Commuters travelling through Northgate and surrounding suburbs faced a miserable morning rush on Monday, 13 April, left waiting on crowded platforms with queues at some stations stretching onto rail bridges as Brisbane’s rail replacement bus services struggled to keep pace with demand.
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Buses replaced trains on two key corridors: between Northgate and Bowen Hills in the city’s north, and between Boggo Road and Varsity Lakes on the Gold Coast line. The disruptions are part of a sweeping series of track closures that have been running across the Brisbane rail network from 3 April and are now extended through to 30 April.
At Geebung station, queues of well over a hundred people formed on the platform and stretched beyond the station itself, with commuters waiting upwards of 45 minutes in the heat and receiving little to no information about when the next bus would arrive. At Eagle Junction, passengers waited around 40 minutes for city-bound buses while multiple services headed to Helensvale stopped and departed with just a handful of passengers aboard.
The scenes drew sharp criticism from commuters and transport advocates alike, with many venting their frustration at the lack of buses and the absence of real-time information.
Imogen Buckley, founder of the South East Queensland Transport Association, said the disruptions were being compounded by the ongoing fuel crisis, which had placed additional strain on the replacement bus fleet.
While acknowledging that track closures were a necessary part of upgrading ageing rail infrastructure, she said the sight of commuters queuing onto station bridges was an embarrassment that undermined public confidence in the network. Buckley called for more frequent bus services during closures and argued that investing in better infrastructure was the long-term fix needed to reduce the frequency and length of such disruptions.
A spokesperson for Transport and Main Roads (TMR) said the department had been monitoring service levels and was actively looking at ways to boost capacity where demand was highest, including sourcing hundreds of bus drivers from interstate. However, TMR also pointed to protected industrial action by unions over Easter as a key factor in the chaos, saying critical works had not been completed as planned, leading to longer than normal queues at rail replacement stops.
April Track Closures
According to Translink, the closures affecting Northgate and Bowen Hills will run until Wednesday 15 April. From Thursday 16 April, buses will continue to replace trains between Varsity Lakes and Boggo Road, while the Northgate corridor is expected to reopen.
The disruptions are far from over. From 20 April through to 30 April, the Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines will operate as a combined service between Varsity Lakes and Banoon, with no trains running between Banoon and Boggo Road. The Doomben line will continue running between Doomben and Eagle Junction throughout April.
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Translink says the closures are necessary to support a range of major infrastructure projects, including Cross River Rail, the Beerburrum to Nambour Rail Upgrade, the European Train Control System, and the Logan and Gold Coast Faster Rail project, works it describes as part of a once-in-a-generation transformation of South East Queensland’s rail network. Translink is urging commuters to plan ahead, allow extra travel time, and check the journey planner regularly, as services are expected to continue changing throughout the month.
Published 14-April-2026
