POPULAR WORDS

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has turned the first sod on the next stage of the Eastern Busway eight days after the first stage opened for business.

The 1.05 km Eastern Busway project will connect the existing South East Busway at Buranda with Coorparoo via Stones Corner and new busway stations will be built at Stones Corner and Langlands Park.

The section will cut up to nine minutes off bus trips through the most congested section of Old Cleveland Road, saving regular commuters from Coorparoo to Brisbane City nearly 1.5 hours in travel time per week, Bligh says.

It will bypass four sets of traffic lights and the heavily-congested Logan Road and O'Keefe Street roundabout at Buranda.

Eventually it will carry 7000 passengers in the morning peak.

On Monday last week (August 3) the opening of the Boggo Road Busway and stage one of the Eastern Busway and the Northern Busway added 3.3 km to the Brisbane network, bringing the total length of busways in the city to 24 km.

"We've already seen patronage grow by almost 50 percent in the past five years across southeast Queensland as the busway network has expanded to meet this challenge," Bligh says.

The section of busway between Buranda and Main Avenue is the next stage in what will ultimately become the 18-kilometre-long Eastern Busway.