‘Worst and scariest experience’: Riverfire spectators complain of crowd crushes, huge transport delays

1 week ago 3

Riverfire spectators say they endured frightening and dangerous crowd crushes and hours-long delays as they travelled home on public transport after the annual air force and fireworks display on Saturday night.

Others abandoned their efforts to get into the city to watch the event as they could not get on already-full buses and trains.

More than half a million people converged on prime vantage points in the CBD, South Bank, Kangaroo Point, Howard Smith Wharves and Wilsons Outlook to watch the fireworks, which marked the start of the Brisbane Festival.

The public transport debacle raised questions about the effectiveness of the new Metro bus services and how Brisbane would move people around the major events at the 2032 Olympic Games.

Some who made it into the inner city questioned why better crowd control measures and more road closures were not in place to help tens of thousands of spectators get to the South Bank and South Brisbane train stations and the Mater Hill and Cultural Centre busway stations.

“Journey home via train was terrible,” wrote one Brisbane Times reader, who waited 2½ hours to get a train home from South Bank.

“Why isn’t Grey Street closed and part of Vulture Street closed? Charter buses to suburbs and other train stations could be set up.

“Instead, the car-centric Brisbane City Council seem reluctant to ever impact drivers, with tens of thousands of pedestrians relegated to the footpath, while allowing four lanes of cars to flow.”

One woman said she and her family waited 20 minutes after the fireworks to allow crowds to thin before heading to Central Station, rather than battling the hordes outside South Brisbane station.

“When we got down on the platform, an announcement said there would be plenty of room on the next train. How wrong they were, it was absolutely packed,” she said.

“We had four young children with us and I was genuinely scared for them as they could not move ... It took ages for the train to move as more and more people were trying to pile on.

“It was the worst and scariest public transport experience I have had.”

Another Brisbane Times reader detailed their ordeal trying to get into the city, saying they planned to catch their local 120 bus from Tarragindi about 3.45pm.

“Two [buses] went straight past us because they were ‘full’. Went down to the Greenslopes busway to try and get the Metro in. Small crowd of disgruntled people immediately indicated it wasn’t going to be much better.

“The one Metro that came while we were there was ‘set down only’. What’s the point of having the Metro if it’s full so early in the day on one of Brisbane’s biggest events?

“Gave up on public transport and drove in and parked at QUT to watch the jets and the fireworks from the [Botanic] Gardens.

“When leaving had to wait 1.5 hours in a queue to exit the car park because of the terrible congestion out of the university through the Gardens Point Road/William Street intersection.

“Traffic control absolutely should have been in place to sort that mess out … Won’t be doing it again any time soon.”

Prior to the event, Translink head Dr Deborah Hume said extra trains, buses and ferries would operate across the network to make travelling to and from vantage points along the Brisbane River “easy and efficient”. Public transport services were also free after the event.

“Catching public transport is absolutely the key to a hassle-free Riverfire, with extra services springing into action across the network,” Hume said.

“We want people to have a good time, but we also want travellers to be patient as large crowds depart from Riverfire as well.”

Comment is being sought from Translink, Queensland Rail and Brisbane Festival organisers.

Despite the public transport issues, police praised the crowd behaviour, with only 11 people arrested for public nuisance offences and a minor driving offence. Four people were issued with move-on orders.

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