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Speeding Up Brisbane/GC Rail Services

Started by SteelPan, March 09, 2017, 15:01:10 PM

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SteelPan

Suggestion - cut out the stopping at "Southbank" and [maybe even] Park Rd. People who travel to Park Rd can surely go on 2 more stops to Sth Brisbane.

Roma St > South Brisbane > Loganlea > Beenleigh, continuing all stations to GC.

Agree/disagreee?
SEQ, where our only "fast-track" is in becoming the rail embarrassment of Australia!   :frs:

tazzer9

I'm sorry, but being blunt that is one of the dumbest suggestions I have seen.

In fact, the opposite occured the 2014 timetable change.  Peak hour trains used to skip park rd (due to being unable to use platform 4 though), that got changed so all GC trains had the same stopping pattern.

Park Rd is the station people use to get to UQ, the 2nd largest commuter and PT destination in the entire state.   South bank station is also a massive destination due to the hospitals, the TAFE and numerous businesses.

SteelPan

Quote from: tazzer9 on March 09, 2017, 15:12:30 PM
I'm sorry, but being blunt that is one of the dumbest suggestions I have seen.

In fact, the opposite occured the 2014 timetable change.  Peak hour trains used to skip park rd (due to being unable to use platform 4 though), that got changed so all GC trains had the same stopping pattern.

Park Rd is the station people use to get to UQ, the 2nd largest commuter and PT destination in the entire state.   South bank station is also a massive destination due to the hospitals, the TAFE and numerous businesses.

Most cities of the world, do not have longer distance urban services leaving CBD stations, to straight away start stopping at non-cbd-stations, they usually run express for a time, as otherwise, they are merely duplicating other inner suburban services.

Places like Southbank and Park Rd may indeed be centres of attraction for various things, but there's little logic in GC bound trains having just departed South Brisbane, stopping at a number of such stations. Stations readily accessible by numerous other suburban services.

Strange is it not, Redcliffe services seem to have no trouble skipping a number of stations, because they do not want to 1) duplicate other services and 2) therefore extend travel times - clogging up the corridor.

Indeed, this will be a "significant" issue for QR in coming years, ie, "inner corridor congestion" and getting more no/limited stop services through it [somehow] to service longer-distance runs.

People who get on GC bound services at the Airport/Brisbane CBD stations/South Bank want motion, not more stops for areas already serviced by traditional suburban runs.

:lo

SEQ, where our only "fast-track" is in becoming the rail embarrassment of Australia!   :frs:

James

If anything, you'd run the Gold Coast train express between Park Road and Roma St, as it is less of an impost to force people to transfer and continue in the same direction (i.e. transfer at Park Rd for South Bank/South Brisbane) compared to running it express past Park Road and forcing a back track, which psychologically is a big deterrent to PT use. Regardless though, I'm against this idea. Running the trains express past these two stations would save about 2 minutes in travel time for non-Park Road/South Bank pax, while significantly increasing the travel time for those passengers. It'd lead to an overall reduction in patronage, or unnecessary overcrowding on counter-peak services.

Also, outside of peak hour, the GC trains use the same track as the suburban trains and freight uses the DG, making express running difficult.

This idea just doesn't work. If you really want to speed up GC trains, spend $$ on either a rail line down the M1, or curve straightening along the line.
Is it really that hard to run frequent, reliable public transport?

tazzer9

You wouldn't run a express service thru north sydney or parramatta.   You wouldn't run a service express through richmond.   
The only equivalent station in australia that regularly gets trains passing through is redfern, which has enough services for it to be acceptable.   One reason for this expressing is that fact 8 car v sets cannot fit into the station.

BrizCommuter

Quote from: SteelPan on March 09, 2017, 15:01:10 PM
Suggestion - cut out the stopping at "Southbank" and [maybe even] Park Rd. People who travel to Park Rd can surely go on 2 more stops to Sth Brisbane.

Roma St > South Brisbane > Loganlea > Beenleigh, continuing all stations to GC.

Agree/disagreee?
So utterly ridiculous, surely your post is just trolling?

South Bank serves Mater Hospital, Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, 3 high schools, a TAFE, an international business HQ, other businesses, hotels and apartments.
Park Rd has a nearby research institute, as well as busy interchange for UQ and PA Hospital.

#Metro


Hmm.

All GC trains will run via Cross River Rail - that will cut 10 mins off from the travel time.

I agree the section South Bank - South Brisbane is a bit slow.

All Beenleigh trains should use the CRR tunnel as well.

People can change at Park Road (Underground - CRR) if they want South Bank.

Cleveland line can be boosted if there are concerns (doubt it) about South Bank services.

Might get decent frequency on that line.

So just wait until CRR comes along.

There are other places we can speed up trains - Ipswich is an obvious one. Might be others as well depending on when more trains and drivers come online.

There is a case for a new GC alignment mirroring the pacific motorway but it would be expensive. Aim should be to have trains every 15 minutes both ways in the off peak.

Thanks for the post & suggestion.  :is-
Negative people... have a problem for every solution. Posts are commentary and are not necessarily endorsed by RAIL Back on Track or its members.

SurfRail

Quote from: SteelPan on March 09, 2017, 15:01:10 PM
Suggestion - cut out the stopping at "Southbank" and [maybe even] Park Rd. People who travel to Park Rd can surely go on 2 more stops to Sth Brisbane.

Roma St > South Brisbane > Loganlea > Beenleigh, continuing all stations to GC.

Agree/disagreee?

Disagreee.

What exactly are you trying to achieve with this change?

- Running time difference would be virtually negligible.

- There are separate platform faces for Gold Coast and Beenleigh/Cleveland trains for most of the peak and the Merivale Bridge only permits one train at a time so there is no capacity reason.  Trains also share platforms so even if there were only one inbound and outbound platform, you just end up running one train up the arse of another and running on restricted signals, which is even worse than stopping only at stations.

- It inconveniences people going to destinations outside the CBD itself, and forces an interchange at stations not particularly well-suited for it.  Not just the occasional passenger who might be going from Nerang to Rocklea and who can suck it up and change trains, but thousands of passengers daily.

- Interchange also occurs between trains and buses at South Bank and Park Road - especially for destinations along the busways (eg UQ Lakes).  This change completely eliminates the possibility of such interchanges unless you change from a bus to a Beenleigh train and then transfer to a Gold Coast train elsewhere (ie forcing a transfer unnecessarily).
Ride the G:

SurfRail

Quote from: SteelPan on March 09, 2017, 15:38:06 PM
People who get on GC bound services at the Airport/Brisbane CBD stations/South Bank want motion, not more stops for areas already serviced by traditional suburban runs.

The Gold Coast representative for this group, and the people he talks to who catch this service daily, do not agree with your assessment.
Ride the G:

dancingmongoose

Quote from: SteelPan on March 09, 2017, 15:01:10 PM
Suggestion - cut out the stopping at "Southbank" and [maybe even] Park Rd. People who travel to Park Rd can surely go on 2 more stops to Sth Brisbane.

Roma St > South Brisbane > Loganlea > Beenleigh, continuing all stations to GC.

Agree/disagreee?

I catch the 7:48 Airport train ex Ormeau every morning and there are an awful lot of people that disembark at Park Road and South Bank. I'd estimate at least around 20% - 30% of the passenger load or so. Sure I've only been doing this for a week but I'd wager more people get off at Park Road than Roma St. Pretty silly idea tbh. As SurfRail mentioned it won't do much if anything to speed it up and unnecessarily inconveniences passengers.

nathandavid88

I agree with the general consensus, skipping Park Road and South Bank would be of negligible benefit in terms of speeding up running time, but would be a major inconvenience to a considerable amount of passengers, especially students studying at UQ. It might also prove to be very difficult to implement, as SurfRail mentioned.

SurfRail

The issue really isn't stopping in the inner city area - it is the fact it takes so long between Beenleigh and Park Road.  No fix for that without a new alignment.
Ride the G:

achiruel

Are there any planned alignment improvements for Beenleigh-Park Rd?

e.g. Trinder Park deviation? AIUI, quite a lot of the housing in that area is already Government-owned (Dept of Housing) so shouldn't be terribly expensive to resume (i.e. it's basically one Gov't Dept. transferring assets to another). Or is the government still pretending that an 1hr 8min (all stops - 50 minutes express to travel from Beenleigh to Central is somehow an attractive option?

OzGamer

The logical thing would be to roll up Cross River Rail with a new elevated line down the South East Freeway median to meet up with the Gold Coast line around Beenleigh or Yatala, but the money seems to be so tight since the 2011 flood and cyclone season that even a minimal project seems out of reach now.

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