High population growth suburb North Lakes on Brisbane’s northern fringe gets its first bus service in a major TransLink revamp of services
By David Goeldner| September 30, 2010
After a decade-long wait, North Lakes on Brisbane’s northern fringe will get its first bus service as part of a major revamp of services operated by Hornibrook Bus Lines.
“North Lakes has had a limited bus service for a number of years,” Hornibrook Bus Lines’ Operations Supervisor Martin Hall says.
“It’s been about ten years since the housing scheme went in and now we will have a circular local route – clockwise and anticlockwise seven days a week.”
Hall says Hornibrook had been negotiating on the proposed changes since early in 2010.
“We’ve worked closely with TransLink network planners to achieve what we think is a good temporary fix for this rapidly growing area,” says Hall.
The changes are significant, requiring four new low floor TransLink-funded Volgren-bodied Scania K230s to help service the 143 new bus services on seven new routes taking effect from Monday 18 October.
The low floors arrived mid-September and have since been decked out in Hornibrook livery with TransLink signage ready to start.
Hall says expanded services and re-constituted routes means new infrastructure needs to be installed before the start date, including installation of 40 new bus stops.
“This has been looked at for the last couple of years and this is what we’ve gone with on TransLink’s recommendation – and it’s a huge process,” he says.
Transport Minister Rachel Nolan says the package would service a region experiencing rapid residential and commercial growth.
“The new services allow us to meet the travel needs of customers in the northern region who take about 2.3 million trips on Hornibrook buses and more than 5 million trips on trains on the Caboolture line each year,” says Nolan.
“The services will take almost 6,000 cars off roads around Redcliffe, North Lakes, Mango Hill and Petrie each week and see buses operate in areas of North Lakes and Kallangur for the first time.”
Nolan adds the package will deliver increased services, more direct routes, improved on-time running and better bus-rail connections during peak times.