SEQTA
SEQTA is, this morning, calling for an end to “ghost services” and passenger information people can trust
The South-East Queensland Transport Association (SEQTA) is calling on Translink to upgrade its live passenger information so commuters know whether their service is actually coming and whether there is room to board.
SEQTA Founder Imogen Buckley, in a meeting last night, said passengers should not have to investigate whether their bus exists.
“If Translink knows your bus has been cancelled, you should know too!” Ms Buckley said. “A cancellation notice on a website is not enough if the departure you’re checking still makes it look like a bus is coming. For someone waiting for the last service home, that can be the difference between finding another way home and being stranded.”
📢 SEQTA is calling for data changes to reflect:
- ❌ Accurate cancellations: Promptly flag cancelled departures, remove them from suggested journeys and correct false cancellation labels when services are running.
- 🔀 Clear disruption updates: Show skipped stops, early terminations, replacement services and platform changes against the specific journey affected.
- 🚆 Live crowding indicators: Show available space before passengers board, including commitments to rollout carriage-by-carriage information where reliable measurements are available.
- 📱 Consistent information: Ensure timely updates reach station displays and independent journey-planning apps.
- 😖 Rail-Replacement Live-tracking: Track closures are normal for a railway network undergoing generational improvement. Trackable services would remove such a headache for already inconvenienced commuters.
Translink already shares timetable and live information through a common data standard called GTFS, which helps power journey-planning apps. SEQTA wants that foundation strengthened with operators reporting changes promptly and accurate updates reaching passengers.
“Publishing a cancellation notice is only half the job. That cancellation needs to show up against the departure people are actually checking,” SEQTA Taskforce member Maximiliano Barra said. “Whether a service is cancelled or running normally, passengers deserve information they can trust.”
“Sometimes train services appear as cancelled even though they're running normally, which only adds to passenger uncertainty and frustration, especially late at night.”
Curtis Sheppard, another Taskforce member added
“We need accurate and reliable cancellation notices. Clarks has been using a Facebook page for their cancellations, with unreliable cancellation notices being pushed through TransLink. This is a continued failure of the current system which needs to be improved.”
👀 SEQTA is calling on the Queensland Government and Translink to publish a delivery timetable - prioritising cancellation accuracy and disruption updates, followed by expanded crowding and carriage information by 2032.
“People can plan around a cancellation. They cannot plan around one they don’t know about.”
ENDS
Media Contact: Imogen Buckley, [email protected], Founder and Head of PR
Date: Mon, 12th October 2026 ~ 9:00am
Released: From Taskforce @ SEQTA, Management Council @ SEQTA and the Administrative Team.
