Major track closures spark hours-long delays, massive queues across Brisbane
Commuters north of Brisbane are facing major disruption after road closures led to long queues and long waits for replacement buses.
Photos taken at Northgate station show passengers lining up hundreds of meters next to Northgate train station as they waited for buses into the city on Monday.
The Courier Mail reported that some people had been waiting for the bus for about 45 minutes.
TransLink has warned there will be major line closures across the city throughout April as work is carried out to improve southeast Queensland’s rail network.
The Tube service said buses will replace trains at Northgate, Bowen Hills, Varsity Lakes and Boggo Road by Wednesday.
“Some journeys may take much longer than usual,” a TransLink spokesperson said.
“Please consider your travel options, plan ahead and allow extra travel time.”
Thomson Coachlines was contracted to add more bus services during the outage and extra drivers and buses were brought in from Melbourne, Goondiwindi, Gympie and the Sunshine Coast to meet demand.
Commuter Joanne McCarthy told the ABC her normal one-hour commute takes more than two hours.
“There was no bus waiting for us there,” he said.
“We had no communication about what happened.
“I was thinking of jumping in an Uber, but you couldn’t even make it to the front of the line to get down the stairs to get in the Uber.”
Queensland Railways has advised passengers to expect delays after industrial action over Easter resulted in network-wide line closures being extended until April 30.
Queensland Railways general manager Kat Stapleton said rail replacement buses would continue to operate during the closures to keep people moving.
“To help customers complete their journeys, rail replacement buses will continue to operate as frequently as possible until the extended closure, alongside regular bus services,” he said.
“Due to the extended closure period, rail replacement buses will need to be allocated to multiple closure areas, so some services may operate at a lower frequency.”
