Opposition Statement: 38 delays in just 38 days

[ozbob]

From http://www.fionasimpson.com.au/Pages/Article.aspx?ID=652

38 delays in just 38 days

Thursday, 11 February 2010

South East Queensland rail commuters have suffered through 38 train delays since the Bligh Labor Government hiked up public transport fares, the LNP said today.

Shadow Minister for Transport Fiona Simpson said in the 38 days since January 4, TranslinkSEQ had reported numerous delays on its Twitter update service.

"The Minister for Transport wants commuters to believe that the higher train fares are delivering the best service in the country, but the truth is that delays add up to a total of 97 lines affected by delays in just over a month," Ms Simpson said.

"A major delay a day can hardly be called good service.

Ms Simpson said she was concerned about the high number of track, signal and points failures — indicating problems with the ongoing maintenance of the rail network.

"The Gold Coast and Ipswich train lines experienced the most delays, but on five occasions all lines were shut down following incidents affecting central stations," she said.

"There were 20 track, signals and point failures that caused delays — sometimes shutting down tracks for hours on end.

"There was also six crashes involving motorists and four police incidents which raises serious questions about the safety and security of the rail lines across South East Queensland."

Ms Simpson said not all delays, such as the recent flooding on the Sunshine Coast line, were avoidable, but the growing number of points, track and signal faults needed to be addressed.

Fast Facts –

- 38 delays reported on TransLinkSEQ Twitter stream between Jan 4 and Feb 10.

- Gold Coast line experienced 15 delays

- Ipswich line experienced 14 delays

- There were - 20 track, signal and points faults

- 1 power fault

- 6 level crossing and bridge accidents involving motorists

- 4 police incidents

- 2 weather related delays

- 4 delays were not specified

[Mozz]

I am apolitical myself but I have stated on this forum in the past weeks that we have had a 40 - 45% increase in fares and a reduction in service of 40 - 45% WHAT IS HAPPENING SERIOUSLY WHAT IS HAPPENING SERIOUSLY ....... in what world does a company put up their prices by 40 - 45% then drop their service levels by a similar if not greater amount and stay in business ....... ?

[#Metro]

... and Ms Simpson's solution to all this is? ...

Why bother when you can just jump in your car and drive down Clem 7, over the Leo Hierschler Bridges, through North Link, Airport Link or whatever?

Might be faster if commuters got their own boat and got to the city that way. Row to work, it's faster...

[mufreight]

Perhaps a change at the top might see people more motivated to fix the problems in control so some of the problems will get fixed.
Politics aside the present government has effectively done little but run the assets down to their present standards of unreliability and poor service, the opposition Ms Simpson is at least listening to the commuters and pushing to have these ongoing failures addressed so maybe there is some hope.
Meanwhile commuters continue to suffer/tolerate what we get.