Brisbane’s Lord Mayor has defended Translink over claims its services are unreliable. Graham Quirk’s comments came as the city’s bus service celebrated ninety years.

Maddison Keenan reports.

TRANSCRIPT

These are normal modern day buses but they carry images of days gone by.

Graham Quirk, Brisbane Lord Mayor: “We are celebrating that with the branding of four buses which will reflect on some of that rich history.”

The peel back designs mirror the look of Brisbane’s nineteen eighties Cityxpress and sixties Panther-style buses.

From the first bus starting service nine decades ago, the Brisbane bus fleet has become one of the largest in the country.

But commuters aren’t happy. Translink’s Q4 tracker found more than 12 percent of buses run late.

And fares aren’t in line with other states.

Vox: They could adopt a system like they have in Sydney where pensioners only pay $2.5 to travel all day.

But the Lord Mayor is optimistic about the future.

Graham Quirk, Brisbane Lord Mayor: “We’ve got to work on continually modernising, not only the bus fleet and other forms of transport, also the infrastructure that goes with it.”

And he wants the public to give input into the proposed one point five billion dollar Metro Link.

Maddison Keenan, QUT News.