South Bank to West End: how Brisbane's riverside commute is being redesigned

Brisbane's South Bank precinct handles roughly 18,000 daily commuters, but the way they move through the neighbourhood is shifting dramatically. The completion of the second stage of the Kurilpa Bridge pedestrian overpass in June has rerouted foot traffic away from congested street-level crossings, while council planners are fast-tracking improvements to cycle lanes that connect South Bank directly to West End—a route that didn't exist five years ago.

The changes matter because South Bank has become a genuine employment hub. The Queensland Museum, QUT's campus, and dozens of creative industries offices now employ more people than the CBD did a decade ago. Yet the infrastructure designed to move them around the neighbourhood was built for tourists and weekend visitors, not daily flow. That mismatch is finally being corrected.

The Kurilpa Bridge expansion opened to pedestrians in late 2023, but the second stage—dedicated cycle lanes and improved lighting between the bridge and Grey Street—only became fully operational last month. Transport planner feedback showed the original design created bottlenecks where cyclists and walkers competed for space. The new setup segregates them entirely, with a 2.8-metre cycle track running parallel to the pedestrian path. Early counts suggest cycle commuting on this route has jumped 34 percent since the upgrade.

The West End connection changes the calculus

What's genuinely new is the West End angle. Until 2021, getting from South Bank to West End by bike or foot meant navigating Southbank Parkway—a hostile six-lane arterial where most commuters simply caught a bus or drove. The council launched a pilot in March 2024 for a protected cycle corridor down Merivale Street, which connects the two neighbourhoods in roughly eight minutes by bike. It was supposed to be temporary. Last month, council voted to make it permanent and extend it another 400 metres toward the Toowong shopping precinct.

Merivale Street now handles about 380 cyclists per day during peak hours—triple the pre-2024 figure. That sounds modest until you factor in the housing boom happening on both sides. South Bank's apartment towers have added roughly 4,200 residents since 2020. West End has absorbed another 2,100. Neither neighbourhood has adequate car parking for all of them. The Merivale corridor essentially gave workers a viable alternative to sitting in traffic.

TransLink data released in April showed that bus usage on the Kurilpa Bridge routes fell 8 percent year-on-year, but that's misleading. The absolute number of people moving through the area increased because more cyclists and walkers are using the space. The shift suggests commuters aren't abandoning public transport entirely—they're combining it with active transport.

What commuters should know

If you're planning to change your commute, the window is now. QUT is opening a new cycle parking facility at the Kelvin Grove campus entrance in August with 400 lockers. The South Bank station (the train, not the precinct) forecourt is being rebuilt for September completion, with better bike racks and a new waiting area separated from bus zones.

The cycle route extensions don't stop at West End. Council is currently in consultation phase for a protected lane along Alice Street, which would eventually link South Bank to the CBD. That's not happening until 2028 at earliest, but it explains why transport planners are suddenly moving fast on Merivale.

The real question isn't whether these changes work—the data already suggests they do. It's whether Brisbane can build the rest of the network fast enough to handle the people moving in. Twelve thousand more residents are expected in South Bank and West End by 2030. The bridges and bike lanes are getting there. Now council needs to keep pace.