Brisbane City Council on Sunday hosted an Open Day for its all electric Metro, a bus fleet that closely resembles Perth’s “trackless trams” and features the capacity to recharge via a wireless overhead system in less than three minutes.
The new transport fleet is a key milestone in its plans to decarbonise transport for the whole city ahead of the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.
Brisbane residents were invited to attend test drives of the Metro at what the council says is Australia’s largest electric bus depot, which came complete with live music, food trucks, and kids’ activities to sweeten the deal. The elusive event could only be reached via the council’s free local shuttle services, which departed from Griffith University, Upper Mt Gravatt and Eight Mile Plains busway stations.
The EV buses will be 24.4 metres in length, double that of a standard bus. They will be 2.6m wide and can carry 150 passengers with a further capacity to carry up to 170 “in event mode”.
In technology that’s understood to be relatively new to Australia, it will also have access to end-of-route pantographic overhead wireless (flash) charging, which can recharge the bus in less than six minutes.
The council says that the metro will increase its service capacity by more than 50 per cent above regular capacity and can carry an extra 7300 passengers daily. That potential is for an extra additional 30 million passenger trips per year through Brisbane’s busways.
The service will officially start on the 169 routes between Eight Mile Plains and St Lucia next week on 21 October. Stops serviced on the route include Upper Mount Gravatt (Garden City), Griffith University, Holland Park West, Greenslopes, Buranda, PA Hospital, Boggo Road and UQ Lakes.
Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said:
“Brisbane is one of Australia’s fastest growing cities, and the turn-up-and-go Metro services are critical to keeping people moving across our city and suburbs.
“Brisbane Metro is delivering the biggest improvement in accessible mass transit in decades with next-stop announcements and hearing loops to ensure accessibility, as well as an improved experience for all passengers.”
Other features of the metro include
- three passenger compartments and a separate driver cabin
- accessibility:
- three large mobility aid bays10 priority seats low-floor design audio and hearing loops in all compartments
- automated on-request ramp access at the first passenger door
- real-time travel information screen for passengers
- on-board Wi-Fi and USB charging points
- panoramic rear window and large windows for full views
- three large double doors to support efficient all-door boarding
And then there’s the Chinese bus tech revolution
While Swiss bus manufacturer HESS delivered the Brisbane Metro, Chinese competition had already supplied Brisbane with buses and also with large parts of Queensland.
Brisbane city councillor Ryan Murphy, the council’s transport committee chair, was a key speaker at a red carpet “brand night” at the Brisbane City Town Hall hosted by Chinese bus manufacturer Yutong as part of the National Bus and Coach Show late last month. The company flew in more than 50 guests from China. for the event (including hosting The Fifth Estate as a media guest) and gala night late last month.
Murphy’s positive views of China’s potential role echoed sentiments Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley expressed at the recent TFE Live event along with Heidi Lee of Beyond Zero Energy, that China was leading the global charge for the energy transition.
Murphy said at the gala event that China has been leading the way for over 20 years regarding electric buses.
“I don’t think that many of us who don’t get out of this country regularly realise just how advanced the technology is and just how difficult it will be for Westerners to play catch up.”
He thanked the Liberal councillors at the council for helping the current Labor-dominated local government support state government policy to reduce public transport fares in the Brisbane area to $10 for the airport line and 50 cents for all others until the end of the year.
The Queensland government has since committed to keeping fares at current rates if they win the next election. The opposition said it would match the commitment and promised more reforms to improve the state’s public transport offering.
Murphy added that as the first council to reach carbon neutrality in 2010 and still the only one to do so in Queensland, Brisbane was taking its goal to reach net zero emissions seriously and that decarbonising transport was one of the council’s most important targets, leading up to the 2032 Brisbane Games.
He said the games had to be carbon positive, environmentally friendly and green, and that was why Yutong was important to the future.
Watch the video below on how the Metro buses work featuring a Brisbane council spokesperson explaining what the Metro offers, supplemented with some footage from the opening weekend provided by the council.