Public transport from Kenmore to the CBD takes just eight minutes longer than driving, but a few suburbs further west, the picture changes dramatically: Anstead’s trip takes 107 minutes, while Upper Brookfield has no practical public transport commute at all.
GoThere Brisbane compared door-to-door morning journeys from the population-weighted centres of 205 suburbs within 20 kilometres of Brisbane Central. For Kenmore, Anstead and Upper Brookfield, the results vary sharply once walking, waiting and access to services are included in the full trip.
Kenmore Starts With a 47-Minute CBD Trip
From Kenmore’s measured point, the fastest public transport journey to Brisbane Central takes 47 minutes.
Only eight minutes of the trip is spent walking, followed by 39 minutes aboard a bus. No waiting time is recorded in the calculated journey.
Driving the same trip in morning peak conditions takes 39 minutes, putting the bus journey eight minutes behind the car.
Kenmore also records nine bus routes and 123 peak departures an hour within the study’s connectivity measure. Its 47-minute public transport journey is one minute longer than the 46-minute median recorded across the wider analysis.
The numbers look markedly different in Anstead.
In Anstead, Walking Takes Almost as Long as the Ride
Anstead’s measured commute reaches 107 minutes, making it one of the longest practical public transport journeys in the dataset.
Of that total, 52 minutes is spent walking. Another 10 minutes is spent waiting, while 45 minutes is spent travelling by bus and train.
That leaves 62 minutes of the door-to-door journey spent walking or waiting, compared with 45 minutes aboard public transport.
By car, the same measured trip takes 51 minutes.
The study also records no public transport routes or peak departures within its 800-metre connectivity measure around Anstead’s population-weighted centre.
Only two suburbs with a practical public transport commute take longer: Wights Mountain at 113 minutes and Larapinta at 123 minutes.
Upper Brookfield Has No Practical Public Transport Trip
Upper Brookfield records the most limited result of the three locations.
No practical public transport commute to Brisbane Central was identified from the suburb’s population-weighted centre. There is also no stop within a 10-minute walk of the measured point, while the nearest train is 11.4 kilometres away.
The equivalent car journey takes 51 minutes.
Upper Brookfield is one of only six suburbs in the analysis without a practical public transport commute to the city, alongside Camp Mountain, Draper, Jollys Lookout, Mount Coot-tha and Port of Brisbane.
The Numbers Are Door-to-Door, Not Just Time on Board
The commute figures are not averages for every resident of Kenmore, Anstead or Upper Brookfield.
GoThere selected a population-weighted centre for each suburb, placing the starting point towards where people are concentrated rather than simply using the geographic centre. A resident starting closer to a stop or station could therefore record a different journey.
The morning trips were calculated to arrive at Brisbane Central by 9am on Tuesday, 18 August 2026. Each public transport figure includes the full walk, wait and ride rather than only the time spent aboard a service.
Driving times use typical peak-hour traffic and include an eight-minute allowance for finding a park and walking to the destination.
The distinction is particularly clear in the local results. Kenmore’s 47-minute journey includes eight minutes of walking, while Anstead’s 107-minute trip includes 52 minutes on foot. In Upper Brookfield, the analysis found no stop within a 10-minute walk from the point measured.
Across Brisbane, public transport beat driving in 72 suburbs and came within 10 minutes of the car in 152 of the 199 suburbs where a practical public transport journey was available.
Published 11-August-2026
