Council announces plan for new Brisbane bus factory
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Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman says the Toowong bus depot will continue to operate even after a factory on the site has closed.
The Council announced yesterday a $18 million factory will be built at Eagle Farm in northern Brisbane with the capacity to build around 150 buses a year.
Toowong residents have been concerned about fumes from the site.
Councillor Newman says while the factory will go, the bus depot will stay.
"I see at this stage that we're going to need Toowong for the long term," he said.
"We see it as a very important bus depot.
"It has been cramped having not only the bus depot operation but also the bus build operation.
"This should give us the opportunity to deal with some of those crowding issues, but we intend to be operating a bus depot at Toowong for the longer term."
Brisbane Labor leader Shayne Sutton says the Council should buy as many buses as a new factory can build given the bus overcrowding crisis.
"My challenge to the Lord Mayor is that if we have a facility that can build 150 to 180 buses per year, he needs to provide the funding to build that many buses per year to help Council deal with the current bus overcrowding crisis," she said.
