Best Brisbane suburbs for public transport

Auchenflower tops the ranking, with 123.75 scheduled peak-hour arrivals an hour. Bowen Hills and Clayfield round out the top three. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 302 eligible Brisbane suburbs.

This ranking scores every eligible Brisbane suburb on public-transport quality — a composite of peak and off-peak arrivals, median headway, span of service, mode weighting (rail > tram > bus), and peak-hour direct-CBD access. Walkability, safety, and CBD distance are blended in as tie-breakers.

The transport-quality score is derived from each state's GTFS timetable feed. We sample a representative weekday and Saturday and count arrivals at every stop inside the suburb, then weight the mode mix (a train station outranks a bus stop at the same headway) and layer in the peak headway of any trip that terminates in the Brisbane CBD. Percentile ranks are computed within Brisbane's candidate pool, so a suburb's transit ranking is relative to other Brisbane suburbs — a Sydney "top 5%" and a Perth "top 5%" both hit rank 1 of their own city's pool.

Brisbane suburbs with the best public transport

Ranked on the GTFS-derived transport-quality score — peak / off-peak / weekend arrivals, median headway, span of service, mode weight (rail > tram > bus), and peak-hour direct-CBD headway. Blended with walkability, safety, and CBD access as secondary factors.

1

Auchenflower

QLD 4066 · 6,053 residents

94.7/100 transport · 123.8 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A+ 92.3
2

Bowen Hills

QLD 4006 · 4,898 residents

96.2/100 transport · 144.0 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A 91.7
3

Clayfield

QLD 4011 · 10,897 residents

95.2/100 transport · 203.2 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A+ 90.0
4

Fortitude Valley

QLD 4006 · 9,708 residents

94.6/100 transport · 583.0 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A 89.5
5

Milton

QLD 4064 · 3,144 residents

94.4/100 transport · 210.2 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

B 89.4
6

Toowong

QLD 4066 · 12,556 residents

94.4/100 transport · 262.5 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A 89.2
7

Keperra

QLD 4054 · 7,014 residents

95.7/100 transport · 53.2 arrivals/hr peak · 1-min headway

A 88.9
8

Nundah

QLD 4012 · 13,098 residents

94.8/100 transport · 154.0 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A 88.5
9

Brisbane City

QLD 4000 · 12,587 residents

94.3/100 transport · 2112.8 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A 88.3
10

South Brisbane

QLD 4101 · 14,292 residents

94.3/100 transport · 854.0 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A 88.3
11

Mitchelton

QLD 4053 · 9,244 residents

94.8/100 transport · 108.8 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A 87.7
12

Coorparoo

QLD 4151 · 18,132 residents

94.2/100 transport · 350.0 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A+ 87.5
13

Woolloongabba

QLD 4102 · 8,687 residents

94.2/100 transport · 668.5 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

B 86.9
14

Northgate

QLD 4013 · 4,876 residents

96.4/100 transport · 39.8 arrivals/hr peak · 1-min headway

A 86.8
15

Greenslopes

QLD 4120 · 7,941 residents

94.0/100 transport · 257.2 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

A 85.9

Ranked from 302 qualifying suburbs.

How we ranked these

60% transport-quality composite (peak / off-peak / weekend arrivals, median headway, span of service, mode weight, and direct-CBD headway) · 15% walkability · 15% safety (bushfire, crime, flood risks combined) · 10% CBD access. Percentile ranks are computed within Brisbane's candidate pool. Suburbs below the ingest arrivals-per-week floor are excluded rather than ranked at zero. See how we calculate for the full methodology.

Common questions about this ranking

What are the best Brisbane suburbs for public transport?

Auchenflower tops the ranking, with 123.75 scheduled peak-hour arrivals an hour. Bowen Hills and Clayfield round out the top three. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 302 eligible Brisbane suburbs.

How is this ranking scored?

Each eligible Brisbane suburb is scored on a composite transport-quality signal blended with walkability, safety, and CBD access. The transport-quality signal itself blends peak-hour (7-9am + 5-7pm) and off-peak weekday arrivals, Saturday service, median headway, span-of-service, mode weighting (rail > tram > bus), and peak-hour direct-CBD headway. The composite carries the heaviest weight in the final score (60%); percentile ranks are computed within Brisbane's candidate pool, not nationally.

Where does the timetable data come from?

Every state government publishes a GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) timetable feed covering all scheduled buses, trains, trams, and ferries in the state. We ingest these feeds and aggregate arrivals across every stop inside each suburb boundary on a representative Wednesday and Saturday. Nothing paid, nothing scraped — it's the same data that powers the transit-planner apps.

Does this measure reliability or on-time performance?

No — scheduled service only. GTFS-realtime feeds carry delays and cancellations but they're per-agency, per-day, and not part of this ingest. A suburb whose bus network runs 20 minutes late every peak still scores here on the timetable. Reliability data is a candidate for a future layer.

How often is this list updated?

The top 15 is recomputed whenever we re-run the GTFS aggregation pipeline. Feeds themselves refresh weekly to monthly per agency; big service changes (a new metro line, a route reshuffle) land in the next re-computation.

Same list in other cities

Related

Rankings last computed 28 September 2026. Recomputed after each ACARA schools data refresh.

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