Could I live in Brisbane?
A love letter to my public transport experience alongside PyCon AU 2026.
So… there were two reasons I wanted to go to PyCon AU. One was the conference itself and the other was to get myself back to Brisbane. I enjoyed visiting Brisbane in 2025 for the first time after missing out in 2020 and to go back with a good reason was a great opportunity.
I wanted to explore as much as I could in a very compressed schedule to answer the question of “could I live here”? It’s appealing because it’s on the busy side of our country (looking from Perth) but I am very fond of my public transport ways.
The short answer is… maybe, but the story of the journey is the point. I’ll give a comparison to Perth here and where it can lift its game, or perhaps where it still is a winner.
The breadth of the network
I already knew from some of my favourite YouTubers that Queensland Rail would be excellent as it goes everywhere. Last year we drove around South East Queensland, this time I had no time for parking or hire car companies. It was never going to be possible to cover this breadth in less than three days, but – challenge accepted.
Upon arrival I very logically took the AirTrain. Yes, it is over-priced (and to be clear I wasn’t aware that the discount had ended until someone told me, because the discount had not ended elsewhere on the network) but it is convenient as it gently slips into the public network around Bowen Hills. It’s better (because it’s a train) than the Melbourne SkyBus that is around the same price, but Perth wins here because of our non-discriminatory pricing (it’s “just” another station, but boy is it a long walk). The sooner Brisbane can claw that investment back into public hands the better.
On my suburban mission I took the train to Ferny Grove and back, granting me the first revelation of Brisbane - y’all are so (quiet carriage or not) quiet on your trains, except for the drivers. At first I thought it was redundant having the human re-state the recorded messages, but I warmed to it and it adds some needed personality, and as I later came to appreciate “platform on the left” as an excellent reminder.
Ferny Grove is very much a heritage line. I was taken aback by how hilly Brisbane is as we lost sight of the city quite quickly despite remaining close. As a heritage line (not dissimilar from the Fremantle line), the stations are very close together and there are plenty of level crossings. Knowing that I’ve heard complaints from drivers about traffic, I’m thinking a level crossing removal project like Melbourne or Perth has done might need to be aspired to for inner Brisbane. The trains were nice and easy to ride, and Brisbane gets lots of points for making it a no-brainer to take public transport still at 50c (is that per-trip or per-day, I’m not sure, I think it’s per trip, but at that price, I don’t actually care).
I returned to Central which is where PyCon AU proved itself savvy in getting the most Central conference venue possible. Literally breakfast at McDonalds and straight upstairs central. Wow.
Here’s where Brisbane starts to disappoint and it’s nobody’s fault in particular. It gets dark VERY early. Brisbane is a morning city. As someone who has had their share of seasonal depression brought on by leaving for work in the dark and leaving for home still in the dark, which can happen in winter in Perth, this is disappointing. My counter-position though is I am VERY happy that Brisbane does not follow daylight savings because I hate the confusion (which week is it?). So it might be the case that Brisbane actually needs a permanent timezone shift if anything. However, I felt neither cold nor unsafe walking from Central to dinner and accommodation in Fortitude Valley at night, but I certainly resolved to act like a Brisbaner and get up early in the following mornings.
The following morning was Friday and I was continually shuffling my plans. Trying to work out how far out I could go and still feasibly be back by 9am for PyCon AU, and balancing that with the various strike action affecting timetables (in this case for the ferry Cats). So I was impressed and motivated by the early starts of Queensland Rail (around 4am) so I made my way back to Fortitude Valley and took my next train. I figured I’d try and catch sunrise by the coast so went Cleveland-bound. I didn’t make it as far as Cleveland, which disappointed the station attendant at Birkdale, to whom I had to explain myself to for looking a bit lost. And that was another pleasant experience. People of the network were always there to greet the trains and to talk to me. Perth loses points here because while we often (not always) have people stationed, you never feel like you’re welcome to talk to them, more like you’re being punished if that “has to happen” (similar to how we barely hear from our drivers). I explained that “I had a plan”, which by the way was only made possible by the excellent and accurate live tracking of ALL services on the network out to Google Maps. These timetables being integrated made it possible for me to feel confident getting around without bothering with an app I wouldn’t need after a few days (I did need to go into the website a couple of times though to untangle some routes).
My plan was to see more, so I went back toward the city, but not all the way just yet. I wanted to try different lines and different transport options and actually see the streets, so I switched to a bus at Boggo Road and went through Graceville (lovely) to Corinda. Here’s where we start to appreciate another difference of Queensland Rail, because I got momentarily overwhelmed there. This is a suburban station, but like many it had, it seems, 5 platforms! You don’t get the opportunity to get confused like that in Perth (it’s generally the City or bust).
Apologies to Translink because I failed to pay at this point, missing the tag on machine. In Perth I’d be petrified, here I figured the people were so nice I could offer up my 50 cent coin and play the tourist card, something I wouldn’t dare in Perth because I get checked so often, presumed guilty not innocent.
My motivation for breakfast had me plan a stop at Taringa where I walked to fast food, and then took the opportunity of a well-placed Lime scooter to try the bikeway into the city. The less said about the scooter part of the journey the better, some user error (if I’m generous) with the app dictated me bailing half-way and requesting a (granted) refund. Let’s say I’m not a fan of that particular mode, and on the bikeway I was creating a hazard of myself. An e-bike would have been better and safer, but Queensland – you’re making that one quite hard and actually putting at risk all the good praise I’m giving on public transport even if I technically (yes I have a license, now, but if I were growing up today I certainly would not!) am not impacted. Another point in favour of Perth for now.
The bikeway itself was in excellent condition, completely separated from the road, wide and scenic. In any case above the bikeway was a busy road so getting a bus was of course trivial through to the centre of the city.
At the end of day 2 I desired to see what people did in the suburbs rather than the city, and this is the only time that I can really cast shade on Brisbane. You have these lovely tunnel and busway systems yet you have suburban routes leaving from the congested central city that take many minutes to exit the core. This was painful and it’s something I associate with Adelaide that really kills its central buses. I know some routes are cross-city, but anything that starts in the city, your network is good enough, please just have me go out to RBWH or Normanby and connect, I’d feel much better there than by the side of the road for 15 minutes. I chose to go out to The Gap because I knew I’d be in the vicinity of Gliders (still didn’t catch one, but it’s just a bus right?) and an easy return journey. But what is the difference between a “Rocket” and a “BUZ”? I don’t know, but fun names don’t mean anything to tourists…
By the time I got to The Gap (not long at all, after we got on), I saw an e-bike pizza delivery guy and he convinced me only tourists are concerned by the hills, and it being dark I appreciated another feature of Queensland bus stops – many have powered and lit (hello night-time) live displays of upcoming services, this is a winner over Perth. I know Transperth for while there trialled some very sleek e-ink bus stops, but they are very rare, and I think they’ve just reverted to sending people to the app, which is a bit less welcoming. To get back to Fortitude Valley I switched to a very empty Metro.
The Metro is an interesting beast. It’s not until the following day that I genuinely appreciated the genius of it. Initially it feels like a cop-out, in that perhaps it should be a tram, or that someone cheaped out on doing another train line, certainly when reading about it from afar that was the impression. But it is its own thing with its own positives. The tram-like Metro vehicle is excellent, modern and sleek, if only a tram in bus clothing. The dedicated busways avoid the congestion problem, and likely the length of the Metro dictates that it not be allowed on normal roads (it’s a triple bus). However other smaller and regular buses CAN and DO use the busways which is excellent and grants them congestion-busting powers (see above). Also unlike a train platform (well, at least in other places where there isn’t an excess of platforms) other buses or metros can overtake and genuinely go express! I had to get used to hailing again (yes there’s a big sign on the front of the bus)! The Metro is a rather pleasant better-than-tram experience because of the dedicated busway.
I could not ride the ferries until the following morning when the strike action had ended. And of course, we can’t take the ferry until the sun comes up, and with a rail closure in the central city I had the unique opportunity of using the (very new, shame I couldn’t also go to Shorncliffe) Exhibition station. The one thing I will say is I walked the long way into Exhibition from the north, thanks to a big sign from the night before and Google Maps’ satellite imagery not being as up-to-date (Apple Maps was newer), and not knowing that the southern showgrounds precinct was actually open to walk through (in Perth we often lock things up behind fences). But you don’t take risks when you are trying to meet the first hourly train… to Caboolture! A lovely express ride and again a friendly driver helping to get people through the complications of a city centre train closure. On that note, I know that none of the locals at PyCon AU had any concern at all about the rail closure (perhaps more about the ferry closure) and that’s because the Translink “Railbus” system is by now a well-oiled machine. The rail replacement and service adjustments all are timed and make it to Google Maps. I know I’m not strictly comparing apples with apples here but whenever an unscheduled incident happens in Perth we go into meltdown and things take so much longer. People avoid our public transport just for the fear that something might go wrong and our congestion is the worse for it. (With a scheduled rail replacement you simply don’t bother.) I note also there were express cross-city services too which would have been able to congestion-bust, likely through the busways, and overall there’s much more redundancy in the system.
Naturally (and it was the same on my way to Cleveland) I couldn’t see anything at all until sunrise when Caboolture and the linking towns revealed themselves. That was quite a quick journey with very few stops so I got to see a lot, After the centre of the city the hills fall away to another round of hills but in the distance. But everything as I’m quite used to now is very green in Queensland.
I will give credit to the Translink network maps. From when I started my journey at Brisbane Domestic to my final journey, signage was excellent. Never was this more necessary than when I felt confident to become “the local” – on this train between the big map on the train and Google Maps live train times, I competently guided a distressed passenger that was unaware of the closure to switch trains at Northgate, and look for a Railbus from Bowen Hills to continue her (long!) cross-city journey. (I spent a nervous couple of minutes second-guessing myself watching the all-stops train catch us up towards Eagle Junction – my instincts were good though because the jump between platforms would have been more difficult later on, much like how I missed an opportunity to go towards Ipswich on my first day by sitting on the AirTrain too long.)
I rode the train all the way back to Exhibition. I picked up a scooter because I wanted to make a very specific ferry connection (Google said “walking would be ambitious” in the time available) and went down to the Story Bridge and Howard Smith Ferries, down a crazy elevator that in the past I would have been terrified of, but I just missed the early ferry so I walked back along to Riverside via a 7-11 that shockingly wouldn’t be open until 8am (what? isn’t it in the name?).
Feedback where it’s due, I have a concern at Riverside. Naive tourist me did get a little distressed when I looked at “the” departures board and I didn’t see the incoming UQ ferry listed. Silly me there are (count them!) four numbered platforms and two departures boards at that terminal. Wow. The ferry DID come.
I could not leave Brisbane without my City Cat ferry ride (thank you though for not calling my bluff!). I did it last year and it is hands down the highlight of Brisbane, though Translink and sunset did prevent me from going to Mt Coo-tha (maybe it needs a sunrise service?) which might challenge it. So I was very lucky to have the strike lifted. I got on at Riverside and settled in on the prime bow seat and went down to UQ St Lucia, which is also a Metro terminus. The ferry is a leisurely journey so it lends itself to tourists, except at one odd point where the City Cat crosses the river (usually the role of a Kitty Cat) at West End. That lends to a lot of cyclists doing a river loop aided by the ferry crossing. A local confirmed this to me and I certainly look forward to doing that one day on an e-bike (so please, don’t continue to ban them, blame the users not the vehicles).
Special shout out to Camille on that ferry she was doing an excellent job of looking after the passengers and being super-friendly. It is her and the lady whose name I did not get on the Cleveland line that made the journey special.
That and the fact that you go the extra mile on your vehicles. Who can forget the excitement of the Bluey Cat? This time I saw a Boxing Kangaroo Cat, as shown in the image for this post, and at least one very decorative set of train carriages. Perth could do well to mimic this theming on some railcars or our incoming ferry fleet, we are generally clean, but bland.
I got off the ferry with her blessing after a short thank you, it was a great half an hour plus journey but it was undeniable that the quickest journey back to Central for the last day of PyCon AU would be via the Metro and bus ways, which as promised was super-efficient.
For a contrast at the end of the last day I had agreed to return to the airport with a Perth buddy. Given our preconceptions about Railbus situations (and I being the minority public transport champion, and balanced against the rather costly AirTrain, to be fair) we chose to rideshare. I nearly bailed on that option, offering to turn it into an A-B comparison test, after our first driver showed no sign of moving towards us. We then changed apps and had another wait, but once onboard had a good experience, but I can’t shake the fact that our backs were turned to the many RailBuses passing behind us to connect with the still-running AirTrain.
Reflections
In every day’s introduction to PyCon AU 2026 (and probably the closings, but that plain plane anxiety did cause me to skip out on that) we were implored as a room to thank Brisbane. For me this year, it’s genuine, and I’d love to be back. I’ve promised the Discord that this genuine thanks would be spread so hello to those departments I’ve shared it with (and thank you for reading).
But do I believe I could live in Brisbane? Well… that’s a family decision. Importantly I came away from the trip not ruling it out. Recreationally absolutely. The sunset time does suggest a specific kind of working and I’d still have to convince and work within the mechanics of my partner who is somewhat more car-dependent. On that Perth wins, we are the Sunset Coast while we do have congestion, we do have FuelWatch, which I understand is left to private monitors in Queensland; and Queensland sadly has tolls – a friction we avoid in Perth – and it feels in some areas more choking regulation and much more hills.
For what it’s worth I am writing this post on Perth public transport. I don’t feel as safe, despite the multiple disinterested personnel cornering an individual, and the app is inconsistent between arrival and departure times meaning it’s possible to get on the slower bus that arrives first but also leaves last. I also could quite easily have missed my stop, as a hapless tourist did on my way home from PyCon AU (he stayed on the train through Airport Central where I’d joined and had to circle back, easily costing himself 20 minutes, I hope he made his flight). It is only through comparison that we find our room for improvement and there definitely is some, I’d otherwise felt till now that we were near-perfect in Perth but that’s not the case. We can learn some things from Brisbane.