North-west Brisbane transport woes could be solved by tunnel, bus network, study shows

Anyone that has been driving around Brisbane’s northside over the past few year will recognise that the volume of traffic on our roads is increasing all the time.

We have seen some changes that have had a positive impact, like the Everton Park link road from Stafford Rd to South Pine Rd.  Hasn’t that been a good move!

However the problem of increasing road user still exists and research by the Brisbane City Council identified:-

It found northern Brisbane’s annual congestion and public transport crowding was costing $312 million per year.

That would rise to $538.5m by 2031 and $859m by 2041.

The North West Transport Corridor has been set aside now for many years by the State government for a future main transport corridor.  It is set to run through the middle of Everton Park, McDowall and Bridgeman Downs.

Stretching from Carseldine to Alderley and including the Chermside Hills Reserve, the land was a “significant biodiversity corridor” likely to contain a number of threatened species, the study observed.

The focus of the research looked at the option of building 2 tunnels as well as a dedicated bus network.

The first  tunnel stretching nearly 12 kilometres from Bald Hills to Kedron and costing at least $9.5.  The six-lane tunnel, which would connect with Airport Link, was part of the outcome of a $10 million federally-funded study undertaken over two years by Brisbane City Council.

The study found significant community opposition towards any surface road or rail development through the North West Transport Corridor, which had been reserved by the state government since the 1980s.

Bus network, another tunnel costed

The study also assessed building a complementary Bus Rapid Transport system along Gympie Road from the Northern Busway at Kedron to Aspley at a cost of between $758 million and $1.1 billion.

A longer-term option of extending the underground motorway with an 11 kilometre tunnel from McDowall to Toowong by 2041 was also considered.

That tunnel was costed at between $7.8 billion and $11.5 billion.  It is proposed that the tunnels will be tolled roads.

So what does all this mean for residents in the North West.  In the short term probably not much as these are such big proposals and will require significant levels of funding.  But the good thing is the right people are looking into solving the problem of our crowded roads, so hopefully things can get started before it is too late and we become totally jammed up.