Brisbane Metro project blows out to $1.55 billion as rollout postponed to 2025
The new Brisbane Metro public bus service is expected to become fully operational next year. (ABC News: Steve Keen)
In short:
The Brisbane Metro project has blown out from $944 million to $1.55 billion.
The bendy bus project has cost more than the 2016 underground metro plan it replaced.
What's next?
Brisbane City Council says the metro buses will likely hit the road in 2025.
Brisbane's "cheaper" alternative to an underground metro now costs more than the original plan due to repeated budget blowouts.
On Monday, Brisbane City Council revealed its bendy banana bus project, Brisbane Metro, had blown out to $1.55 billion.
The 2016 Brisbane Metro plan, originally conceived as a rapid subway network connected by a series of underground stations, was budgeted for $1.54 billion.
That plan was scrapped in 2017 in favour of "cheaper" electric bendy buses, which were supposed to launch in 2023 at a cost of $944 million.
A 2016 artist's impression of a proposed Brisbane Metro station at Herston. (Supplied: Brisbane City Council)
Councillor Ryan Murphy has confirmed the buses are not on track to be on the roads until next year.
"My bet is on early 2025, but this is going to be a joint decision between the state and council," Cr Murphy said.
"When we know more, you'll know more."
Councillor Ryan Murphy says the buses will likely be on the road next year. (ABC News: Phoebe Hosier)
Cr Murphy said council's "launch" of the Brisbane Metro in October this year was a four-week "limited preview" on one route, 169.
Despite having made no public announcements about the four-week time frame until the launch, a council spokesperson said this had always been the plan.
"Metro 169 was always a four-week preview," the spokesperson said.
"Metro services will start in early 2025 to allow time to incorporate feedback from the four-week trial and reach an agreement with the new state government around the introduction of metro services."
In 2016, the plan had stated that the Brisbane Metro would arrive every two minutes during peak hours, however, that was later revised to every three minutes and then five minutes.
Other features of the original metro plan, such as an underground cultural centre, have also been ditched.
Plans getting derailed
Rail Back On Track advocate Robert Dow said calling the public transport service the Brisbane Metro was "potentially confusing".
"They're very good buses, but that's what they are; they're not trains, they're not trams," Mr Dow said.
"It's just not right … and there's plenty of time to get it properly named into something appropriate, marketable, and describes what it really is."
Robert Dow says the service should not be called the Brisbane Metro. (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
Additionally, he said it would cause more confusion if Brisbane managed to build a real metro one day.
Mr Dow said the bendy buses should be called BERT, or Busway Electric Rapid Transit.
Council's Labor opposition leader Jared Cassidy said the entire Brisbane Metro project had been handled disastrously.
"There's now even less certainty around what the metro will deliver on the busway than there was years ago," Cr Cassidy said.
"Massive cost blowouts, delays and now false starts. How hard is it to run buses on the busway?"