Metro charging station to be built on Brisbane’s northside under LNP plan

Extra electric buses and a future stage 3 of the all-electric Brisbane Metro will expand into Brisbane’s northside, if Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s LNP team wins the March council elections.

Schrinner will on Sunday announce a new electric charging station built on council-owned land at Fitzgibbon, near Carseldine, allowing electric buses to be charged in six minutes.

Schrinner said the new five-hectare electric charging station was “essential” for expanding the future Brisbane Metro North service to Brisbane’s northside.

“It will also allow us to run fully electric, high-frequency Metro services into the northern suburbs from the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital,” he said.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says a new electric bus charging station near Fitzgibbon could radically change electric bus services on Brisbane’s northside.

“We see this as the catalyst to basically unlocking state of the art public transport through Brisbane’s north and easing congestion.”

Schrinner described the Fitzgibbon electric charging station on Brisbane’s northside as a “game changer”, able to store 60 Brisbane Metro electric mega-buses.

It would allow the electric buses to run on dedicated bus lanes on Gympie Road – now being built as the state government’s Northern Transitway – every five minutes in peak hours.

More than 700 bus services carry 9000 passengers each weekday along Gympie Road.

It could also make it easier for electric buses running through the state government’s proposed Gympie Road Bypass Tunnel between Kedron and Carseldine.

A third option would be to increase the proportion of electric buses running on Brisbane’s existing Northern busway, between the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and Kedron.

The state government has plans to extend the busway to Bracken Ridge.

The LNP’s planned northern charging station will “mirror” the $125 million Rochedale electric bus centre which charges the 60 Brisbane Metro electric megabuses on Brisbane’s southside.

Few planned projects have begun on Brisbane’s northside, prompting the hotly debated 2022 research by Brisbane City Council recommending underground roads, trains and buses for Brisbane’s northside.

The Queensland government rejected the report, but in June 2023 announced it would spend $35 million investigating a similar tunnel from Kedron to Carseldine, known as the Gympie Road Bypass Tunnel.

A report from the Gympie Road Bypass Tunnel investigation team – part of Queensland Investment Corporation – is due before the 2024-25 Queensland budget.

Documents obtained by Brisbane Times show some sections of Gympie Road are already congested and used by more than 150,000 vehicles each day, comparable with traffic on the M1.

Schrinner said he supports the new research into the Gympie Road Bypass tunnel.

“We’re confident we will be able to strike an agreement with the State Government where we deliver the [northern] depot, and they complete their transitway and busway plans,” Schrinner said.

“With all levels of government working together, we will be able to deliver Brisbane Metro services to the northern suburbs and relieve congestion.”

The LNP expects their plan will improve traffic in Herston, Lutwyche, Kedron, Chermside, Aspley and Carseldine.

Behind the scenes, Brisbane City Council, Redland City Council and the state government are working on extending the Brisbane Metro East, down Old Cleveland Road and finalising the Brisbane Metro connection at the Gabba.

“We also believe an airport and eastern route through to Carindale is important to improving Brisbane’s public transport system and reducing congestion in the future,” Schrinner said.

The background to the push towards electrifying Brisbane’s public transport are state government commitments towards zero-emission vehicles.

Queensland government in 2023 set a target of 50 per cent of new passenger vehicle sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2036.

Queensland Transport has also made a commitment that every new bus added to the south-east Queensland-based fleet would be zero-emissions from 2025.

However, only-quarter of 200 buses ordered by the Queensland government in September 2023 were “zero emissions”. The remainder are diesel with 80 per cent fewer emissions than current buses.

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