Speech to Council Chambers, delivered by Councillor Seal Chong Wah on 3rd March 2026
I rise to speak on public transport through my Paddington Ward, Brisbane’s west and the proposed Metro Expansion.
Brisbane’s west needs better public transport, and the Metro business case is yet another missed opportunity. Brisbane’s westside isn’t included in this LNP Council’s ‘Metro Expansion Business Case’, and that will take us out till at least 2032. With business cases and construction taking this LNP council at least 6 years, that means no Metro out West until at least 2038, if EVER! The way this LNP Council operates.
The main roads to Brisbane’s west are extremely congested with car traffic. Musgrave and Waterworks Road, Coronation Drive, Milton Road, Kelvin Grove and Enoggera Road, and the roads that connect to them are all overwhelmed by cars that typically carry just one person. Council’s own data shows that over the last year, peak hour traffic averaged:
- 20kph on Coronation Drive
- 29kph on Milton Road and Kelvin Grove and Enoggera Road
- 25kph on Musgrave and Waterworks Road
- and just 18kph on Moggill Road connecting to Coronation Drive.
The first problem is the lack of high-frequency bus routes. Neither Milton nor Musgrave Road have buses that run every 15 minutes. Upgrading the frequencies of the 470 along Milton Road, and the 380 along Musgrave Road, are so crucial to the westside.
The second problem is that, when people do catch the bus along these main roads, they experience the worst of congestion, because buses aren’t separated from other traffic. Bus passengers don’t know when their bus will show up. The bus gets caught in traffic congestion, made even slower by stopping along the way.
This LNP Council has got absolutely NO plans for a metro expansion, or any better public transport, in Brisbane’s west. That’s despite calls from thousands of residents, Councillors, and even Councillor Adermann, through the chair, who said in this chamber in reference to the current ‘Metro Expansion Business Case’, and I quote, “I will be advocating strongly for a western route to be considered as part of any future expansion”.
Sadly this administration never listens. Even worse, ALL bus priority on Coronation Drive was actually removed by THIS LNP administration. When former Lord Mayor Campbell Newman removed bus and transit lanes from Coronation Drive, the buses carried a third of people moving along the road, despite being only one twentieth of vehicles. Metro buses, or even regular buses, on dedicated lanes, can carry thousands more people than a normal lane of traffic.
These are simple problems: we need high-frequency bus service on every main road, and we need to prioritise the buses. This means, at a minimum, making the 380 along Musgrave and Waterworks Road, and the 470 along Milton Road, high-frequency services. This should also mean considering a Metro to Brisbane’s West. And most importantly, this also means providing bus and transit lanes, so that buses are fast and reliable.
The State Government’s ‘Connecting SEQ 2031’ plan, written 15 years ago, showed plans for transit or bus lanes and high frequency buses along Kelvin Grove and Enoggera Road, Musgrave Road and Waterworks Road, Coronation Drive, and Moggill Road out to Kenmore.
Let me say that again: this Council and various State governments, have sat on plans for frequent, reliable, prioritised buses and dedicated bus lanes in Brisbane’s west for 15 YEARS. Now we have the 10th worst traffic congestion in the world!
Every LNP Councillor in these chambers experiences the horrible congestion in this city, and they have the power and decades worth of existing plans to fix this.
We cannot let Brisbane’s west community stay stuck in traffic.