Australia’s Olympic Return and the Transport Challenge Ahead

The Brisbane 2032 Olympics may still be six years away, but the competition for the infrastructure and civil professionals who will help deliver the transport network is already taking shape. Across Brisbane and wider Queensland, major transport programmes are progressing at the same time as employers search for experienced professionals in traffic engineering, transport modelling, road safety, network planning and project delivery. 

The Games will add pressure to a city that already has a transport problem to solve. South East Queensland’s population is projected to grow by around 2.2 million people to almost six million by 2046, placing greater demand on a transport network that is already heavily used. In 2024–25, buses, trains, ferries and trams across South East Queensland carried 192.88 million passenger trips, averaging more than 528,000 trips a day. As Brisbane grows and major public transport projects reshape the network, the challenge is to add capacity while keeping everyday journeys moving.  

Source: (Queensland Government) (Department of Transport and Main Roads) 

Zenab Nessa, Vice President at LVI Associates, specialises in transport recruitment across APAC, with a particular focus on Australia. Her work with engineering consultancies, infrastructure organisations and transportation professionals gives her direct insight into the skills clients are searching for as Queensland's project pipeline develops.

Brisbane's transport challenge already exists 

According to the TomTom Brisbane Traffic Index, Brisbane recorded an average congestion level of 40.5% in 2025. A typical 10 km drive took 19 minutes and 40 seconds, rising to 24 minutes and 54 seconds during the evening rush hour, while drivers lost an estimated 77 hours to rush-hour traffic across the year. 

The pressure is happening alongside continued growth. Brisbane City Council describes the city e as one of Australia's fastest-growing capital cities, creating greater demand across public transport, freight and everyday travel. 

This means increasing road capacity alone will not answer the problem. Brisbane needs to move greater numbers of people through public transport, walking and cycling while using existing infrastructure more efficiently. 

What will the Olympics add? 

Olympic transport demand looks very different from a normal working day. Large numbers of spectators, athletes, officials, volunteers and staff need to reach venues within narrow timeframes, while residents and businesses continue using the same transport system. 

Brisbane City Council has set a target for 90% of trips to Games venues to be made by public and active transport, according to its Games Transport Legacy proposal. That places significant pressure on bus and rail capacity, connections between transport modes, pedestrian movement and the management of sudden passenger peaks. 

The goal is not simply to finish infrastructure before the opening ceremony. Brisbane needs a network that can respond when travel patterns change quickly and large crowds move between venues at the same time. 

What can Brisbane learn from previous Olympic hosts? 

Atlanta 1996, when transport operations fall short 

Atlanta 1996 showed how quickly transport problems can affect the Games. According to contemporary reporting from The Washington Post, the city's subway carried around half a million passengers a day during the early stages of the event, around three times its usual load, while the bus network serving athletes, officials and media suffered delays and drivers becoming lost. 

The disruption reached competitors themselves. Defending Olympic judo champion David Khakhaleichvili missed his weigh-in after traffic problems, while other athletes struggled to reach competition sites on time. Atlanta showed that transport performance depends on staffing, route knowledge and operational response as well as physical capacity. 

Rio 2016, when delivery runs too close to the deadline 

Rio faced a different problem. Its Metro Line 4, built as a major connection to the Olympic area, was completed just six days before the Games began and started passenger operations four days before the opening ceremony. Reuters reported that work was still taking place around the line as the first passengers began using it, showing the operational risk of bringing major transport infrastructure online so close to the start of the Games.  

The line became an important transport connection, but the timetable left little time for normal passenger use before Olympic demand arrived. For Brisbane, Rio demonstrates the value of bringing major infrastructure into service early enough for teams to learn how it behaves under everyday conditions. 

London 2012, managing demand as well as capacity 

London combined major transport investment with active demand management. Around £6.5 billion was invested ahead of the Games, including a 50% increase in DLR capacity, upgrades to the Jubilee and Central lines, extensions to the London Overground, and major expansions of Stratford and King’s Cross St Pancras stations.  

That extra capacity was only part of the response. The Transport for London review of the 2012 Games recorded travel by more than 6.2 million Olympic spectators over 17 days and 2.7 million Paralympic spectators over 11 days, alongside regular city journeys.  

TfL concluded that additional services alone would not be enough. Through its travel demand management programme, regular travellers were encouraged to reduce journeys, travel at different times, switch transport modes or change routes to avoid the busiest locations. This helped reduce non-Games travel by around 5% during the Olympics, creating additional capacity for Games-related demand. 

Brisbane's response is already underway 

Brisbane has already started increasing public transport capacity, with the new bus network delivering measurable changes since its June 2025 launch. According to Brisbane City Council’s New Bus Network performance update, the network has generated 840,000 additional passenger journeys, improved peak travel times on more than half of journeys, and reduced the number of buses crossing Victoria Bridge by 30%. 

Cross River Rail is a new 10.2 km rail line through central Brisbane, including 5.9 km of twin tunnels beneath the Brisbane River and CBD and four new underground stations. Designed to create a second rail crossing through the city and increase capacity across the wider South East Queensland network, the project is now moving from major construction into systems integration, testing and operational readiness. Its current delivery timetable states that first passenger services are expected in 2029, giving Brisbane several years of live operation before the 2032 Games begin. 

That period will allow transport teams to gather real passenger data and understand how new capacity interacts with the wider network. The project's testing programme covers individual equipment, integrated systems, train testing and trial operations before public services begin. As Zenab explains:  

"It's not just traffic engineering that's busy. We're seeing hiring activity across planning, modelling, design, systems and delivery as clients continue to build out their teams. Everybody wants a piece of the pie in Brisbane!”

The engineering challenge so far 

Brisbane's technical challenge is increasingly about making separate investments operate as one transport system. Rail, buses, road traffic, walking and cycling influence each other, so teams need to understand how changing capacity or passenger behaviour in one area can affect performance elsewhere. 

That creates work across traffic modelling, road safety, intelligent transportation systems, network operations and technical project delivery. The skills required also change as programmes move from forecasting and design into systems integration and operational analysis. 

The pressure is happening during a wider shortage of infrastructure workers. Infrastructure Australia's 2025 Infrastructure Market Capacity Report examines the labour gap across Australia's major public infrastructure pipeline, with industry shortages affecting engineering and other technical occupations as investment programmes overlap. 

For transportation employers, some of the hardest searches involve people who combine specialist technical knowledge with major-project experience. These capabilities take years to develop, so the available talent pool cannot expand at the same pace as project investment. 

"It's not that the talent isn't out there; it's that a lot of people are happy where they are. The challenge is getting them excited enough about a new opportunity to make the move. The clients having the most success are the ones that can clearly articulate their project pipeline, career progression, and what sets them apart from the competition." Zenab adds. 

Hiring transportation talent in Australia? 

For organisations building transport teams in Brisbane and across Australia, access to specialist networks can make a significant difference. At LVI Associates, we have extensive relationships across the transportation market, including experienced professionals who may not be actively applying for new roles. 

Our transportation practice supports hiring across traffic engineering and operations, transport planning, intelligent transportation systems, rail and transit, and wider infrastructure delivery. Typical positions include Traffic Engineers, Senior Traffic Engineers, Transport Planners, Transport Modellers, Road Safety Engineers, ITS Specialists, Project Managers, Design Managers and Technical Leads. You can view the wider scope of our transportation recruitment practice and the transportation roles we support.

We work with engineering consultancies, construction companies, transport operators and other infrastructure organisations across permanent and multi-hire recruitment. Our network gives clients access to qualified engineering and project professionals across different markets when the people they need are difficult to reach locally. 

If your organisation is looking to hire transportation talent in Brisbane, Queensland or across Australia, request a call back from LVI Associates. Our team can discuss current or upcoming requirements and connect you with specialist professionals across our transportation network.