The CityCats will soon be stopping at Holman Street as Brisbane City Council works to reinstate all Cross River and City Hopper Ferry services as soon as possible.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said Brisbane residents had been extremely patient and understanding during the service disruptions and he was pleased to be able to offer an interim measures while the urgent safety review of the small timber ferries continued.
“Just over a week ago we removed all nine ferries from service to undergo maintenance inspections and that work is still ongoing.
“I have requested Transdev to temporarily add the Holman Street terminal to the standard CityCat service route as soon as possible. Due to the addition of a 19th stop to the existing CityCat timetable, passengers can expect minor delays.
“While Holman Street is not usually used as a CityCat stop we are fortunate in this circumstance that it is designed in a way that can cater for the larger CityCat vessels, which is a huge win in this unexpected circumstance.”
Cr Schrinner praised residents’ resilience to the unplanned service change and reassured them Council was doing all it could to reinstate more services as soon as possible.
“Thank you to all ferry users for their support over the past week and for being incredibly adaptable and understanding to the situation with changed services,” he said.
“The people of Brisbane have taken this issue in their stride, and they understand that my team and I had to put safety first, even though it has caused some disruption.
“It is great progress that we have been able to get one service reinstated already and Council is now working to reinstate more services.
“All of the Cross River and City Hoppers services will be back again, and our position remains that we want to see this as soon as possible, but we will make no compromise on safety,” he said.
“In the meantime, we continue the important process of reviewing these vessels and getting these services back up and running as soon as possible.
“I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience, but these ferries date back to 1984, and I want to know these vessels are safe before they return to the water and carry passengers.”
TRANSPORT ALTERNATIVES
KANGAROO POINT + EAGLE STREET PIER + THORNTON STREET
Free Shuttle Bus [Route 27] continues to run between Baildon Street, near Story Bridge Hotel and Eagle Street stop 152 at Riverside Centre. This shuttle runs every 20 minutes between 5.50am and 11.50pm seven days a week with the trip taking about 12 minutes.
Existing bus route 234 services near Holman Street and Thornton Street.
BULIMBA + TENERIFFE
This Cross-River service will be first to be reinstated, which Council hopes to have in place by early next week.
Currently, both terminals serviced by scheduled CityCat services
Bus 230, P231,232 services Bulimba to the City and Valley
CITY HOPPER
Holman Street will be added to the existing CityCat route, which we aim to commence as soon as possible.
Holman Street, Thornton Street and Dockside are serviced by the existing 234 service nearby.
South Bank 3 customers are encouraged to use bus services from the South Bank Busway
Maritime Museum customers are encouraged to use bus services from the Mater Hill Busway.
Existing CityCat services connect North Quay and South Bank.
NORMAN PARK + NEW FARM
Existing bus routes 227, 230,232,235 P228 are available near Norman Park terminal and travel to the city where you can transfer to service 196 to travel to New Farm.
BACKGROUND:
The small timber cross river ferry fleet of eight, built between 1984 and 1993, were commissioned as ferry service vessels on the Brisbane River, before the first CityCats came into service in 1996.
The first Brisbane ferry service started in 1844. Brisbane City Council began managing ferry services in 1925.
There are now 21 standard and one next-generation double-decker CityCats in service and another eight to be delivered over the next four years.