Opposition councillors say Brisbane City Council's proposed bus network overhaul is a "missed opportunity" to address gaps in the suburban service as dozens of routes are redrawn.
On Monday the council published its draft bus network review, proposing to cut some services, combine or split others, and place the upcoming Metro services at the core of the new network.
The draft proposal has not yet provided route timetables or new bus stops, while the council seeks further feedback from the community.
Twenty-one routes will have no changes under the proposed review, while two services will be cut due to low patronage, three new routes added, and dozens rerouted or combined.
One new route will travel from Acacia Ridge in Brisbane's south through to the CBD on weekdays, and another will connect Upper Mt Gravatt station and Holland Park West station.
A third new route will travel between Mount Gravatt and the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH), either through Fortitude Valley or Spring Hill.
None of the 10 routes with the lowest patronage have been amended or removed under the proposed changes, but peak-hour routes 145 and P151 will be scrapped due to low patronage.
'Huge' changes
Labor opposition leader Jared Cassidy said residents needed a guarantee that suburban routes would not be adversely impacted under the proposed changes.
"The people in our suburbs need to be guaranteed that they will not face an upheaval in their daily commute," he said.
"Brisbane ratepayers depend on their public transport, so scrapping a route here or scaling it down does have a direct impact on people who rely on public transport."
Independent councillor Nicole Johnston said she believed the council had all but completed the review before the first round of community consultation was announced in July.
"There are huge changes to long-standing local, suburban bus routes and no new timetabling info," she said.
"It's only half the picture and means residents will be in the dark about how often these proposed services will run."
Some of the city's busiest routes, including route 66 connecting the University of Queensland to QUT at Kelvin Grove and the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, will be superseded by the main Metro lines along the existing busway.
Greens councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan said the draft proposal appeared to be a "missed opportunity that fails to address many of the major operating hours and coverage gaps in the current network".
"Even high-demand inner-city routes like the 192 still won't operate on weeknights or weekends and aren't seeing any increase in frequency," he said.
"It seems that because the state government isn't increasing the overall funding for public transport, most services across Brisbane aren't getting any improvements at all, and the council is mostly making minor changes."
The council's transport spokesman Ryan Murphy said the proposed changes would give "high frequency services to more streets, introduce new routes and deliver more reliable services from the suburbs to the city".
"The improvements being delivered through the Brisbane Metro will help to significantly ease bottlenecks in the current network and prevent future problems as we grow," he said.
The new network will be finalised before 2024 when the Brisbane Metro vehicles begin operating along the city's busways.
