The Northern Busway is a bus-only road running north from the

Brisbane central business district Brisbane City is the central suburb and central business district of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It is also colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD", "the city", or simply "town". The CBD is located on a point ...

to the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. The first section of the busway opened on 23 February 2004 with one station at QUT Kelvin Grove. In December 2005, Normanby and Herston stations opened. The Northern Busway extension opened in stages with the Herston to Windsor section opening in August 2009, and the Windsor to Kedron section opening in June 2012.

History

The first section of the Northern Busway, from the intersection of Roma Street to Herston, opened on 23 February 2004 with only one station, QUT Kelvin Grove. On 14 December 2005, two new stations, Normanby and Royal Children's Hospital Herston, were opened on the existing section. The second section of the Northern Busway, also known as the Inner Northern Busway, officially opened on 19 May 2008. This section connects the first section of the Northern Busway to the

South East Busway The South East Busway is a grade separated bus-only road running south from the Brisbane central business district to Springwood in Queensland, Australia. The busway was completed to Woolloongabba in September 2000, to Eight Mile Plains in ...

with stations at

King George Square King George Square is a town square, public square located between Adelaide Street, Brisbane, Adelaide Street and Ann Street, Brisbane, Ann Street (and between two sections of Albert Street, Brisbane, Albert Street) in Brisbane, Queensland, A ...

and Roma Street. To make room for the Inner Northern Busway, the lower floors of King George Square carpark were removed, and one rail platform at

Roma Street railway station Roma Street railway station is a commuter and long-distance passenger train station located in the Brisbane central business district, central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the junction station for the North Coast ...

was removed. In October 2007, an alliance of

Abigroup Abigroup was an Australian construction company. History Abigroup was established as Graham Evans & Co in 1957 as a civil engineering company within New South Wales, being renamed Abignano in 1961. In 1981 it was listed on the Australian Securit ...

and SMEC Holdings were selected to build the 1.2 kilometre

Royal Children's Hospital The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH), colloquially referred to as the Royal Children's, is a major children's hospital in Parkville, Victoria, Parkville, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Regarded as one of the great C ...

to Windsor section with a new station at Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital. This opened on 3 August 2009. On 18 June 2012, the Windsor to Kedron section opened.

Route

King George Square to Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital

The Northern Busway starts in a tunnel underneath Albert Street in the

adjacent to the Queen Street bus station, previously the terminus of the

. Many northbound services using the Northern Busway originate at the

Cultural Centre busway station Cultural Centre busway station is located in Brisbane, Australia serving the South Bank, Queensland, South Bank precinct. It is located directly south of Victoria Bridge, Brisbane, Victoria Bridge and close to South Brisbane railway station. T ...

on the South East Busway. It then proceeds north-west to the King George Square busway station, a large interchange with several stops on each of its two underground platforms. It then surfaces near

and follows the alignment of the main city train lines.

Roma Street busway station Roma Street busway station is located in Brisbane, Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state ...

is adjacent to the train platforms and is on the same level. Platform 2 is shared by both trains and buses, although the only train to currently use Platform 2 is

NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a regional train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and into Australian Capital Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria (state), Victoria, Queensland and South Australia ...

's daily XPT service to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. The busway then continues north alongside the Exhibition railway line and then north-east through the Victoria Park Golf Complex, with stations adjacent to the Normanby Fiveways, the

Queensland University of Technology The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point, Brisbane, Gardens Point ...

campus at Kelvin Grove and the

. The busway then turns left and on to a bridge structure alongside the

Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH) is a tertiary public hospital located in Herston, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeaste ...

precinct over Butterfield Street.

Windsor to Kedron

The three kilometre Windsor to Kedron section was built by a John Holland/ Thiess consortium opening on 18 June 2012. The route rejoins Lutwyche Road after crossing Enoggera Creek. The route travels via bus lanes and local bus stops until it reaches Truro Street, where it enters into a dedicated 1.5 kilometre underground busway tunnel. After passing through Lutwyche and Kedron Brook busway stations and crossing

Kedron Brook The Kedron Brook is a creek that flows through the northern suburbs of Brisbane in the South East Queensland, south-east region of Queensland, Australia. Course and features Kedron Brook arises from the confluence of Kedron Creek and Cedar Cree ...

, the route rejoins Lutwyche Road at Stafford Road (southbound/inbound) and Sadlier Street (northbound/outbound).

Future extension

The final stage of the busway is planned to be built from Kedron to Bracken Ridge. A series of draft alignments in order to identify the corridor for preservation have been released, however no final route has been selected. Provisions for this extension were pre-built at the Kedron Portal of the Busway. The Newman Government had indicated an intention to revisit the alignment for this project. Their primary points of departure from the policy of the previous government were a preference not to build the full busway option, nor to take the busway all the way to The Prince Charles Hospital. These changes were predicated on the perceived high expense of the previously published preferred options. The Newman government's stated preference was for bus or transit lane level priority along the highly congested Gympie Road corridor. In August 2024, it was announced Brisbane Metro would be extended using Northern Transitway as well as a new busway tunnel as part of a new Gympie Road bypass tunnel would be built north of Chermside and the existing Northern busway between RBWH and Kedron Brook bus stations would be used for a Metro extension on the Northside of Brisbane, completing the Northern Busway.

Services

All services on the busway are operated by Transport for Brisbane.

References

External links

{{Navbox TransLink (SEQ) bus network Bus rapid transit in Australia Busways Public transport in Brisbane Transport infrastructure completed in 2004 2004 establishments in Australia