Bulimba's new City Cat and ferry terminal now has easy disability access, a quiet but significant improvement for a $7.7 million boost to Brisbane's second-busiest CityCat terminal.
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Around 8000 commuters use the Bulimba terminal each day.
Hundreds of residents took the opportunity this morning to walk through the new timber and iron stylised ferry and CityCat terminal at a public open day.
Most looked through one of Brisbane's newest CityCat's "Nar Dha", emblazoned with the City's G20 logo on the sides.
The December 2014 opening is a win for persistence after former lord mayor – now premier - Campbell Newman called a halt to the ferry and CityCat renovation after a public fight with local Morningside ward councillor Shayne Sutton in 2010.
Brisbane's floods of January 2011 saw the project stall again until it was put back on the agenda after an improved working relationship between Cr Sutton and incoming lord mayor Graham Quirk.
It became an election promise for Cr Quirk at the 2012 Council elections – as it was for Cr Sutton if Labor won office – and the project was rekindled.
The new terminal blends the old terminal building with a modern gangway, which rises with the tides and local flood events.
It has an extra 30 seats for waiting passengers and the new terminal is fully "disability compliant", Cr Quirk said.
"This is tricky because this is strongly tidal river here," Cr Quirk said.
"The platform goes up and down with those tides so it is always a challenge in that circumstance to reach the right disability compliance level, and we have been able to do that with this facility."
The new CityCat terminal at Park Road, Milton, will open in January 2015, while 15 temporary ferry and CityCat terminals will receive their final facelifts by mid-2015.
"That is part of the rebuild after the January 2015 event," Cr Quirk said.
Cr Peter Matic, the council's public transport committee chairman, said it was an important upgrade to the city's busiest suburban ferry terminal.
"It also complies with our important work in flood resilience, this new terminal is a 1 in 500 year flood resistant improvement on that," he said.