Transport in
Brisbane, the capital and largest city of
Queensland,
Australia is provided by rail, river ferry, sea and air.
Transport around brisbane is managed by both the
Brisbane City Council and
Government of Queensland which owns
Queensland Rail. Public Commuter Rail transport is by
CityTrain, an electric train system operated by
Queensland Rail. Road transport is via the standard
residential street network managed by
Brisbane City Council and connecting freeway system which is managed by
Queensland Main Roads. The public bus transport system is operated by the
Brisbane City Council, and utilises the road network as well as dedicated Bus Lanes and Bus Ways. Public Transport on and across the
Brisbane River is provided by the
Cityferry (inner city) and
CityCat services run by the Brisbane City Council.
Transport in and out of Brisbane is managed by both public and private enterprises. Queensland Rail manages a freight and passenger service inter-city and interstate. Queensland Main Roads manages the Queensland road network.
Port of Brisbane is a private company that provides bulk sea freighter facilities.
Brisbane Airport Corporation Limited manages the
Brisbane Airport which has both domestic and international terminals with both freight and passenger services.
Mass Transit To deliver workable public transport to areas outside of the metropolitan train lines, the Busways were established to deliver unrestricted bus travel throughout the northern, eastern and southern corridors of the city by installing road systems where only buses are permitted. Two busways have opened in recent years in Brisbane — the
South-East Busway and the
Inner-Northern Busway, with three more busways (Northern, Eastern, Boggo Road) and new rail lines planned. Public transport has been the primary infrastructure that Brisbane has typically always improved and maintained, especially as it struggles to keep up with rapid population growth.
Buses Main article: CityTrain Rail Main articles CityCat /
Cityferry CityCat and CityFerry Two major cab companies operate in Brisbane; Yellow Cabs (whose vehicles are painted orange), and Black and White Cabs. Both companies offer same rate service (regulated by the government and Taxi Council) and pickup from anywhere in the metropolitan and regional areas of Brisbane via bookings or permanent
cab ranks. As well as standard taxis, both provide
Maxi-Taxis, designed to fit up to 10 people as well as disability access, as well as luxury vehicles (Silver Service for Yellow, Business Class for Black and White). All cabs now are also fitted with
GPS for driver location and
EFTPOS debit/credit card facilities.
Taxis See also Road routes in Brisbane. Brisbane's road system was planned around large, spacious suburban areas. Dense suburbs now rely on several main road corridors that split through and between these areas and provide the only link to the CBD and other areas of Brisbane. Logan Road, Moggill Road, Old Cleveland Road and Gympie Road are but a few of these multi-lane corridors that come out of the CBD and snake through the suburbs. As a result,
traffic congestion has become a major problem and it was the promise of a new underground road system, nicknamed
TransApex, that helped current
Lord Mayor Campbell Newman to win the 2004 local government election.
Bypasses such as the very successful
Inner City Bypass, the future
Airport Link and
North-South Bypass Tunnel (NSBT) are intended to help to circulate traffic away from the inner-city areas and main roads via limited-access roads above the ground, and tunnels below that have higher speed limits and exits to particular suburbs. Existing high speed cross-suburban motorways such as the
Western Freeway,
Centenary Freeway,
Pacific Motorway and
Gateway Motorway provide alternative routes to main roads and connect up to main highways and other arterial roads. Other tunnels are also being planned to link all the various motorways in Brisbane together as part of
TransApex, but only two have been scheduled for completion within the next decade.
In total, the twisting
Brisbane River is crossed by seven road bridges, three railway bridges, one pedestrian bridge and a dedicated bus, cycle and pedestrain bridge. Route signage is achieved by means of a system of
Metroads, consisting of the most important arterial roads in metropolitan Brisbane including most motorways, and less important
State Routes. Multiple freeways connect Brisbane to other cities, including the
Pacific Motorway, the
Bruce Highway and the
Ipswich Motorway, all of which are part of the
National Highway System. Brisbane is approximately 1000kms away from
Sydney, the closest major capital city.
Roads Brisbane Airport, owned by the
Brisbane Airport Corporation Limited and located north-east of the city, is the biggest airport in Australia in terms of land size. Brisbane Airport has recently become the second busiest in the country (in tourist numbers only), overtaking Melbourne. Separated into domestic and international terminals, Brisbane Airport has frequent passenger and freight flights, providing direct flights to every capital city in
Australia as well as most destinations in
Asia,
Oceania, and the
Middle East. The second largest airline in Australia,
Virgin Blue Airlines, is headquartered in Brisbane, while other major airlines
Qantas and
Jetstar both fly from
Brisbane Airport.
The
Airtrain provides a link between the Domestic and International Terminals at
Brisbane Airport and the city, taking approximately 20 minutes to travel from
Central Station to the
Brisbane Airport stations.
A $58 million dollar Direct Factory Outlet (DFO) shopping mall has opened at Brisbane Airport providing shopping within a kilometre of the terminals. The location of the shopping mall, on the only road leading to
Brisbane Airport, has been a source of irritation to both airline passengers and discount shoppers alike, with complaints that the resultant heavy traffic, being shared between the two, is causing major traffic delays. According to a letter in the "Courier-Mail" newspaper, this has been especially detrimental for at least one airline passenger, because the traffic delay caused the passenger to be late "checking in" and this consequently caused the passenger to miss the flight that the passenger was booked on. A railway station in the area has been proposed and appears in
UBD street directories. Also recently the BAC have been enquiring about changing the laws so the airport can build a casino near the terminals. The state and federal govt have been quick to respond with a resounding 'no' on the topic.
Archerfield Airport is located in Brisbane's southern suburbs and used only by
light aircraft and
general aviation. Other local airports can be found at
Caboolture and
Redcliffe.
Future infrastructure Brisbane Transport CityCat CityTrain TransLink
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