Commonwealth Games organisers have been criticised after thousands of people faced lengthy waits on their way to and from last night's opening ceremony at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast.

Some commuters were stranded at Broadbeach for up to two hours while waiting for shuttle buses to take them to the venue, while others waited hours for buses after the ceremony, some past midnight.

Vicki and Wayne Graham said they were "pissed off" by the wait and the lack of communication.

"We actually want our money back, you know $380 a ticket," Ms Graham said.

"It's only a once-in-a-lifetime thing for us."

Michelle Martin and Beth Dias said they were tired and fed up after waiting hours for a bus.

"We're extremely disappointed and we're extremely embarrassed because there's people here who have come long distances, and this is the best we can do? This is a fail," Michelle Martin said.

Michelle Martin and Beth Dias give public transport a 'thumbs down' after being affected by the bus shortage. ( ABC News: Ashleigh Stevenson )

Anne Greenup from Eidsvold waited for an hour at the front of the bus queue at Broadbeach.

"There were still five, six thousand people behind us at 6pm ... There were just no buses."

Commuters still waiting after midnight

For Ms Greenup, who works on a cattle station, things only got worse afterwards.

"We left the stadium at 10:45pm, we then proceeded to wait for two hours."

"Eventually at 12:30am someone had the foresight to start loading more than one bus at a time, it was just ludicrous.

"We'd still be doing our first lot of branding from 1972 if we loaded cattle like that.

"I've never seen such an abysmal display of logistics."

People took to social media to vent over the delays. ( Snapchat Hayley Grima )

Hayley Grima said she waited more than two hours to get on a shuttle bus heading to Broadbeach after the ceremony.

"We were stuck in a line, a big group of people, we couldn't see the end of the line so no-one knew how big it was.

"At the start we thought it'd be fine because we were reassured it would only be 10 or so minutes until we'd get on a bus.

She did not get on a bus until 1:10am.

Ms Grima said the delays put a dampener on what was a great opening ceremony.

"No-one seemed too angry but people were definitely getting sick of it towards the end."

People have also vented their frustration on social media.

"It can take up to 20mins to get in and out of Suncorp Stadium [in Brisbane] … by the way they fit 10,000 more people [than Carrara]!!!!! [sic]" Andrew O'Brien posted on Facebook.

Rona Beacall posted it was "chaos" trying to leave the stadium, even if walking.

Translink's Matt Longland acknowledged that some customers "waited longer than they would have liked".

"All of those spectators had departed Broadbeach South by about 6:40pm, the event started at 7:30 so they got to the Carrara Stadium with plenty of time to see the event and enjoy it," he said.

Mr Longland said the delays were due to there being larger crowds waiting in that area than were expected.

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"We carried about 5,000 people from that venue and that led to some congestion early on," he said.

"We did see lots of pressure on the bus network and we brought extra buses on to meet that demand."

Mr Longland said the public transport plans would be adjusted on a daily basis.

"Every night and every day of the event will be different so we're managing that network in real time," he said.

Minister apologises

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said he was sorry for the delays, and changes were already being put in place to stop it from happening again.

"There were 23 extra buses dispatched as soon as the issue was identified," Mr Bailey said.

"We made adjustments based on the dress rehearsals and what we saw was 2,000 extra people go to Broadbeach South."

He said everyone from the Broadbeach South stop made it to the ceremony.

"Can we improve it for today and future days? Absolutely, and we've already done that," Mr Bailey said.

"I apologise to people who had to wait longer than we would've preferred and they would've preferred, and we're working to rectify that."