Travel to Brisbane - Flood Considerations

[ntaus]

All,

With the current situation in Brisbane there will no doubt be a number of people on this forum, as per myself, traveling to Brisbane and surrounding areas for work in order to aid in the clean up of their offices.

I was wondering if anyone either in the area permanently or currently in Brisbane traveling would feel like commenting on those things likely to affect travel plans?

I'm thinking things like which Hotels have fared the best, what the situation is like in terms of public transport / taxis / hire cars etc?

Thanks in advance for any and all responses.

ntaus

 

[samh004]

I only know that all public transport is free for the next week, and I would guess the further away a hotel is from the river, the more likely they’ll be operating more normally, but there could still be some food shortages, I’m not sure if the trucks are getting through yet?

 

[markis10]

Its pretty hard to give a definitive answer as things are very much dynamic still in the context of the effect of the flood and the recovery. Public transport is running on a very limited schedule, downtown hire car branches are closed and most hotels are OK and taking bookings. Not sure what the hire car situation is like at the airport where most of the stock will be.

 

[ntaus]

I guess my thoughts were to be able to give direct experiences trying to book these things for the next few weeks.

From my point of view I will need to be one of 2-3 people from our company who in the next few days will need to fly, rent a car and stay somewhere in Brisbane and will no doubt give my experiences in doing so in the hope that this may aid others needing to do the same.

ntaus

 

[BVT]

The Stamford on the river next to the City gardens will be closed until March.

I had some bookings for the next few weeks and they called last night. So did AMEX travel who do my travel bookings to see if I was OK and did I need to change any current bookings.

Nothing from QF premium desk, or otherwise.

 

[markis10]

I guess my thoughts were to be able to give direct experiences trying to book these things for the next few weeks.

From my point of view I will need to be one of 2-3 people from our company who in the next few days will need to fly, rent a car and stay somewhere in Brisbane and will no doubt give my experiences in doing so in the hope that this may aid others needing to do the same.

ntaus

You may want to consider the Gold coast and commuting via hire car from there?

 

[ntaus]

The Stamford on the river next to the City gardens will be closed until March.

Ahhh... That does make a lot of sense.

This is one of our preferred hotels for BNE so will definitely have to leave that off the list of hotels to try.

Does anybody know of any hotels that managed to stay unaffected at all?

ntaus

 

[BVT]

Ahhh... That does make a lot of sense.

This is one of our preferred hotels for BNE so will definitely have to leave that off the list of hotels to try.

Does anybody know of any hotels that managed to stay unaffected at all?

ntaus

Wotif is showing a lot of availability. I would check with the particular property first before making a booking. There will be considerable staffing and supply issues even for the unaffected properties in the short term.

I am almost at the stage of an OMG start from the GC for my 0800 flight from BNE!:shock:

 

[ntaus]

I am almost at the stage of an OMG start from the GC for my 0800 flight from BNE!:shock:

Funnily enough, I had a similar thought given that one of our sites is in Southport.

I would probably given it serious consideration as long as there was definitely no chance of issues on the drive between the GC and BNE.

ntaus

 

[BVT]

Funnily enough, I had a similar thought given that one of our sites is in Southport.

I would probably given it serious consideration as long as there was definitely no chance of issues on the drive between the GC and BNE.

ntaus

The latest reports say the motorway is open as is the Airtrain.

The Airtrain permanent way is pretty high and unlikley to be affected by the flood, however the issue may be some of the stations being flood affected. From memory, the only Airtrain station closed is South Brisbane.

Here on the GC we have been very lucky and remain unaffected by the floods.

 

[browski]

Flights to BNE absolutely no problem; and currently extremely cheap.
Car rental, in abundance. Tolls free!
Most inner city roads open, just really awaiting either Milton Rd or Coronation Dve to re-open - the detour via Jubilie Tce / La Trobe tce is painful.
Any hotel not near the river has plenty of availability.
Enough pubs are open to keep the economy running.
The main issue is having enough staff available to open cafes/restaurants/shops etc

Overall, things are surprisingly good.

 

[rtyuiop]

Most inner city roads open, just really awaiting either Milton Rd or Coronation Dve to re-open - the detour via Jubilie Tce / La Trobe tce is painful.

Media's reporting that it's proving difficult to work out if the river side of coro drive is structurally OK - might be a while before it's back to normal:

Brisbane Coronation Drive Milton In Danger Due to Flood

Danny

 

[NM]

Where is your office located? If you find accommodation near your office you may not require a car, depending what type of activities you expect to undertaking. Obviously if you are needing to transport tools, equipment, machinery, furniture etc then a suitable vehicle will be necessary.

CBD hotels in the higher areas such as the Sofotel or Novotel will certainly be ok.

 

[ntaus]

Where is your office located? If you find accommodation near your office you may not require a car, depending what type of activities you expect to undertaking. Obviously if you are needing to transport tools, equipment, machinery, furniture etc then a suitable vehicle will be necessary.

CBD hotels in the higher areas such as the Sofotel or Novotel will certainly be ok.

In my case I need to be all over the place - between our head office in Southbank and a number of project offices in Southport, Yatala, Murrarie etc so we'll all be definitely be needing cars.

One of the guys has been booked to head up Monday and has been put into the Ibis just off North Quay. From what I understand this and the Mercure that it's connected to were probably flooded at ground level and I will be interested to hear what the place is like on arrival on Monday, but it sounds as though they're happy to take bookings and honour them.

ntaus

 

[VirginiaF]

Would also be intersted in how satellite navigation has coped. Perhaps wishful thinking, but will TomTom on iPhone avoid closed roads? Any experiences/thoughts anyone?

 

[samh004]

Would also be intersted in how satellite navigation has coped. Perhaps wishful thinking, but will TomTom on iPhone avoid closed roads? Any experiences/thoughts anyone?

Probably not. If the app can use a data connection to find out if roads are congested and such, then it might pick up closed roads too, but otherwise it probably wont. Best to make a route and then check the route against lists of closed roads I guess.

 

[markis10]

If you have the traffic service then closed roads will be indicated on your GPS, it uses a FM frequency to add intelligence to what ever mapping is in the system, if you dont have that then you might well find your self in trouble before you leave the airport as my technical director did before Christmas, he was using 2009 maps

 

[medhead]

In my case I need to be all over the place - between our head office in Southbank and a number of project offices in Southport, Yatala, Murrarie etc so we'll all be definitely be needing cars.

One of the guys has been booked to head up Monday and has been put into the Ibis just off North Quay. From what I understand this and the Mercure that it's connected to were probably flooded at ground level and I will be interested to hear what the place is like on arrival on Monday, but it sounds as though they're happy to take bookings and honour them.

ntaus

North quay wasn't flooded so I think those hotels will be fine. I was down in Roma St this morbid and it was not affected.

The airtrain was operating on a 30 minute schedule to Roma St station. Rail line to the south was supposedly closed after yerongpilly. However there was services going to beenleigh. Google both Brisbane airport and translink and follow the advice on their websites about transport. Coronation drive seems to be the main issue ATM. I expect any southbank offices will be out of action.

 

[Mal]

One of the guys has been booked to head up Monday and has been put into the Ibis just off North Quay. From what I understand this and the Mercure that it's connected to were probably flooded at ground level

IBIS is operating fine. Completely open, no sign of any flooding and AFAIK no issues were experienced. Mercure ditto. While the water did rise on the river, it did not rise over that part of the city. There seems to have been some flooding on George Street (near the IBIS) - but I think that was only minor drain backflow.

Here's some areas I would be concerned about in/around the CBD:
- South Bank, West End hotels/serviced Apartments.
- Hotels/serviced apartments located on Alice Street, parts of Margaret Street, parts of Albert Street, Eagle Street, Queen Street/Adelaide Street (on river end near the story bridge)
- New Farm, certain parts of the Valley.

Most other hotels and serviced apartments should be ok.

 

[JohnK]

Does anybody know of any hotels that managed to stay unaffected at all?

Depends on what sort of hotels you are after. These hotels should be OK.

Hilton, Holiday Inn, Sofitel, Novotel, Grand Chancellor, Best Western Gregory Terrace, The Metro Inn Tower Mill to name just a few....