The Brisbane bus route that had a 190 per cent surge in passengers

The equivalent of 3.9 million private car trips may have been redirected from Brisbane’s roads, according to the council, after a 10 per cent surge in bus trips.

That estimate was based on an average of 1.2 people per vehicle.

More than 51.2 million council bus and Metro trips were taken in Brisbane in the first seven months since the network shake-up in mid-2025.

That was a 10 per cent increase compared with the same seven months the previous year.

Brisbane bus trips have increased by 27 per cent since the beginning of 2024, the council said.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner described the rise as a “huge success”.

“Every extra person on a bus or Metro is one less person in a car in peak-hour traffic, which means less congestion, safer roads and shorter travel times for everyone,” he said.

“If we stop investing in reliable public transport, people will return to their cars, congestion will grow and everyone pays a price.”

During the first seven months of the new network, the route with the biggest surge in patronage – 190 per cent – was the 107, which was realigned to become an all-day service operating between Yeerongpilly and the city via the Boggo Road busway station and South Bank.

The 171, which has a new alignment travelling through Mount Gravatt with increased frequency and extra hours, had a 115 per cent patronage increase.

The 205 from Carindale Heights, which changed from a peak-only service to all day, had a 97 per cent increase in patronage.

The 131 from Parkinson, which merged with route P129, and the 185 from Upper Mount Gravatt, which merged with route 184, both had a 64 per cent increase in patronage.

The 116, which had its route changed and extended to Upper Mount Gravatt, had a 47 per cent increase.