Northern Busway, Brisbane

History

The first section of the Northern Busway, from the intersection of Roma Street to Herston, opened on 23 February 2004 with only one station, QUT Kelvin Grove. On 14 December 2005, two new stations, Normanby and Royal Children's Hospital Herston, were opened on the existing section.

The second section of the Northern Busway, also known as the Inner Northern Busway, officially opened on 19 May 2008. This section connects the first section of the Northern Busway to the South East Busway with stations at King George Square and Roma Street. To make room for the Inner Northern Busway, one rail platform at Roma Street railway station was removed.

In October 2007 an alliance of Abigroup and SMEC Holdings were selected to build the 1.2 kilometre Royal Children's Hospital to Windsor section with a new station at Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital. This opened on 3 August 2009. On 18 June 2012, the Windsor to Kedron section opened.

King George Square to Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital

The Northern Busway starts in a tunnel underneath Albert Street in the Brisbane central business district adjacent to the Queen Street bus station, previously the terminus of the South East Busway. Many northbound services using the Northern Busway originate at the Cultural Centre busway station on the South East Busway. It then proceeds north-west to the King George Square busway station, a large interchange with several stops on each of its two underground platforms. It then surfaces near Roma Street railway station and follows the alignment of the main city train lines. Roma Street busway station is adjacent to the train platforms and is on the same level. Platform 2 is shared by both trains and buses, although the only train to currently use Platform 2 is NSW TrainLink's daily XPT service to Sydney.

The busway then continues north alongside the Exhibition railway line and then north-east through the Victoria Park Golf Complex, with stations adjacent to the Normanby Fiveways, the Queensland University of Technology campus at Kelvin Grove and the Royal Children's Hospital. The busway then turns left and on to a bridge structure alongside the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital precinct over Butterfield Street.

Windsor to Kedron

The three kilometre Windsor to Kedron section was built by a John Holland/Thiess consortium opening on 18 June 2012. The route rejoins Lutwyche Road after crossing Enoggera Creek. The route travels via bus lanes and local bus stops until it reaches Truro Street, when it enters into a dedicated 1.5 kilometre underground busway tunnel. After passing through Lutwyche and Kedron Brook busway stations and crossing Kedron Brook, the route rejoins Lutwyche Road at Stafford Road (southbound/inbound) and Sadlier Street (northbound/outbound).

Future extension

The final stage of the busway is planned to be built from Kedron to Bracken Ridge. A series of draft alignments in order to identify the corridor for preservation have been released, however no final route has been selected.

The Newman Government elected in March 2012 indicated an intention to revisit the alignment for this project. Their primary points of departure from the policy of the previous government appear to be a preference not to protect for the long-term high-cost full busway option previously being explored and an election commitment not to take the busway to The Prince Charles Hospital. These changes are predicated on the perceived high expense and impact of the previously published preferred options. The government's current stated preference is for bus or transit lane level priority along the highly congested Gympie Road corridor.

Services

All services on the busway are operated by Brisbane Transport.