The turn-up-and-go Brisbane Metro will transform our city’s public transport network. Find out how.
Brisbane Metro is coming, and it’s a gamechanger!
We get that some of you may still be a bit unsure what the Brisbane Metro actually is – maybe that’s because it’s something you’ve never seen before in Australia!
In what will be an Australian first, the turn-up-and-go Brisbane Metro will introduce a new fleet of 60 high-capacity fully-electric Metro vehicles that will coordinate with existing bus services, as part of a better-planned network.
With the first pilot vehicle arriving in Brisbane for testing in 2020, Brisbane Metro will introduce tried and tested European technology, used by electric vehicle heavyweight HESS, a Swiss-based company with more than 50 years' experience building electric vehicles across Europe.
This will be coupled with expertise from local Brisbane-based company, Volgren, which will deliver the fit out of the new Metro vehicles, creating up to 40 new jobs in our city.
The first pilot vehicle will arrive in Brisbane by the end of 2020, but in the meantime, picture this: a whisper-quiet, zero tailpipe emission, low-floor design vehicle. This video might help.
So not only will Brisbane be shaping the future of public transport in Australia, we’ll be using the best technology to suit our river city.
Here are some other fun facts to help you understand our new global transport envy.
- Advanced flash charging technology at the end of each route will be used to power-up each Brisbane Metro vehicle in under six minutes – meaning more time in service to keep you moving.
- It’ll look and sound like the future: the Metro vehicle will run in near silence, with a three-carriage design, four large double doors and a panoramic rear window, for taking advantage of city views.
- With a high-frequency timetable that has services running every 3 minutes in peak periods, advanced technology and lots of room for passengers, the Brisbane Metro will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, and we can’t wait to show it off.
Of course, we know Brisbane Metro isn’t the whole picture. We’ve got a lot of transport wins in the works, and a plan to create a better-connected public transport network. Stage 1 Metro services are due to start in 2023 and will see a 21 km network connecting 18 stations along dedicated busways. Connections include Eight Mile Plains and Roma Street and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and the University of Queensland. Future stages being considered also include services to Chermside, Carindale and Brisbane Airport.
The Brisbane Metro is a key of Council’s plan to help improve traffic flow, free up more buses for the suburbs and get you home quicker and safer.
How to travel green in Brisbane
Whether it’s your daily commute or weekend wanderings, we know that travelling green is important to many Brisbanites and is a big part of keeping Brisbane clean and sustainable for future generations.
To help keep your environmental impact low while you’re on the go, we’ve got some great options for now, and some very exciting things coming soon.
- Brisbane Metro is coming, and it’s a green game-changer!The turn-up-and-go Brisbane Metro will bring battery-powered electric vehicles to Brisbane by the end of 2023. With zero tailpipe emissions, Brisbane Metro will be a greener mass transport option than Australia has never seen, saving about 50,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over 20 years.
- Five new green bridges are planned, making Brisbane a city with a comprehensive list of cross-river options for travelling by foot, bike and potentially public transport. In addition to the three existing green bridges in South Brisbane and St Lucia, we’re building five more across the city to make it even easier for you to get around. The other green bridge locations include Toowong to West End, St Lucia to West End, Kangaroo Point to the CBD, as well as new crossings at Breakfast Creek and Bellbowrie – meaning there’s even more reason to ditch the car and throw on the active wear.
- We’ve also got wheely fun eco options to choose from to get you around Brisbane by bike. We have an extensive network of bikeways across the city, like the recently-opened Woolloongabba Bikeway and riverside Lores Boney Riverwalk, so you can use good old fashioned pedal power to get you from A to B. And if you don’t have your own bike, there’s always one of 2000 CityCycle bikes at 150 different stations across inner-Brisbane to hop on and explore the city on two wheels.
- Leading the way for e-scooters, Brisbane’s love of this eco travel option has sky-rocketed since scooter access became wide and plentiful across the city in November 2018. Since then, an impressive 2.1 million trips have been taken on an e-scooter.
The goss on getting around Brisbane quicker
Want to cut your travel time in half? Keen to get home quicker so you can do more of what you love? We hear you! And now we’ve got a plan you can get excited about.
The turn-up-and-go Brisbane Metro is being labelled that way for a very simple reason – you can literally turn-up-and-go. With peak services to run every three minutes, long waits to get home will be a thing of the past.
Not only will each Metro vehicle carry a whopping 150 people, it will travel along its very own busways, meaning no more staring at taillights as you sit in traffic.
And with 24-hour services running on the weekend, this transformative project is going to revolutionise the way you travel by doing away with the need for timetables, all while reducing congestion – and we can’t wait to see it in action.
The first Metro pilot vehicle will arrive in Brisbane for testing next year, with an entire fleet of 60 electric vehicles expected to arrive in 2023, in time for services to commence. In the meantime, read about the other ways we’re tackling traffic congestion to get you around Brisbane quicker and safer.
Best ways to stay connected on the go in Brisbane
In a world where it’s hard to find people not staring at their smartphone, the importance of being connected and charging on the go has never been more apparent. Good news is, Brisbane’s got you covered, with charging and free Wi-Fi options spanning the city.
- The new Brisbane Metro will include USB ports and free Wi-Fi for all passengers, making the turn-up-and-go service a great way to get around quickly while multi-tasking. Using some seriously smart technology, Brisbane Metro has lots of features to keep you connected.
- Free USB charging is availableon our new double-decker CityCatYoogera, meaning you’ll never run out of juice while you’re cruising the river.
- Brisbane may just be a hot-spotting superstar, with 33 Council libraries also offering free Wi-Fi for those needing to get online wherever they may be, as well as more than 300 other hotspots in parks, malls and across the city.
- With 20 new Smart Poles on the way in 2020, Brisbane will soon have more public infrastructure with free Wi-Fi and USB charging (along with pedestrian and cyclist detection, climate and air quality monitoring and more), helping you stay connected with family and friends in the places that make our city great.