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The busway commute to the Brisbane CBD

The South East Busway is Brisbane’s spine for public transport — a dedicated bus-only road from Eight Mile Plains to the city, now run end to end by Brisbane Metro Line 1 (M1). This is the scheduled travel time to the CBD and how often services run, station by station, from the TransLink SEQ GTFS feed.

Your commute to the city

Pick a suburb to see its fastest scheduled trip to the Brisbane CBD — the route to catch and how often it runs.

Any Greater Brisbane suburb with a scheduled trip to the CBD

Every busway station

TransLink SEQ GTFS

Scheduled in-vehicle time to the CBD anchor for that busway, and the gap between city-bound services in the morning peak (7–9am) and off-peak (10am–3pm). Brisbane Metro frequency is the M1/M2 gap on its own.

South East Busway

StationTo CBDPeakOff-peakMetroRoutes
Cultural Centre~3 minevery ~1 minevery ~1 minevery ~2 minMetro M1, Metro M2, 61, 100, 120, 130, 140, 150, 180, 200, 222, 333, 444
South Bank~3 minevery ~1 minevery ~1 minevery ~3 minMetro M1, Metro M2, 61, 100, 107, 116, 120, 130, 140, 150, 180, 200, 210, 212
Mater Hill~5 minevery ~1 minevery ~1 minevery ~3 minMetro M1, Metro M2, 61, 100, 107, 116, 120, 130, 140, 150, 180, 200, 210, 212
Buranda~8 minevery ~1 minevery ~2 minevery ~5 minMetro M1, 119, 120, 134, 180, 183, 205, 222, 555
PA Hospital~9 minevery ~5 minevery ~5 minevery ~5 minMetro M2, 107
Woolloongabba~9 minevery ~1 minevery ~2 min—61, 100, 200, 210, 212, 214, 215, 220, 230, 235, 333, 340
Boggo Road~10 minevery ~5 minevery ~5 minevery ~5 minMetro M2, 107
Greenslopes~10 minevery ~3 minevery ~5 minevery ~5 minMetro M1, 183, 555
Holland Park West~13 minevery ~5 minevery ~5 minevery ~5 minMetro M1, 555
Griffith University~14 minevery ~1 minevery ~2 minevery ~5 minMetro M1, 130, 134, 140, 150, 555
Eight Mile Plains~20 minevery ~4 minevery ~4 minevery ~5 minMetro M1, 555

Northern Busway

StationTo CBDPeakOff-peakMetroRoutes
Normanby~5 minevery ~1 minevery ~2 minevery ~5 minMetro M2, 325, 330, 331, 333, 340, 341, 345, 349, 351, 357, 359, 363, 390
QUT Kelvin Grove~7 minevery ~1 minevery ~3 minevery ~5 minMetro M2, 330, 331, 333, 340, 341, 349, 363, 426, 431, 443, 446, 455, 456
Herston~8 minevery ~1 minevery ~1 minevery ~5 minMetro M2, 330, 331, 333, 340, 341, 349, 363, 426, 431, 443, 446, 455, 456
RBWH~10 minevery ~1 minevery ~1 minevery ~5 minMetro M2, 330, 331, 333, 340, 341, 349, 363
Lutwyche~17 minevery ~4 minevery ~8 min—333, 340, 349
Kedron Brook~18 minevery ~4 minevery ~8 min—333, 340

Inner Busway

StationTo CBDPeakOff-peakMetroRoutes
Roma Street—————
Queen Street—————
King George Square—————

Timetable data © State of Queensland (Department of Transport and Main Roads, TransLink Division), used under CC BY 4.0. Scheduled in-vehicle times for a representative weekday, city-bound. “To CBD” is measured to Cultural Centre for the South East Busway and King George Square for the Northern Busway.

The busway network

Every station in the table above.

Map
Busway station · map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

How this is measured

The data. The TransLink “GTFS — SEQ” open dataset lists every scheduled trip in South East Queensland, Brisbane Metro included. We take a representative weekday and read the scheduled stop times at each busway station.

Travel time. The median, across city-bound trips, of the scheduled in-vehicle minutes from the station to its CBD anchor — Cultural Centre for the South East Busway, King George Square for the Northern Busway. It excludes the walk to the station, waiting on the platform and any transfer.

Frequency. The median gap between consecutive city-bound departures inside the 7–9am and 10am–3pm windows. The “Metro” column counts only M1/M2 departures.

These are timetabled figures. Real running times vary with traffic and roadworks, and TransLink adjusts the timetable a few times a year.

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Busway & Metro commute — common questions

What is Brisbane Metro Line 1 (M1)?
The M1 is the first of Brisbane City Council's two Brisbane Metro lines. It runs high-frequency electric articulated buses end to end along the South East Busway between Eight Mile Plains and Roma Street, calling at Griffith University, Holland Park West, Greenslopes, Buranda, Mater Hill, South Bank and Cultural Centre. It uses the same TransLink fares and go card as every other bus, and turns up often enough that there is no timetable to check.
How long does the busway take to the Brisbane CBD?
On the South East Busway, scheduled in-vehicle time to the Cultural Centre at the CBD edge is about 3 minutes from South Bank, 8 from Buranda, 13 from Holland Park West and about 20 from Eight Mile Plains. On the Northern Busway to King George Square it is about 5 minutes from Normanby, 8 from Herston and 10 from RBWH. Walking, waiting and any transfer are on top of that.
How often do busway services run in the morning peak?
Through the core South East Busway stations a city-bound bus or Metro passes every couple of minutes in the 7–9am peak once every route is counted. Brisbane Metro on its own runs roughly every 5 minutes per line in the peak, so where the M1 and M2 overlap — Mater Hill to Cultural Centre — there is a Metro every 2–3 minutes.
Which suburbs does the South East Busway serve?
The busway stations sit in and around Woolloongabba, South Brisbane, Dutton Park, Buranda, Coorparoo, Greenslopes, Holland Park, Tarragindi, Mount Gravatt, Nathan, Robertson, MacGregor and Eight Mile Plains, with park-and-ride at Eight Mile Plains and Griffith University drawing from further out. Each suburb profile shows its nearest station and the commute from it.
Where does this commute data come from?
From the TransLink "General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) — SEQ" open dataset on data.qld.gov.au, published by the Department of Transport and Main Roads under CC BY 4.0. We read the scheduled stop times at each busway station for a representative weekday and compute the median city-bound in-vehicle time and the gap between departures. Real running times vary with traffic.