Recent changes to Brisbane’s bus network are causing frustration and confusion for locals. Commuters travelling to and from the CBD have reached out to my office to let me know how it’s impacted their movements.

We’ve also spoken with people at various bus stops to allow them to share their experiences with me directly.

What we’re hearing is that people are spending longer on the bus each day, having to make more changes than before, and some are even having to walk further to a bus stop because their local stop has been removed.

Worst of all is that a concerning number of commuters were not aware of the changes until they came into effect in June. You can see all the changes here.

The changes have come with the roll-out of the Brisbane Metro, a high-frequency, high-capacity bus rapid transit (BRT) service.

The Metro has two lines, with one running from Eight Mile Plains to Kedron (M1), and another running from UQ in St Lucia to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Herston (M2).

While the rationale of the Metro is sound, the execution – watered down and mismanaged by the Brisbane City Council and the LNP State Government in partnership – has seemingly created more problems than it’s solved.

The way a BRT is meant to work is by having smaller ‘feeder’ lines that terminate at the the main lines, which for Brisbane’s Metro is M1 or M2.

Once at the main line, services are so frequent that commuters don’t need to a timetable; they just jump on a high-capacity bus and go.

With a well-planned BRT, bus services in outer suburbs wouldn’t have to travel to and from the city and could instead focus on feeding commuters into the Metro, resulting in higher bus frequency for these outer suburban areas as well.

With this system, those travelling to or from the city would only have to make a maximum of one change, and with fewer buses travelling directly to the city it would greatly reduce the bus congestion on the Victoria Bridge.

Instead, the LNP’s Metro combines the worst aspects of a direct line network with a Metro, where some direct routes have been kept, meaning small buses are running alongside high-capacity buses on the M1 and M2 lines for long periods.

Additionally, some services have been merged, while others have been scrapped all together.

A Metro is supposed to make public transport simpler for commuters, but the Brisbane Metro has actually made things more difficult and confusing for many.

If you’ve been negatively impacted by the recent changes and poor communication from the Council, please take our survey and share your experiences here.