Punters who attended Ed Sheeran‘s concert at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on Tuesday have been left fuming after Queensland Rail didn’t accommodate for the predictably huge traffic it would receive.
For some reason, Queensland Rail scheduled track maintenance on a night where 52,000 people would be watching the superstar perform at a concert (which was announced almost a year ago) and likely use public transport to get home as parking was severely restricted.
Caboolture, Redcliffe Peninsula, Sunshine Coast lines: From 9.30pm tonight, buses will replace trains between Northgate to Petrie as we carry out planned maintenance on the network. Please allow extra travel time: https://t.co/Raddmb4mI9
— Queensland Rail (@QueenslandRail) March 19, 2018
Naturally, this led to heaps of confusion and miscommunication which could’ve otherwise been avoided, and punters took to social media to vent their frustrations, with some claiming they were left waiting for up to three hours.
@TransLinkSEQ Can you explain to me why 12.24am 750 surfside bus didn't wait for passengers to come off the train from Brisbane that was 2 minutes late in early hours of morning? Their were few passengers on this train as we were coming home from Ed Sheeran Concert?
— Lesley Morgan ????? (@lesley_morgan25) March 21, 2018
While they did announce the planned works, #translink can’t even get a concert right, not much hope for #GC2018 #qldpol #auspol #QLDshame https://t.co/tGAcbvLyLn
— TheMathiesonEdition (@themathiesoned) March 20, 2018
Queensland Rail and TransLink have since apologised to affected passengers, but have also defended the track maintenance work.
“Details of the track closure were on the TransLink website from 5 February and concert details were posted on 28 February – advising customers to allow for up to 60 minutes of extra travel,” TransLink said in a statement to media.
“The maintenance involved essential works to overhead line equipment between Bald Hills and Petrie, and signalling maintenance between Northgate and Virginia. These maintenance works were vital to ensure the ongoing safety and reliability of the network.
“There were 17 buses operating express between Northgate and Petrie.”
Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran is scheduled to perform one more concert in Brisbane again tonight, before heading off to New Zealand.
