Transport for Brisbane Observations 2021

[qut391]

T2932 (reg no XQ40SP) in service today.

[daveeyh]

1279 has returned to G.

[daveeyh]

T2933 (XQ 47SP)in service tonight on an o/b 444 about 6.10pm.

[BT Enthusiast]

2916 and friends are still at Sherwood, running bare, no ads. I believe they may be used to AoA them. Newer buses at Toowong such as 2926 have already got ads.

[qut391]

2916 and friends are still at Sherwood, running bare, no ads. I believe they may be used to AoA them. Newer buses at Toowong such as 2926 have already got ads.

T2929 has ads on since it entered service.
So far T2926 to T2929 have ads on already.

[qut391]

StationLink S2919 (reg no XQ61QE) serving Route 412.

[EamonMBT]

T2926 was involved in a crash this morning while doing the 444 IB. I was involved in the crash myself as a passenger and I have photo evidence.

[Cazza]

I’ve also had reports from a friend that a bus ran up the back of a Ute on Waterworks Rd at Kullaroo St, The Gap this afternoon. Not sure of the bus in question.

[L433]

Would anyone know why Sherwood does the bulk “Carindale 4” shuttle runs from the Gabba/Lang Park to Carindale? Other than the 598/599 (Sherwood) Carindale services are either from Carina or Garden City Depots.

[ABS]

Mobilisation is a similar for both depots.

[verbatim9]

In Qld---> Workers trudge back to the office but public transport still on the nose

Almost everywhere in the state, public transport remains a no-go.

According to Google mobility data, only Noosa, Townsville and Mackay have been able to embrace a return to public transport.

The Google data shows Brisbane public transport patronage is down 23 per cent on pre-COVID and down 8 per cent on office visits.

[daveeyh]

1225 and 1226 are listed at Manheim for auction on Friday 21 May 2021.

[^^__^^]

Would anyone know why Sherwood does the bulk “Carindale 4” shuttle runs from the Gabba/Lang Park to Carindale? Other than the 598/599 (Sherwood) Carindale services are either from Carina or Garden City Depots.

Given Sherwood does the 599/8, they sometimes have to blank run from Carindale to the city. S drivers are also familiar with the layout of Carindale interchange.

The only thing limiting where a bus can go in the Council network is the knowledge of the operator in the bus basically

[Cazza]

I want to say that another reason could be because Sherwood also has a number of TAGs sitting around (especially compared to the 25 odd at Carina).

[TLK]

1225 and 1226 are listed at Manheim for auction on Friday 21 May 2021.

Are there any others that have been withdrawn recently?

[qut391]

Route 27 is now under Carina instead of Sherwood.

[qut391]

T2936 (reg no XQ64SP) in service today.
T2914 and T2915 are now S2914 and S2915.

Reg nos for T2934 and T2935 are XQ59SP and XQ61SP.

[Cazza]

Coming very close to the latest possible 1 Year Anniversary of Eagle Farm's bendies. Since that time, they have been spotted doing some driver training here and there, but apart from that, they're just been sitting in the depot gathering dust and yet to see a single passenger board them. Aerial imagery shows as early as 2 June 2020, there were 3 bendies sitting at the depot (1 in CityGlider wrap) and they could have been there as early as 22 March 2020 (the day after the previous image was taken). That grew to 10 buses on the 14 July 2020 (5 CityGliders) and 18 on the 17 September 2020 (8 Gliders). Sometime between the 29 November 2020 and 5 March 2021, 6 (normal skinned) were moved to Sherwood but other 12 have been sitting there since up until the latest image from the 15 May 2021. They have all been moved between these images (meaning driver training and whatever else has happened during this time), but the 12 current ones have all yet to be seen in service as of yet.

The Montague Rd/Victoria St intersection upgrade may have something to do with the bendies not running on Route 60 (judging by the lack of bus stop upgrades occurring at other CityGlider stops meaning there shouldn't be any reason why they can't start running once this upgrade is complete in the very near weeks). However, why the other 4 buses (at the bare minimum) haven't been running on the 333s or 345s (in desperate need of capacity increases) is just as much of a concern. Buses costing close to $1 million each that (judging by Council's regular retirement/turnover of buses) have a lifespan of 20 years max, I'm not happy that they still haven't made it onto the streets yet. It's likely that with the electric bus push in the past few years that this lifespan will be reduced further. Time for a second go at TransLink to get any information on this pretty important matter.

It's also interesting to note that the 6 that were moved to Sherwood are still labelled as E16XX on their roof fleet number, yet the sides still show S16XX (from what I have noticed over the past few months).

[daveeyh]

The non-Glider wrapped artics at Eagle Farm are actually older buses in the 1640 series.

Buses 1653 and 1662-1670 have all been at Sherwood for some time now.

The bus that I have seen on driver training in recent days from E has been S1648.

[Merc1107]

I do find it interesting there is this mad panic to replace gas buses in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney (sometimes well short of a typical lifespan) with diesels, when we are on the cusp of electric buses taking over. Will those diesels, too, be the subject of a hurried replacement regime?

Cazza, were I in your position, I would be getting in touch with the Council and asking why they have acquired such expensive assets that are otherwise sitting disused. On the face of it, this sort of frivolity is a classic case of Government wastage and is exactly why people argue for privatisation. I doubt any for-profit bus operator would buy new buses that they don't bother using.

[ABS]

1642, 1646, 1647, and 1648 have been at Eagle Farm for a few months.

[daveeyh]

1642, 1646, 1647, and 1648 have been at Eagle Farm for a few months.

1646 has been on route service within the past week on the busway so may have been swapped for another unit.

Also note that current information from Council is that the wrapped artics will commence Glider service from July 2021 with the others to follow later in the year.

[Cazza]

Can you link a source please? Or is this from intel?

[daveeyh]

It is from the minutes of the Brisbane City Council meeting dated 16 March 2021.

[Cazza]

Thanks for that. Interesting to read that it was in fact a funding dispute between TransLink and Council regarding the delays to the buses being put in service and really nothing (that I have seen publicly mentioned recently) to do with bus stop upgrades. Just really goes to show the culture of the "do nothing" stubborn attitude when it comes to negotiating agreements that seems continue to permeate through the levels of Government. It's so frustrating to see politicians putting their own political agenda ahead of the urgent needs of so many people. The public have been screaming out for capacity improvements for Route 60 for years and having buses sit idle for over a year is very disappointing.

It is good however to hear that another 10 artic CityGliders will be in service by the end of the year, bringing the CityGlider bendy fleet to 18 (and presumably allowing for all artic operation like the 66 now is). I'm curious as to what is going to happen to the 4 normal skinned artics currently at Eagle Farm. Will they be transferred to Sherwood too, be wrapped up and run on Route 60 as well or will the northside finally see some bendies running on normal services? The Council seems to be very "side-of-the-river-ist" when it comes to who receives these higher capacity vehicles. You'll find that routes such as the 330, 333, 345, 385 and even 300 need the capacity over the 160, 161, 210 or 212 (for example). I think it's time for some TAGs or bendies to make it across the river into depots abbreviated by E, T or V!