Buses in Brisbane

I am appalled with the public transport system in Brisbane, in particular buses. I cannot count on two hands the number of times I have been standing at a bus stop (after arriving before the bus is due) and am left to wait much longer than it indicates on the timetable OR the amount of times the bus hasn’t showed up at all. I’m not sure I could put that down to the bus not operating but perhaps it showing up a heck of a lot earlier than indicated and not waiting for the poor sucker running towards it.
In this day and age it is imperative that we adopt environmentally friendly means of transport (such as the bus), but let me assure you; if the public transport system doesn’t pull its finger out, I’m sure there are plenty of people who won’t mind increasing their ecological footprint for the sake of getting somewhere on time.
I don’t know one person who is satisfied with public transport. It isn’t only the Brisbane bus service that lets the public down.

You's must be catching different buses to me. The southern busway is fantastic no other city has anything like it. The buz service is every 15min to 5 to 10 minutes during the peak. I catch the route 200 every day have no problems with drivers not stopping except when they are full. I moved from Sydney 2 years ago the buses in Sydney might run later in the night but they the ticketing system is by far no where as good as here and their limited stops bus is not as frequent as the Buz service, My only 2 problems are is the age of the buses here it think some are from the stone age, and some of the drivers are so crabby, but most are fine and friendly.

Was driving home tonight doing the speed limit.....had a rude bus driver tailgate me ( a lone female driver), for approximately 2kms till the filthy mouthed driver turned into another street, no way of knowing if this driver had passengers...doubt it. Came close to running into the rear of my vehicle (deliberately) Then made rude comment before turning left.

I have applied several months ago for a bus driving position, having gone and paid for all the preliminaries to get my Drivers Authorisation.
After several email enquires, I am still no further ahead.
I find it a bit frustrating especially having heard about and reading about incidences of inapproprate behavior by existing drivers, who seem to be able to keep their jobs after being abusive and supplying bad service to fee paying passengers. The public deserves better.
I think that if they care so little for their jobs that they should move over for someone who can and would supply a better service.
Courtesy and a willing nature with a smile would be a good place to start!

Ray K

Aroha has got it almost 100% correct. As as a bus driver, I can confirm all that comment. Our award provides for up to 5hrs work before a break of between 40 and 55 mins, for a meal. If traffic is heavy and we run late, the supervisors try and cut that meal break down to a very short 30 mins. I defy anybody to comfortably eat a meal in 30 mins.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the running times allocated to the routes. I myself have had a shift which featured three round trips on the same route, with three different running times. How do they work that out?
As for other comments about rude drivers etc. I wonder how many of you people who complain about rudeness would put up with the absolute rubbish and rudeness that comes from some of the passengers.
Now, we get people who don`t want bus engines to run at the terminus, and require us to turn the motor off.
I wonder how many of those people would sit in a metal and glass box, with no ventilation?
When the motor is switched off, so is the A/C, and those buses heat up very quickly when the A/C is off.
So come on people, before you complain about bus drivers, think about the difficulties we have to put up with. I`m not saying that all drivers are perfect, cos we`re not. But unfortunately, a few baddies give us all a bad name.
Give us a go people.

Yes, Brissie's prices are just too expensive now for non-consession... I need to travel to work + travel lots on weekends, & since the weekly pass is now went 40% up & go card works too expensive it is no longer worth it using public transport...

I say bring free public transport, like some places overseas - in the long run it saves money (on pollution, roads, road accidents, speed cameras, etc) plus makes a much nicer, friendlier, more civilised and relaxed society. But, hey, this takes lots of guts & our decision makes may not have these...

I got to say that the fares have gone up too much this time! They increased almost 40% of each original price. House price/rent hasn't increased that fast!!

Well, people seem to have got used to the late buses and careless drievers. But how could our public transportation system charge people so much more while maintaining such poor standard of service?

More people including me will consider buying cars as a result of the disappointing and pricy public transport. Awesome! let's get ready for more traffic jams and the rising temperatures

Public transport here is overpriced and the zones are ridiculous. From 4 Jan the prices went bizzare... not happy!

Correct!

The new prices are outragous!!

And public trnasport is dirty, late and smelly...

I am going to use the car as the prices of the montly ticket no longer worth using the train!

Agree with all of the above...the recent price hike proves that Brisbane Council wants us to stop using public transport. Ridiculous indeed.

Instead of having more frequent services (in the north, we have pre-historic type of frequency, plus delays...) or cleaning the verhicles/trains/stops/stations properly, they just put prices up (much easier to do...)

I say - get rid of the silly zone system (the more money you have to live in the inner city, the less you spend on travel... makes no sense), bring cheap tranport to everyone (some of us have no concession but live on low wages!), have more services, and please clean stations, too.

Another annoyed commuter...

Have to agree with most! :) Well, I've just moved to Brisbane and am still settling in I suppose.

I don't have huge complaints, I guess I don't expect perfection. But the service could definately see some improvement. I just finished a weekly ticket I purchased for $35(ish)... I was pretty shocked at the price, I should've changed my mind I think, because it was not worth it! I mostly walk, and take the bus only when I need to. I would think mostly because the bus system is unreliable.

I will say though... I am surprised that the drivers accept payments and give out change. I think the best system is prepaid cards, and a payment system where the bus driver is NOT involved. You pay your fee, if you don't have exact change... too bad. I can't count how many times a bus is slowed down because of a rider who has a million questions, and then has to fiddle around with change... if you have a bunch of stops like that... you can really see why the bus is so late.