‘I’ve been drowned and baked’: Suzanne lost her bus shelter a year ago. She’s still fighting to get it back
Suzanne Swan has been fighting to get a bus shelter installed on a Brisbane city street for more than a year – and now the council says it needs to bring in a crane just to set up a temporary structure.
Shelters at bus stop 103 on William Street were removed and not returned when Brisbane City Council overhauled its bus network in mid-2025.
The stop was moved less than 100 metres away on William Street. But the marker was erected without a shelter or seat.
Translink’s public transport infrastructure guidelines recommend bus shelters with seats in busy areas.
Stops with just a pole marker are usually used for low-frequency routes with low passenger demand for boarding, such as outbound stops in the outer suburbs.
Stop 103 is used by six routes – 301, 306, 309, 320, 322 and 50 – with buses stopping there every few minutes.
Swan does not have a car and uses public transport for all her activities, frequently travelling into the city.
When she contacted it about the shadeless, seatless stop 103 in August last year, the council said it supported having a bus shelter there.
But after following up, and a letter from council Labor leader Jared Cassidy, Swan was told in May 2026 the Treasury Building next to the 103 bus stop was heritage-listed, which meant changes required approval from the State Heritage authority.
The council promised a temporary shade solution would be installed by the end of July.
However, on August 24, the council told Swan installing the temporary shelter would involve lifting in concrete blocks by crane, road closures and permits, so the installation was delayed.
The council said installation would be co-ordinated with construction on the opposite side of William Street to minimise disruptions to bus users, pedestrians and other road users.
“I understand how frustrating it has been to continue waiting for a suitable shelter solution particularly when shade and seating can make a significant difference for customers travelling during warmer weather,” the council’s chief executive Kerrie Freeman wrote in a letter to Swan.
The temporary shelter is now due to be finished by the end of November, and the council is continuing to investigate options for a permanent shelter.
“While the temporary shelter can be installed within the site’s existing constraints, a permanent shelter would require changes to the footpath that are not feasible at this location,” Freeman said.
“As a result, a permanent shelter and seating cannot be installed at this time.”
Swan said her bus no longer stopped at the Cultural Centre under the new timetable, which meant she could not walk over the Victoria Bridge to South Bank to wait there on a seat under shelter.
“When it’s hot, you’re baked in the boiling sun, when it’s raining, there is nowhere within any distance at all that you can shelter,” she said.
“I’ve been drowned and baked.”
Swan said it did not make sense to take away the old shelters and create a new stop nearby.
“Why wouldn’t you move one of those seats and shelters to overcome the problem?” she asked.
“We’re not talking about the Taj Mahal here – it’s a bus shelter and a seat.”
She dismissed concerns about interfering with the heritage value of the Treasury Building, noting there was a permanent bus shelter with a seat on the other side of it, on George Street.
A council spokeswoman said stop 103 was set up as a temporary stop during Metro construction, with temporary shelters, and was no longer needed after bus services moved in September 2024, so the shelters were removed.
“Stop 103 became permanent following the implementation of Brisbane’s new bus network, and we’ve been working on the best way to provide shade at this location,” she said.
The spokeswoman said it was a challenging location because of the heritage setting, limited footpath space and a cellar beneath the footpath, and therefore a permanent shelter could not be safely installed.
“A temporary shelter gives passengers shade while working within those constraints,” she said.
Labor’s Cassidy said it was unsurprising to hear the LNP council was “giving the runaround” to someone asking for something as simple as a bus shelter and seat.
“If the LNP can’t even provide the basics in the city, what hope do residents in the suburbs have for basic bus stop infrastructure?” he said.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
More:
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.