the Camp Mountian rail disaster. The disaster was in 1947 but the rail line wasn't closed until 1955, as the agiculture produce from the surrounding area was increasingly being transported by truck. The government still owns much of the corridor out to the first town the line used to serve, Samford, leaving the posibility for reinstatment one day. Unfortunalty, beyond Samford, much of the former line is now underwater due to the construction of a dam.

[@australianemergencyvehicles505]

oh alright, my bad. Thanks for the info

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Brisbane is named after the Brisbane River, which in turn was named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, the governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825. The name is derived from the Scottish Gaelic bris, meaning "to break or smash" and the Old English word ban meaning bone! Besides Gold Coast, Flexity 2 trams are also used in Blackpool (where they debuted), Melbourne, Suzhou, Antwerp, Ghent, and Basel. The G:link opened with sixteen stations in July 2014, with three more added in December 2017 (Helensvale, Parkwood, Parkwood East) in time for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and the system helped during the Games big time as it moved over 9 million people between 2017 and 2018. It moved over 10 million between 2018 and 2019. Between 2018 and 2019, 35 percent of Gold Coast transit patronage was light rail. And including the stage three and stage four extensions, the system has a bright future. And regarding the ferries RiverCity Ferries operates three ferry services along the Brisbane River which are the CityCat, Cross River and CityHopper. The CityCats are an iconic part of the city, and a neat thing about them is they're named for Aboriginal place names along the river and Aboriginal people. Like how one is named after Neville Bonner who was the first Aboriginal to become a MP (a senator for Queensland), Walan which is the original name of Herston, and Ya-wa-gara which is the original name of Breakfast Creek.

[@lilbowl6737]

Kim do you think brisbane's trains are better than the pyongyang metro?

[@lachlanmyers7301]

I'm glad to see you make a video about Brisbane The CRR has been a long time coming after it was first proposed in 2010. There's also a bunch of other projects that have been proposed but given how slow progress has been for rail infrastructure in Queensland it could be any time in the next 50 years that they're completed. There's been proposals for branch line to Maroochydore (one of the busier suburbs of the Sunshine Coast) since the 1990s and it's supposedly going to start in the next few years. Queensland also got rid of rail lines before later realising they probably shouldn't have. The Ferny Grove line used to go even further to the town of Dayboro. The Doomben line used to go all the way to Pinkenba servicing a lot of industrial areas beyond Doomben. The original Gold Coast line went through a lot more of the busy areas but was closed in 1964 they later rebuilt the line in the 1990s

[@becsterbrisbane6275]

Sadly, given that it ONLY took 100 years to finally get the Redcliffe Peninsular line, I won't be holding my breath for the CAMCOS line, so very badly as it's needed!!!

[@Hezzadude12]

Cool to see a video about our system here in Brisbane! I would like to offer a bit of anecdotal experience, if you will, to give an idea of what the transit system can be like. The way it is portrayed here is certainly accurate, and I loved the video, but Brisbane certainly has some exceptional flaws haha. Firstly on the Metro, yeah it is quite controversial, because Brisbane did away with trams many, many years ago, and despite the Gold Coast deciding to make one (that works quite well, despite its speed, but I'll mention that later), Brisbane is sort of doubling down by making the Metro, and realistically the speed of it doesn't seem to entice a whole lot of people, since the vast majority of Brisbane residents live *outside* the city (and I may be wrong when it is rolled out, but we'll see). On the point of speed though, the Gold Coast line and the G:Link are impressive, there is no doubting that. However, if you were in an area like Surfer's Paradise, the amount of time it takes to get to Brisbane Central is eye-watering. It's literally like 5x less distance than Tokyo to Kyoto and takes about the same time (roughly 30-35 minutes on the Tram and then about 1 hour and 20 or so minutes to Central from Helensvale). It's a bit rough. The government have decided that instead of increasing the speed or frequency of these services, they are adding another lane to the highway which is constantly congested, so people will continue to drive because even when it is congested, the time it takes to drive to the city is still sometimes faster lol. But when it is really bad it's like 2 hours on the highway which is rough. Then the Cross River Rail seems like a really promising and cool project, but it also faces some problems because of how much it is disrupting the train network, for example changing the Shorncliffe and Cleveland line to instead be a Shorncliffe and Ipswich line, and the Gold Coast/Sunshine Coast changes you mentioned. Some people are sort of missing out on a lot of the Cross River Rail benefits since again, most people don't live in the city, unlike places like Melbourne and Sydney where it is more common to live really close to the city. I am eager to see the benefits of Cross River Rail but you quite eloquently pointed out that some of the missed opportunities overall are a little frustrating given the time it will take to complete. Also just in general, our trains are always delayed. People who live in North Brisbane will know exactly what I am talking about but man, it is frustrating when the already slow trains going to the North are delayed, but it happens a fair bit. Quite a number of services get delayed, particularly ones like Cleveland and Shorncliffe due to some signalling issues that still haven't been fixed, and just in general most of the services are really slow. There actually used to be a whole bus service that went through many more northern areas of Brisbane (the south side has more or less retained a lot of this) but they were abolished because of the introduction of the Redcliffe Peninsula line since it goes through so many more northern areas, and the really sad thing about that is that the buses were substantially faster than the train... But alas. Overall, Brisbane has a sophisticated and mostly well thought out system, but man using it my entire life for things like work, social events, seeing family and friends, and university, it's hard not to hate some of the more annoying things that you only really experience by using it all the time. The speed, for me, is the biggest one. Having university classes at like 9am instead of 8am would mean the trains stop running at 15 minute intervals at a lot of stations, and then you spend an hour even though it probably would take less to drive... Anyway I am ranting now lol, but great video man! Really appreciated you highlighting our system, since usually Sydney and Melbourne get all the love, and we never do in Brissy!!!

[@becsterbrisbane6275]

This. All. Of. This. I'm on the Peninsular line myself & it's painful to have to get a couple of train services earlier than the very last 1 you can get to ensure you're at work/ various appointments elsewhere on time! Always delays, "police incidents" or emergencies......and no buses as an alternative when there's incidents say at Sunshine/ Geebung- tough luck, wait til the next train, may be up to 60min wait....

[@kyledesilva1589]

Very well said. I've been a Brisbane resident for over 12 years and have used the public transit system (mostly trains) for much of that time. The lines and projects all sound good in theory but the delays, transit time, distance between many suburbs from the nearest station, and parking availability, make the whole ordeal less appealing than simply driving, even at the ridiculous fuel costs of today.

[@stevendurick9441]

Yes!!!! My hometown getting coverage. It's 11pm here so I'm going to bed but I'm very excited for breakfast tomorrow where I can give this vid a watch

[@RMTransit]

Thanks for the comment and give it a share if you like!

[@knightedsensei]

As someone who catches Brisbane trains and buses to work each day, seeing all of this footage and discussion on KZbin is kinda surreal. Very cool, and very well presented video.

[@trekswithnick]

I have been living in the SEQ area for the past 2.5 years and I am honestly impressed that this Rail and Bus network is finally getting covered. I honestly love the network and yeah its not perfect but it's incredibly charming in its own way.

[@IKMojito]

Its strange to see my city get looked at, even more so to hear the town i used to live in get mentioned. In isolation our transit seems flawed, but a fresh pair of eyes really highlights just how good it is

[@markde9904]

When soemone who doesn't live here and has likely never been here is talking about something they have never experienced firsthand.....pretty much useless

[@IKMojito]

@@markde9904 nothing he says is useless though, I've lived both in and out of Brisbane for a significant amount of time. Our transit really is better than alot of European transport, our trains are actually reliable unlike many I had to try to get in Budapest. Only in isolation of just seeing Brisbane is it dissapointing, when compared it's frankly great

[@markde9904]

Unless you have lived in alot of European countries, and used their systems to attempt to commute to work, then your comment is equally useless. You do not know and can't unless you have tried to access it over a period of time. And not as a tourist.Your ultra nationalist flag waving doesn't solve problems, it makes them worse.@@IKMojito

[@IKMojito]

@@markde9904 excuse me? Nothing I've said is "ultranationalist flag waving", you're just lashing out for no reason. I've lived and worked in Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Australia, Russia and Germany. I commuted daily as a child in Yugoslavia, and used trains across the Balkans for 30 years. I can assure you, Brisbane's public transport is far better than any of it. What kind of "ultra nationalist" would I be, if I, someone born in Yugoslavia, would he the first person to say Brisbane is better

[@valkyrie_cain86]

Cool seeing you review my city. One bit of track you missed is the Tennyson line - its a branch between the Beenleigh and Ipswich/Caboolture lines that is used when there is track maintenance in South Bank/Park Rd stations so the Gold Coast/Beenleigh line can still connect to the city.

[@DDELE7]

Those Brisbane Metro bi-articulated buses are BEAUTIFUL. Imagine if the T in Boston acquired those for expanded Silver Line service

[@Diggles67]

Brisbane is subtropical. The tropics don’t begin until you reach The Tropic of Capricorn at Rockhampton, 650 kms north of Brisbane. Then you have the dry tropics to Townsville, before you reach the wet tropics just below Cairns.

[@Celebhir]

I lived in Brisbane for highschool and university and I've got to say I loved it, the ease of go cards and how well connected it's bus services are really made it feel like I wasn't restricted by not having a car. 10/10 would recommend

[@goonerw27]

The reason the Brisbane trains/network reminds you of Perth is that the Perth A and B sets were built in Maryborough, QLD alongside the EMUs and SMUs. Both use the same signalling too.

[@Suicune-oz4ou]

My dad built trains in Maryborough for 32 years until the workers were offered redundancies when the train contracts went overseas. We were really surprised when went to Sydney for a family holiday and happened to take a train that had been built in Maryborough. They're really everywhere around Australia! Such a shame the government chose to do away with all those skilled workers just to get cheap, low quality trains that ended up going massively overbudget anyway when they didn't fit our tracks and had to be fixed before we could even use them.

[@goonerw27]

@@Suicune-oz4ou At least they're going to be building new ones there again.

[@CharlieND]

Another great video, Reece! Brisbane seems like it isn't talked about enough in global transit discourse, but I guess that's what happens when you share a country with Melbourne and Sydney.

[@williamerazo3921]

Because it’s not a global city

[@williamerazo3921]

@xixi560 Melbourne is consider a Global city. You have non stop flights from Quantas to the US to Melbourne

[@vinayshsureshram277]

Come 2032, Sydney and Melbourne won't be the only global Australian cities!

[@RMTransit]

I concur, I think if it was in a country without it's larger siblings it would get more attention!

[@dingobonza]

​​@@vinayshsureshram277probably before that. Keeping in mind half a million southerners migrated to QLD during COVID, bringing their ideals with them. Not that I want my home state to become "global" that way I can afford to buy there which I can't anymore :(

[@AnUncleanHippy]

I think my main issue with the Cross River Rail as someone who lives in Brisbane, is by and large the fact that the options you have from getting from Wooloongabba to the places it will service are so numerous, you will never find a period of time where you think "Oh, if only there was a service that could take me from here to there". The current wait times on further out lines, as well as a lack of common express services, means that a route that would take me 45 minutes in the car, can take me upwards of 2 hours, and I just don't have that time anymore as an adult.

[@joeldipops]

When coming home from the ALF/cricket, I'd much rather squeeze on to a train than a bus, so I'd be very appreciative of a station at the Gabba

[@davidunwin7868]

Brisbane is getting a bunch of new model trains in time for the Olympics too. They'll be made at a new rail manufacturing facility near Maryborough Qld, and won't have the same problems that the NGR trains have.

[@Groaker]

Fun Fact! There's an old line from Corinda Station to Yeerongpilly Station that connects The Ipswich and Beenleigh/Gold Coast lines called the Tennyson Line! These days, it's mainly used for freight (or an emergency detour to the city for southern passenger trains) but it was a passenger line until 2011! The Crossriver Rail tunnel was originally supposed start at Yeerongpilly Station so trains along the Ipswich Line could access it via the Tennyson Line.

[@YasEmisDaBus]

The Tennyson line is also used by Gold Coast services while the Gold Coast line is closed between Roma St and Yerongpilly for track work, I used to see Gold Coast trains all the time running through Milton

[@lifetimelearnerstutoring3483]

Trains on the Ipswich line could still access the Cross River Rail if required because the tunnel starts north of Dutton Park, just before Park Road Station, which is inbound from Yeerongpilly.

[@Groaker]

@@lifetimelearnerstutoring3483 I mean, it's possible, but the Tennyson line still isn't being opened for passenger trains even after the Cross River Rail is completed (I think). I do hope it will be used for what you suggested in emergency situations though. One of the benefits of the CRR is that the entire system won't get backed-up if something malfunctions at one of the centralised stations; it'll give operators a lot more bypass options for keeping things moving. At the moment, all it takes is one nonce to bridge-strike in right area and the whooooole corridor screeches to a stop!

[@booblla]

Tennyson station was also the shortest station on the network. It can only accommodate 3 car trains instead of the usual 6 car trains, which was one of the reasons why is was decommissioned. I haven't lived in Brisbane for about 15 years, but I would imagine that they have demolished the station and platforms by now.

[@ScomaAus]

I used to live and Springbrook and my biggest gripe was using the train to go to the Gold Coast because I would have to go all the way to Roma Street on the train. I would therefore drive to Loganlea station and park there when visiting the Gold Coast by train. I can imagine that the Tennyson line would cut the time to travel to the Gold Coast dramatically if it were still utilised regularly.

[@TrainspottingSEQ]

Hey! Trainspotting SEQ here, one of the major rail youtubers in south east queensland, just a quick note, the network is inefficient in many places but can be useful and better than other modes of transport in some parts

[@lachlanmcgowan5712]

A couple of other projects that you missed: - In addition to extending the G-link to the Gold Coast airport, there's also talk of extending the Gold Coast rail line down to the airport. In fact the state government of Queensland is having a bit of a tiff with the Gold Coast City Council about which line should be extended first. - There's also some talk of extending the G-link north and west of Helensvale to serve Movieworld and Dreamworld, the Gold Coast theme parks, which are hugely popular tourist destinations but also severely car-dependent. This will probably have to wait until after the airport extension and the Olympics though. (Seaworld, which is on an ocean spit closer to the city, has okay public transport access and integration with the light rail thanks to a ferry service, although it really needs more ferries per hour to be properly accessible). - Outside of Brisbane, Queensland is also in the running for the best and most under-appreciated intercity services in Australia, with services to Charleville, Longreach, Mt Isa and Cairns that have decent coverage for most cities in the state. Weirdly enough, the Electric Tilt Train from Brisbane to Rockhampton, built by local manufacturer Walkers Ltd., actually holds the Australian speed record for fastest trains, reaching 210km/h in test conditions. This is very embarrassing for high-speed rail advocates because you aren't supposed to reach 200km/h on narrow gauge lines.

[@sammy094sbiggestfan2]

As far as I recall with the proposed G:Link expansions, while there's been no commitment yet to which branch lines should be first built after the airport is connected, it's generally leaning on prioritising upgrading any of the high frequency (15 minutes lol) bus routes into trams when they reach capacity - which currently identifies a branch line to Robina through Varsity Lakes for its population density and economic importance. There's also the whole NIMBY and political side of it where proposed lines keep getting dropped from early plans when it becomes clear it would take too long to actually build anything so it favours areas where it would be easier to get approval from the community, or where a new line could be introduced without much new infrastructure. That looks to be Seaworld and Bundall (interestingly the ferry to Seaworld has no affiliation with the rest of the transport network. The only proposals for the other theme parks which have made it into any plans for now seem to be a series of high frequency bus services piggybacking off the heavy and light rail.

[@ozrob76]

He does mention the proposals for the GLink extension to the airport (Coolangatta).

[@lachlanmcgowan5712]

@@ozrob76 My comment mentioned the possibility of a mainline train extension to the airport, which was not mentioned in the video. I believe there was a squabble between the councils about which line would be extended first.

[@ozrob76]

@@lachlanmcgowan5712 Oooh ok- sorry- missed that 😬

[@pw70]

Fun fact: Brisbane's public transport patronage peaked in year 1944-45. The former tram network alone carried 160 million passengers.

[@moltencor8610]

Always love to see my city mentioned, we often get overshadowed by our larger cousins down south

[@dawong85]

cheers for covering Brisbane. The footage is notable very current as well.

[@ArtOfDuane]

I live in brisbane and my only complaints about the trains are that they don't have enough lines (several areas of the city are inaccessable by train and you gotta walk really far from what busses do go near where you're headed) and they don't run late enough, I know they'd hardly get enough customers to be worth it at like 2am but it'd still be nice

[@bruceismay5440]

As someone that grew up living next to Thorneside station on the Cleveland line, I’ve been waiting a long time for this

[@AussieCoasterReviewer]

Fun fact - the exhibition line is being reincorporated into cross river rail! So it will actually become a permanent station on the main line. Previously it only ran for big shows like the Ekka.

[@stevelynch700]

It was really nice to see an urbanism channel highlight the positives in Brisbane. As a daily rider lots of people I talk to focus on the negatives, so it was good to see people who know what they are talking about, talk about the positives of the system

[@ahuman5772]

I agree, sometimes I even wonder whether those people even tried public transport in brisbane. I sometimes wonder whether some of these people say that Brisbane is "car dependent" to ease their own guilt of taking the car everywhere. I can't drive (never bothered to get a licence) and I had no issues getting around melbourne, sydney or brisbane (though I do hope for some improvements of course). I'd never turn down more trains.

[@ph89787]

Bit of a hiccup with the Rail network in Brisbane. During Peak Hours, Queensland Rail will run their Gold Coast Line trains on the dual gauge line between South Bank and Sailsbury to avoid the Beenleigh Line trains. Also, the Merivale bridge between South Brisbane and Roma Street Stations only has 2 tracks. It can become a choke point during peak hours. This becomes strained when the XPT comes up from Sydney overnight. Arriving in Brisbane at 0455 hours (0355 in daylight savings) and leaving at 0555 (0455 in daylight savings), before the morning peak. If the XPT is delayed, the most common causes are issues with the train due to age, police action, track issues, or interference from goods trains. It creates a knock-on effect for the peak-hour services that need to use the line from the Gold Coast. If the delay is more than an hour. The XPT is shut out of Brisbane Roma Street and terminates at Casino, south of the QLD Border.

[@RMTransit]

I really think something has gotta be done to improve the Interstate rail service.

[@ph89787]

@@RMTransitthe idea is that when the Cross River rail line is completed. The Gold Coast and Beenleigh Lines would be rerouted through the tunnel and the Cleveland Line would go through South Bank and South Brisbane stations. Possibly freeing up the line to allow the XPT to arrive at a slightly saner time.

[@lucastubbs]

​@@RMTransitinterstate rail services are pretty terrible nationally. Despite Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra being connected via Sydney by the XPT, it's almost always faster to drive, and usually cheaper to fly! The XPT is really only useful for people who live along the route between the major cities. It could be sped up by track improvements and new rolling stock, but not enough to make it worth the investment. Sadly high speed interstate rail is still a political pipe dream.

[@mathewrussell1533]

@@RMTransit there’s a lot of windy 1800s track that has to get a hell of a lot straighter before we can get good interstate rail.

[@dingobonza]

He also forgot the North Coast Line. Funnily he mentions Gympie Road in Brisbane but actually missed Gympie North station, the final station on the Brisbane City network northbound, he ended it with the Sunshine Coast line which finishes at Nambour or Cooroy, can't remember anymore.

[@william42721]

Its so cool watching these types of videos being able to say "Yea ive been there"

[@illiiilli24601]

Wow, collecting all the major Australian cities. As someone who lives in Perth, never got around to learning about Brisbane's system

[@RMTransit]

I hope you learned something!

[@AussieGunzel]

Thank you as a Queenslander I was hoping this video would come

[@StevesTechAndTransit]

Great overview! If anybody is interested in the Cross River Rail project I have a fair few construction updates on my channel (and more to come!) and I'm also planning to take a look at the progress on the "Metro" station construction, as well as the next stage of the Gold Coast Light Rail.

[@RMTransit]

Thanks for watching Steve!

[@msg5507]

Steve's videos are very good.

[@tacitdionysus3220]

Excellent clip. You always astound for your ability to encapsulate complex systems into short, enjoyable and comprehensive content. Good to see Brisbane, our Cinderella city get coverage.

[@RMTransit]

Thanks so much, it means a lot!

[@balaha2143]

Brisbane’s system has a lot of faults but is very charming still, about to get much better with CRR too! Love how the river is used for the city as a whole

[@RMTransit]

Its a true river city, it makes good use of it!

[@gregmatthies8128]

@@RMTransitthe train system is known as snail rail for a reason and you failed to mention the excessive prices charged making it a white elephant and used mostly by pensioners during off peak times. The ferries are a useful source of travel but the air port transit is a complete failure re cost, lack of duel rail lines and failure to connect with air arrivals or departures. Please use facts not the glossary pamphlet you used as your info.

[@aquamelon0087]

@@gregmatthies8128 Broski, every public transport system is only used by retirees and kids outside of peak hour…because everyone’s at work

[@gregmatthies8128]

@@aquamelon0087 ie hence the issues with mass transport when there are no masses to transport. I have travelled by train around Europe and the Aust trains as at best poor and worst crap. With the Olympics coming upgrading the line from airport to city should be a priority but we hear nothing happening. The trains to Gold Coast are VERY limited due to rail constraints with no forward thinking since the JO era.

[@JQNick]

@@gregmatthies8128 Airport line is nearly paid off, 2036 it becomes part of public infrastructure and transfers into QRs hands. Rumours last I heard was they want to supplement it with bus services to Chermside once the contract with airport link is done. It’s not bad service as it is now, every 15 mins during the day connects the majority of passengers.

[@lcmortensen]

The Exhibition line is/was also used for trains serving the Brisbane Showgrounds during major events such as Ekka - the Royal Queensland Show. I got to ride it (and visit Ekka) in August 2022 when my flight to Wellington got cancelled and I had to spend an extra day in Brisbane.

[@marvindebot3264]

Well at least you picked the right week to get stranded. The Ekka services weren't steam-powered in '22 unfortunately, we had a couple of locos on major overhaul and one on lease to MVR in Gympie so insufficient motive power to run them.

[@lcmortensen]

@@marvindebot3264 TIL - I just thought they were all operated by regular EMUs. The novelty of showbags, dagwood dogs and strawberry sundaes was enough for me.

[@starstruckroman]

as a brisbane resident this was very surprising to see in my recommended but super fun to watch. i love learning as much as i can about our public transport system. i could even overlook some of the place pronunciations for it 😁 (you got most of them right dw)

[@DosAussieThai]

Nice video. I used to live in Brisbane. It has a special place in my heart as it was the first place I set foot in this country two decades ago. For future reference: Beenleigh is pronounced "Been Lee."

[@RMTransit]

Thanks for watching!

[@JimCullen]

I saw this on Nebula yesterday and maybe the error was caught and fixed before going to KZbin, but in case it wasn't, the Gabba is going to be the host of the Olympics, not Lang Park (whose commercial name is Suncorp Stadium) as the video said.

[@lifetimelearnerstutoring3483]

I am in my 60s and have lived in Brisbane for most of my life. The transport network here is light years better now that it was was I was growing up. We had an extensice tram network which was closed in 1969 and replaced by buses. Services are now much more frequent and reliable than in days gone by, A big problem with the network is that the rail network all goes to the centre, rail lines are few on the southside, especially in the southeastern suburbs towards Upper Mt Gravatt/Loganholme and Carindale, and also in the west towards Kenmore and the Centenary suburbs, and there is a lack of east-west radial north and south of the river to interconnect the various lines.

[@LittleJimmyR]

Hell yeah another Aussie train system! I went on the Gold Coast train and tram in July :D

[@JiWBChannel]

Great video! One of the things that is interesting about Brisbane is the size and scale of the local governments. While public transport is an almost exclusively state government area of focus in most states, Queensland local government such as the Brisbane City Council are so large that they rival smaller state and territory governments in terms of budgets. This is meant that Brisbane City Council has been able to play a much more active role in suburban public transport offerings van is possible by smaller Sydney and Melbourne based councils. This has been a driving force for the busways, which has admittedly been a relatively unique solution to the classic missing middle challenge of urban public transport networks. The Brisbane Metro is also led by Brisbane City Council rather than the state government.

[@GamerBro22299]

I've lived in Brisbane for over 12 years and I will say, thanks for covering this video. Ik I've used the transportation a lot and I still do. It's a very solid public transport system, not perfect but it's not bad

[@TrainsQLD]

The doomben line use to have another 4 stops that are now closed the last one being Pinkenba

[@arandomdudewithhobbies3318]

The biggest problem is the Lack of service. On some sundays, you might see entire sections be stopped for maintainance, ex Toowong and Auchenflower, and while trains come pretty frequently in the core areas, even more between roma street and bowen hills, but the lack of service makes it rather inconvinent, especially if you don't use it regularly. The merivale bridge is a massive bottleneck especially so because 3 lines converge, with some extra trains that head into doomben, and combined with the pretty tight turn on the north side, limits capacity. Therefore crossriver rail will alleviate much if it by decreasing the amount travelling across merivale. BTW, I also agree about making the ipswich line express until darra, but there is a decent amount of development, which just means that I want ToD to be increased and express lines added, because they both need to happen because QR will just continue making park and rides and not focus on the real problem, which in my opinion is urban sprawl and a lack of concentrated development.

[@RMTransit]

The 2 track bridge should be able to handle more service with upgraded signalling, the poor throat layout to Roma Street is likely a bigger bottleneck

[@redo73]

I've solely used trains in Brisbane for the last 20 years. Servicing the tracks is spread fairly throughout Brisbane. In fact it's the inner suburbs that experience it more

[@Vitally_Trivial]

A fair amount of the track closures I think are caused by CRR works at the moment. The disruption is definitely inconvenient but a price we have to pay.

[@growdaddy4281]

Track closures are understandable but the rail bus replacements are always a terrible experience

[@redo73]

@@growdaddy4281 Are you serious?! They're plentiful, on time, free & generally vacant? What more are you requiring for your tax dollars?

[@nuclearwolf]

Thank you for covering the River City!

[@pumpkiinface]

UP THE GOLD COAST! Thank you for such a wonderful video on Brisbane, it truly is a treat going up there and spending time on its trains. Also glad you liked the G:Link (we more or less just call it "the tram"). When i went to Melbourne, i was shocked how early the trains stopped. I've been in Surfers at 1am and was able to tram, but couldn't at 10pm in Fitzroy. Anyway, I wish the Gold Coast took a page out of Brisbane's dedication and love for busses, as our city is very very very car centric apart from the tram, which doesn't really serve suburbs/housing. Buses take an hour on 10 minute car rides and there's barely any bike infrastructure so most people drive. Also doesn't help that a lot of people/nimby's have tried to reject the Burleigh Heads and Airport expansion of the tram. I think (very subjective and not at all grounded) we should expand it westwards, from Surfers to Nerang via HOTA, botanical gardens, and Metricon/Heritage stadium, from Nobbys to Robina via Bond uni and the shopping center, up past Southport along the north strip up to the new Hope Island station, and maybe to Coolangatta/Tweed heads? I know Murwillumbah is making a train from there to Casino via Lismore and Byron, maybe link the GC train line with that? Or go to the Northern Rivers (to Pottsville)? Glad you had a great time! We hope to see you soon! EDIT: I misread something and the Northern rivers train from Murwillumbah to Casino is not in planning. It was destroyed in the past few years and portions of it are being turned into a bike track.

[@pumpkiinface]

@oliont5949 Yeah, thats what im thinking! Branching it off from the Southport South stop and going down Scarborough St. Ah i remember taking the 713 when I lived up that way. Its path would defiently be a blueprint, though it would leave out the coast of Labrador. Tbf thats the trade off you get to go to Harbour Town, which the gov have already expressed being a point of interest. Rest is good, though id probably just put a stop at Hansford Rd instead of looping through that area, and then extend it throughout Oxley Dr, into Hope Island to wherever the train stop is. Though, refreshing myself on the 713/719 bus and looking at google maps, its a tough one as to if you want to gear the tram service around Oxley or Bayview. Guess thats why they pay professionals haha. But it would be great to have this so that services like the 713 could go through the suburbs and get people to the tram stops.

[@Diggles67]

Yes, a tram from Broadbeach to Nerang is a no brainer.

[@92lucylocket]

Actually the Murwillumbah to Casino line was paved over recently after a couple of decades of locals campaigning to get the trains back. The line was closed in the early 2000s right after the new station at Murwillumbah was opened. The line was deemed to be in unsafe condition for trains to run and too costly to repair. Now it's a bike track.

[@pumpkiinface]

@@Diggles67 Absolutely

[@funtime_foxy455]

Fun fact that not a lot of people really know. The south East Queensland network originated from Ipswich. The rail workshop there is now a museum and they run exhibition trains using the steam locomotives there now and then, so on top of all the modern trains, there's also the element of old-fashioned magic of steam in there too.

[@eannamcnamara9338]

Surfers paradise and it's tram are both in the racing game Forza horizon 3, I've spent a lot of time messing with the trams lol

[@RMTransit]

Intriguing, but BAD!

[@katherinegray9252]

Its cool seeing my home city in a video like this. I would catch the train to high school and back everyday from Ipswich way to Central station with a few km walk in between

[@arnbo88]

Fares have dropped considerably compared to 25 years ago. The Brisbane skytrain used to cost double compared to today making a taxi more cost effective back then. The busways have simplified the commute into the city but try to avoid entering a busway with your car which I once did. I even remember when QR still used diesel powered trains back in the 1980's.

[@Stapler42]

The other week there was a truck that crashed into the inner-city rail bridge and nearly all of the trains had to either re-route or just turn around and go back to the depot (afaik there was no damage to the bridge but they needed to shut it down for safety). It wasn't a huge deal because of the great busways in the inner-city but I'm really glad that the cross-river rail is adding some proper redundancy as well as everything else.

[@paulblackman8159]

Gabba is hosting the ceremonies and athletics events. Lang Park is doing the football and rugby.

[@hilliard665]

So excited for this, i spent 30 of my 31 years on earth in south brisbane and i had no idea how good it was til i moved interdtate in the last year

[@smadge1]

The main stadium for the 2032 Olympics will be The Gabba, which they are thinking about knocking down and rebuilding. Then there’s also some ideas about making a rail line to the Sunshine Coast Airport at Maroochydore.

[@dmac___]

I’ve lived and worked in the Brisbane area for over a decade, and the amount of upgrades to the public transport system, transport infrastructure and trains has been quite impressive… but not without hiccups! There was some issues with the newer trains not being suitable for various reasons. All in all it’s still a great transition.

[@jasscat7645]

It is kinda weird seeing footage of things I interact with personally everyday.

[@alaindubois1505]

Thanks RMTransit. This is extremely comprehensive from a visiting Canadian. It appears you've travelled on much of Greater Brisbane's railed public transport and some bus services. The 'fake trams', or Metro, may have just started. I noticed them being tested at the Boggo Road bus section adjoining Park Road station. It was discussed decades ago - that brisbane would have trams across the river to Queensland University. I'm a part-time student there. However, having resided in Brisbane since the sixties, I can say that South East Queensland is very deficient in several ways. Brisbane was the world's fourth largest city in area. In the early twentieth century, the scant suburban lines served 100,000 population, as well as an electrified tram system. For people in the earlier part of the 20th century - it served nearly everyone. Buses are fine for youth who have no sense of wasting time - when on a train, we read, there's toilets and much more could be developed. So, Brisbane needs more than double its rail corridors - that haven't overall increased since then. I can go on - but I've written for years about the woes of Australia - especially in Norther Rivers, NSW, Australia's third most visited area - but gets trains that carry cars removed in 1990. Then gets closed down. Then ripped up for 'rail trails'- Thousands today can't get where they could have in the early twentieth century. Yes, my neighbours are taken away - for the faster rail from Brisbane to Gold Coast. Logan City, 350,000 pop. has only 7 stations - and they'e taking mine away.

[@alaindubois1505]

There are a lot of reasons why buses will not get people on public transport. At the Gold Coast, when the second tram section was built, use of all GC public transport doubled! Rubber tyres wear and when it gets hotter they may melt into the bitumen. When Tasmania's Hobart change trams for trolley buses - that had a heat wave, and the tyres did get stuck in the bitumen. I made a poster - I vomit on buses. I did - after Disney on Ice on a hot day. Please watch the Australian film 'Malcolm'. Portugal's Lisbon has a few things better than Brisbane. I prefer Melbourne.

[@PineappleSkip]

Great video about my home city. I learnt new things, and would love it if you did another about the many rail expansions (e.g. extensions to Springfield and Gold Coast lines, new Sunshine Coast line, etc) following cross river rail’s relief of the bottleneck through the city. The electrification runs a long way further than the 650km to Rockhampton; it continues 270km west from there to Emerald and then 350km North East to near Mackay, although those sections’ electric trains are exclusively coal trains and not really transit, hey. The irony is that since those sections were electrified there weren’t enough electric locos left to haul freight up the coastal line, and the only electric trains along the coast north of Gympie are passenger, two each way a day to Bundaberg, reducing to one each way a day to Rockhampton.

[@jj12s]

Please do a video on Greater Manchester’s Bee Network - turning our transit into a London-style system!

[@JordonMcConnell]

Would love those biarticulated buses to make an appearance on the Albuquerque Rapid Transit

[@shaunpattinson1621]

In 2000, the Olympics in Sydney were the best two weeks ever. 2032’s gonna be awesome

[@mitchellfresh]

Great video coming from a local!

[@yeet-lj3dr]

I live in Perth, recently went to Brisbane and used the trains and I could NOT believe how amazing they were compared to Perth, it was unreal

[@Tysonius_TWG]

Good to see my home city being shown off, we're often forgot about compared to Sydney/Melbourne :c

[@JohnSmith-ef2rn]

I'm getting home sick just watching this video. I've been away from Brisbane for 8 months and I miss it every single day.

[@Nick-kz6dg]

Every mainland state capital is investing heavily in their rail networks. Meanwhile in Adelaide… 😭

[@Pigeon_journey]

I feel bad for Adelaidians, what do you even do over there... last time I went, it was honestly quite boring.

[@nickhiscock8948]

They did recently electrify a couple of there major suburban lines and built new trains for them. But no new lines other than a minor tram extension in the city

[@Pigeon_journey]

@@nickhiscock8948 I think the most major extension is the Flinders line extension

[@haydencooper_]

@@nickhiscock8948 electrifying the rail is something all other cities has done decades ago!

[@RMTransit]

Adelaide ought to do more stuff with buses, like the O-Bahn but without the guided buses haha

[@billjameson1254]

Brisbane's rail system has been great, I love it here.

[@Wayne-Pr]

So im a Snr Comms N/W engineer currently based in Robina up until this weekend ive never had a free weekend off with which I can do what ever I want to do, as an Aviation & Train lover ive already ticked the 2 x aviation boxes that is plane spotting at Brisbane & Coolangatta but today (Sat 23/09/23) I finally took the fast train fro Robina to Brisbane return & what can I say coming from a public transport back water like Danistan ( formally Victoria) I am absolutely in love with the Gold Coast fast train network seriously why would you drive from the Gold Coast to Brisbane you'd have to be made sitting on a very comfortable train with free high speed WiFi rocketing along @ 200km's/ph why would you drive. I travel the entire east coast of Australia for work & are currently looking for somewhere to relocate to & I'd have to say the S/E QLD area with its increadible public transport links is looking a red hot favorite 😊

[@LEMMYLEMON]

As a Brisbanite, I take the Ipswich line almost every day and its mostly smooth. The only time that the Brisbane Rail Network isn't good is when the tracks are shut for maintenance, the Railbus system is very messy but other than that I don't see any problem with it. The new trains are in good quality and the fares are now cheap! Thanks for the video

[@karenmanagerwanter1744]

The Brisbane 'Metros' are not good lol. They're basically double-length electric buses. The city paid something in the order of $30 million for each of them. 'Gimmicky' is exactly the word I'd use to describe them. Very much a political pony show. The South East public transit system in general certainly isn't the worst in the world but it's a lot spottier than this video seems to imply. If you're lucky enough to live in walking distance of a train station then you're generally gonna get pretty good service. If you live in the inner-city then you've generally got decent options with buses to fill in the gaps in the train network. But there's an awful lot of urban sprawl that has poor bus connections and next to, or literally no, train services. In the outer suburbs, buses generally run on a loop towards the city and you'll have to transfer multiple loops to traverse across town if you're not citybound. Traffic congestion is terrible and you've got that to enjoy on your long bus trips as well. The city and state governments should be making far more effort to expand the number of train lines but with the few exceptions you've mentioned, they generally prefer to widen lanes again and again and engineer car traffic. The Gold Coast has some interesting plans for expansion of the tram network but the Sunshine coast is abysmal in terms of transit. Brisbane and the Gold and Sunshine Coasts have some beautiful scenery and there's definitely things to like about the transit system but I genuinely think it's a class below the likes of Sydney and Melbourne, and the plans for expansion really aren't anywhere near as ambitious as Sydney's (actual) metro network or Melbourne's intricate tram network (ntm Daniel Andrew's campaign to eliminate level crossings at rail stations).

[@sanitygone-l9y]

Reece generally has a much more positive outlook on transit and is much more likely to commend a system than discredit it. when compared to the suburban sprawl of america and canada, brisbane doesnt seem that bad in context but i wish we had more frequent service. at peak hours, an express train only comes every ten minutes.

[@RMTransit]

Bi Articulated electric buses are good and used in tons of cities so I'd hardly call them a gimmick, though they are buses which is why the name is silly imo!

[@karenmanagerwanter1744]

​@@RMTransit I'm not saying that buses are a gimmick, I'm saying the way our council paid a ridiculous amount for them and branded them as something they're not is what makes them gimmicky.

[@paulfri1569]

Blame Clem Jones for ripping up the tram track network in the 1960s as this facilitated the need for vehicle transport 😤😤😤😤😤

[@dshack4689]

Thrilled to see my hometown here! One thing 5:10 "all services all stops" - the Ipswich line does have an express that skips from Indooroopilly to Darra. I found this out the hard way one night thinking I'd get home to one of the smaller stops sooner, but whizzed straight past it LOL

[@mythicrelay614]

Hi! May I suggest to make a video on the Mumbai suburban rail network? No one has covered it like you cover rail systems in your videos and it’s scale and capacity is really impressive.

[@Doddibot]

@5:14 Re the Ipswich-Springfield quad-track shared corridor, Ipswich service does run some express services in peak hour, while the Springfield stops all stations. Off-peak times, both lines will stop at all stations as you mentioned.

[@fernbedek6302]

Rapid charging electric buses is fun and neat. (Once again wishing Canada had more Sweden-like buses…) I do think a busway could be a smart place to test some self-driving bus technology in the near future, though?

[@Vitally_Trivial]

I remember nearly a decade ago maybe, there was a Mercedes-Benz Citaro that was trialing some self driving gubbins on a busway over in Europe. Personally I think it’s very much early days for anything not on rails to be playing with self driving. You do see those small autonomous pod bus things getting around, but I mostly hear about them when they crash into something. For a big shipping container sized vehicle, I wouldn’t want to risk that tech on a full size bus just yet without a driver to press the big emergency stop button. Anything not on rails, we definitely still need the meat in the seat up front.

[@ozrob76]

Brisbane's public transport really is great. I had never needed a car prior to me getting one a few years ago. I think an expansion of its ferry system to Ipswich, the Gold Coast and Redcliffe would be another great addition. It's always interesting seeing major roadwork done on arterial roads, too, as they always expose the old tram lines just 30cms under the current roads. Some of the old tram lines are even still just sitting there in the middle of the road on Old Cleveland Road. A missed opportunity for high-volume services to that side of the City. Great video anyway 😎

[@HumeHwy]

A great video as usual, Reece (though I couldn’t help but giggle at your pronunciation of Beenleigh!) You explained the up sides of Brisbane transport system very well but didn’t really go into the downsides - the main one being relatively poor frequencies (most rail lines are only every 30 minutes off-peak). Also, the Brisbane bus network is … umm … dreadful. It’s a confusing mishmash of mostly infrequent routes with an insanely bewildering variety of stopping patterns and route variations all mostly converging on the city centre. The bus network is so complicated that there isn’t even a network map, it would be almost impossible to draw a legible map. There isn’t a single high-frequency cross-suburban bus so most trips between suburbs require going all the way into the city and back out again. There has been some good work done on improving SEQ’s public transport system but it still lags a very long way behind Sydney, Melbourne and Perth and consequently has much lower ridership than those three cities.

[@KhanPiesseONE]

The bus network reform BCC is proposing improves and cleans up quite a few of the routes but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Still so many peak only bus routes and huge swathes of the suburbs that only get hourly bus service at midday. I think the current bus network reform is only the first stage, as they eventually build more Brisbane Metro lines they will continue more bus network reform. I hope, anyway.

[@RMTransit]

From what I can tell there is going to be a redesign of the network post "metro"

[@rodlavery509]

This was my experience of living in Brisbane, so I hated the trains - I have strong memories of sitting bored at Roma St for 45 minutes because I *just* missed the previous train, and the next one was randomly late or just never showed (how do you manage that with a train??). Australian cities seem strangely obsessed with peak-only services. Adelaide runs off peak /opposite-to-peak-direction trains HOURLY. Apparently any lifestyle other than 9-5 commuting is inconceivable here. But I'm still really grateful for the infrastructure we have! Just need to spend a bit more on better service.

[@KhanPiesseONE]

@@rodlavery509 Sitting at Roma St waiting for a train for 45 minutes is rare these days, only if there is a serious delay but that doesn’t happen too often. The train frequencies are in desperate need of a boost, but also the suburban buses.

[@rodlavery509]

@@KhanPiesseONE Glad to hear it's more reliable :)

[@christianhorner001]

I had the great opportunity to live & work in Brisbane for 3 years over the Commonwealth Games period. Australia is simply the best country in the world to live and Brisbane is one of the best cities in the best country. The world can learn a lot from those Aussies.

[@mdhazeldine]

I didn't know much about Brisbane until recently. I had no idea it was so big. The rail network seems on the one hand impressive, and on the other sorely lacking in a few areas, but hopefully it will improve. What I don't understand is why a city like that needs so many busways. Just convert them to rail already. Busways are clearly a cheap stop-gap solution, which is fine, but it seems like they're pushing the limits of what buses are good for.

[@KhanPiesseONE]

Brisbane, and the state of Queensland as a whole is extremely car dependent. A very small portion of the populace uses transit, and of those that use transit, the vast majority use buses not trains. Doesn’t make much sense does it? We have large rail network that goes a lot of places yet, comparatively it barely gets used compared to the busways. You’d think it’s worth replacing the busway with rail but, Australians are very protective of their way of life. What I mean by that, is the current portion of Brisbane that relies on their bus routes that use the busways, don’t want it to change. They like that it’s a direct bus ride from their suburb, onto the busway, into the city. Every proposal to replace the busway with rail has been shot down because of how they want to protect the current service patterns. So the only solution so far that has worked, is Brisbane Metro, which isn’t actually a metro. It allows the bus services to mostly stay the same with only a couple routes truncated at busway stations. Yes, rail would be better in the long term but, it’s never going to happen. The busway will always be a busway.

[@farmerooni]

It's likely due to the levels of government. Rail lines are state government owned, and there's sizably larger costs in constructing new lines (and new trains) in this country. Bus lines are local council government controlled. There's a fair bit of difficulty getting cross-government co-operation, especially when it comes to land-usage and costs. Queensland is home to the mega-councils though (Brisbane council covers the WHOLE city, it's not a collection of councils like London or Sydney.) So they do have a sizable budget to work with (fun fact: Brisbane Council's budget is larger than the state of Tasmania.) Which is why there is so much bus infrastructure (busways, tunnels and flyovers) already constructed. Unfortunately, a lot of the flyover busways really are designed for busses only -very tight turn circles, vehicle loading limits that cannot accommodate heavy rail stock, and they tend to be quite narrow. Some places are height restricted, which rules out the possibility of retro-fitting overhead power lines. What will be happening though, is those busways and priority bus lanes (like the ones being added to Gympie road) will all be converted in the near future. Not for tram use, but for the expanding Metro 'trackless-tram/ big-long-electric-bus' system. So it's a half-win

[@_perza]

Just recently i was down on the gold coast and saw some of the new track they are building to the airport. It seems they have made quite a bit of progress so far but locals oppose the track as it makes travelling by road way harder due to smaller roads.

[@transportspotterraphael]

I still think that potentially, all of these transit solutions that Brisbane is putting are very meager for its growth. Speeding up a busway and increasing its capacity is something which I don't believe will one day cover the expected 5M inhabitants. Also I don't think I've seen a lot of East West corridors? Unless there's really nothing there. Overall, same as Melbourne, I think this city needs a *proper* metro at some point, and as an immediate solution, not a long term one.

[@RMTransit]

Lots of cities in Latin America have well over 5 million inhabitants and rely on buses, plus Brisbane has a big rail system! I do agree more east west rail is needed!

[@ryancheng9591]

There has been calls for an East-West Metro (from Northshore Hamilton to UQ St Lucia via Bulimba, Newstead, Fortitude Valley, City, South Bank, West End) and it has been identified on the State's previous transport plan, Connecting SEQ back in the early 2010s. However nothing has came out of that since

[@Supragt]

Hi from Singapore 🇸🇬, I have taken the train and bus in Brisbane when I was visiting my cousin on holiday

[@LewisTL95]

Was hoping you would be a little more critical of Brisbane’s transit network, Reece! The train network suffers with poor frequency compared to Sydney & Melbourne - most lines have trains every 30 minutes off-peak, and the few with 4tph off-peak don’t have this running on weekends / at night. You missed talking about the BUZ network too - which is a real testament to the power of frequent transport. It hasn’t been expanded recently though and off the BUZ network, the bus network is mediocre (but probably better than most US cities!). You can’t use your credit card to pay on buses and ferries - yet - that is coming soon. If you know Brisbane’s bus network well, getting around is a breeze, the problem is it’s so complicated, lots of people just drive instead.

[@RMTransit]

These videos are usually pretty positive, that being said I did try to mention some of the issues with CRR

[@jsrodman]

Every 30 minutes (for regional rail) during business hours isn't that bad, you can often schedule your departure to sync up. But dropping further off business hours is pretty unfortunate.

[@LewisTL95]

​@@jsrodmanAgree, the 30 minute frequency isn't too bad for service to the Gold Coast, but Sunshine Coast frequency languishes at every 90 minutes, and the Rosewood connection is hourly outside of peak. The consequence of low-frequency rail means any high-frequency bus has to travel all the way to the CBD, and rail doesn't have anything like the passenger uplift of Sydney / Melbourne.

[@jsrodman]

@@LewisTL95 It also means no one will use it for anything but commuting, and everyone will buy a car anyway.

[@YasEmisDaBus]

I'm a frequent user of the system (can't drive) and save the occasional delayed train or cancelled bus (with little warning for either), the system is functional enough to get me to most places in Greater Brisbane (Brisbane proper, Ipswich, Logan, the Moreton Bay region or the Gold Coast) reasonably easily. The go card ticketing is a key factor in this, I lost mine for a bit and it was a pain to try figure out zoning.

[@peanutbutterpancake1703]

The train from sydney once per day departs syd at 2:40 ish pm, arrives into brisbane at 4:55 am (14 hrs) and returns at 5:55 am. Due to the restrictive rail capacity, if the brisbane bound NSW based train is significantly delayed (which it occasionaly is), passengers will need to transfer to a bus at aproximatley 2 am to continue their journey as queensland wont let the late train through.

[@jsrodman]

Australia long distance rail seems like a mess. I looked into taking a train from Brisbane to Melbourne and it basically turns out "you don't do that". All options involved double digits of hours to transfer trains.

[@peanutbutterpancake1703]

@@jsrodman The main purpose of regional australian trains is not to link up the major cities as they far and better served by planes, some people catch the train all the way for the experience or a cheaper price. The purpose is to link up to all the smaller country towns along the way and to connect with coaches for more extensive regional coverage. Many of the towns are smaller and have limited transport.

[@alexio1942]

11:08 all the busses i think now run on natural gas, keep it enclosed for air conditioning during hot seasons. what i think is a partial hindrance is the lack of road bridges for cars/trucks for a city built on a river (that aren't toll bridges)

[@zeyu8]

Lack of service is appalling and memeworthy. Queensland Rail made a huge deal about how they upped their frequency, and I quote, "with trains coming every 15 minutes, there's no need for a timetable."

[@rodlavery509]

I mean it's true, there's no need for a timetable, because you have already decided to use a different mode of transport.

[@Vitally_Trivial]

I believe that fell apart due to staffing issues. They got to Christmas one year and discovered all their drivers were going on holiday or something, leading to the reduction to half hourly service. I’m optimistic about our chances of it returning to a 15 minute service in future with CRR and a number of hiring pushes.

[@tonip9172]

As a Brisbanite myself, I appreciate the video. There has been a lot of work put into the system lately, which is great. But two things I've noticed recently (due to increased train usage and job searching) are that 1. You can't go to Cleveland from the Southside or the Gold Coast directly, you have to travel to Park Road and change trains, and 2. Trains and buses don't run late at night during the week. Both of these severely limit public transport useability for late-night workers and coastal explorers who live on the Southside and down to the Gold Coast and don't want to or can't use cars. Of course, some would say that I'm just finding things to complain about, but I have never understood why it isn't more accessible.