RAIL - Back On Track Forum

Reports of a "too crowded for Covid" 3-car service on the FG Line this morning. Commuters not happy!

Reports of an "overcrowded" 3-car service on the Ferny Grove Line again this morning. Passengers complaining about not being able to social distance and all seats taken by Mitchelton.

Quote from: BrizCommuter on April 12, 2021, 08:21:04 AM
Reports of an "overcrowded" 3-car service on the Ferny Grove Line again this morning. Passengers complaining about not being able to social distance and all seats taken by Mitchelton.

We surely can't be that short on non-NGR Rolling stock that FG still has to be 3 car trains. Or at least surely said 3 cars can be used on a line that probably works better for it (Ie. Doomben/airport)? Both of which are exclusively run by NGRs afaik.

Understandably any airport trains that through run to/from GC would need to be 6 car but the ones that terminate at Roma Street could be 3 car surely.

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Quote from: timh on April 12, 2021, 08:53:26 AM

Quote from: BrizCommuter on April 12, 2021, 08:21:04 AM
Reports of an "overcrowded" 3-car service on the Ferny Grove Line again this morning. Passengers complaining about not being able to social distance and all seats taken by Mitchelton.

We surely can't be that short on non-NGR Rolling stock that FG still has to be 3 car trains. Or at least surely said 3 cars can be used on a line that probably works better for it (Ie. Doomben/airport)? Both of which are exclusively run by NGRs afaik.

Understandably any airport trains that through run to/from GC would need to be 6 car but the ones that terminate at Roma Street could be 3 car surely.

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Some of the Roma Street - Airport short running services are sometimes formed to/from Gold Coast runs during the peak periods, e.g Varsity  - Airport - Roma Street - Airport - Varsity.

Just observed a 3-car Shorncliffe service. Questions need to be asked by QR are running 3-car trains in the peaks when we are under Covid restrictions?

And a 3-car Ferny Grove service which I'm about to board. Time to contact the CM!

Quote from: BrizCommuter on April 12, 2021, 16:26:28 PM
And a 3-car Ferny Grove service which I'm about to board. Time to contact the CM!

About 40 standing passengers per carriage. Absolute disgrace QR!

5.32 city to Cleveland a 3 car unit also

response from QR

QuoteHi there, thanks for contacting us. We're sorry for any inconvenience caused to you in this instance. We can confirm the 5.32pm Central to Cleveland service operated as a three car service due to a delay preparing the train for service. If you need any further assistance, please feel free to reach out.

Quite a few sets are out at the moment. 205 and 212 have been stowed for a couple months now. Emus are still being phased out with extension of life testing going. 4x IMUS have been moved onto the Gympie run to replace the retired ICE sets. And then you have your SMU and NGR refurbs. Depending on the fault some of the 3 car units of late have been run as a 3 car instead of nothing at all ie splitting in the yard.

^ pretty much confirms that QR have a rollingstock shortage, with no new sets on the immediate horizon, expect trouble for some time to come.

I recall an interview a few months ago when I suggested they might be a problem with fleet availability due to the number of NGRs being refurbished and retirement/scrapping of older units.  At the time official sources made assurances that this would not be the case.

Quote from: BrizCommuter on April 12, 2021, 18:33:05 PM
BrizCommuter has just finished disinfecting himself after ending up in an overcrowded 3-car train service today. Here is the blog report:
https://brizcommuter.blogspot.com/2021/04/qrs-3-car-covid-disgrace.html

I would be very concerned if the mask mandate is relaxed on public transport.

Sent to all outlets:

13th April 2021

Citytrain rollingstock shortage - 3 car services in peak

Greetings,

Some of our members have reported that some 3 car train services have been deployed recently during peak times (1, 2).  We understand that there is a rollingstock shortage due to the New Generation Rollingstock (NGR) train Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport (DSAPT) upgrade program, the retirement of the older trains such as Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) and InterCity Express (ICE) trains and some earlier Suburban Multiple Unit (SMU) trains are out of service. The TransLink service capacity tracker ( https://translink.com.au/travel-with-us/covid-19/capacity-tracker ) is not real-time information, so the unexpected deployment of 3 car trains in the peak can catch passengers out. We expect this rollingstock shortage might be prolonged as NGR trains are yet to be fitted with European Train Control System equipment as well.

We think that mandatory masks on public transport in SEQ should be maintained if broader restrictions are eased. It is not possible to social distance on public transport at peak times generally, and often out of peak as well.  Unexpected 3 car train services compound the problems.

Best wishes,

Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track https://backontrack.org

Reference:

1. BrizCommuter: QR's 3-Car COVID Disgrace
https://brizcommuter.blogspot.com/2021/04/qrs-3-car-covid-disgrace.html

2. Rollingstock shortages https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=14231.0

Facebook ...

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1381679321757052930

Booked for an interview with 7 News later this morning ... 

Quote from: ozbob on April 13, 2021, 09:44:50 AM
Booked for an interview with 7 News later this morning ... 

Done   

Report on RBoT FB of a 3 car on the Recliffe line this morning ...

https://www.facebook.com/RAILBackOnTrack/posts/4415260268488126?comment_id=4416360348378118

Inside reports that Bombardier sacked most of their maintenance staff at Wulkaraka NGR depot a few weeks ago. Not sure if that is having an impact on train availability. Have also heard some pretty bad things about the NGR mould issues!

Quote from: achiruel on April 12, 2021, 22:14:22 PM
^ pretty much confirms that QR have a rollingstock shortage, with no new sets on the immediate horizon, expect trouble for some time to come.

You also have to remember by now on the original ngr plans that the rollout would be in full swing with batch 2 and batch 3 units coming online but that has all been scrapped.

Quote from: HappyTrainGuy on April 13, 2021, 18:48:18 PM

Quote from: achiruel on April 12, 2021, 22:14:22 PM
^ pretty much confirms that QR have a rollingstock shortage, with no new sets on the immediate horizon, expect trouble for some time to come.

You also have to remember by now on the original ngr plans that the rollout would be in full swing with batch 2 and batch 3 units coming online but that has all been scrapped.

I'm concerned we won't have batch 2 before CRR opens now. The EMUs might still be running on the Ferny Grove heritage railway line.

NGR is no longer. The next expansion is a new generation of rollingstock under the REP delivered by an RMM. Effectively it's a NGR repeat.

Quote from: ozbob on April 13, 2021, 13:24:36 PM
Report on RBoT FB of a 3 car on the Recliffe line this morning ...

That's not the only unusual happening on the Redcliffe line this week. My train home Monday night was a 6 car Bombardier (160/260). We also passed another 6 car Bombardier at Petrie heading back to Springfield. Both services are scheduled to be NGR's (along with about 95% of the services on this line). It's unusual to see non NGR's on in the evening.  Makes me think that some NGR's got pulled out of service at short notice.

Quote from: BrizCommuter on April 12, 2021, 16:33:56 PM

Quote from: BrizCommuter on April 12, 2021, 16:26:28 PM
And a 3-car Ferny Grove service which I'm about to board. Time to contact the CM!

About 40 standing passengers per carriage. Absolute disgrace QR!

That's really bad. Even at 8 trains an hour, you'll have standees out past Alderley on a 6 car train (I saw one the other afternoon whilst I was waiting for the level crossing). Can't imagine a 3 on one of them, especially when we're being encouraged to spread out. 

Quote from: ozbob on April 13, 2021, 13:04:48 PM

Quote from: ozbob on April 13, 2021, 09:44:50 AM
Booked for an interview with 7 News later this morning ... 

Done   

7 News 13th April 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGb7R9SVxAU

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1381990858510114824

" ...  More than a hundred services last week saw passengers packed into three carriage trains, because larger ones weren't available.  ... "

Quote from: BrizCommuter on April 13, 2021, 14:19:34 PM
Inside reports that Bombardier sacked most of their maintenance staff at Wulkaraka NGR depot a few weeks ago. Not sure if that is having an impact on train availability. Have also heard some pretty bad things about the NGR mould issues!

Are they now Alstrom?   

Quote from: ozbob on April 14, 2021, 06:59:48 AM

Quote from: BrizCommuter on April 13, 2021, 14:19:34 PM
Inside reports that Bombardier sacked most of their maintenance staff at Wulkaraka NGR depot a few weeks ago. Not sure if that is having an impact on train availability. Have also heard some pretty bad things about the NGR mould issues!

Are they now Alstrom?   

The company take over is behind the mass sackings. Some may be re-hired, but sources state that there is currently only a skeleton staff remaining at Wulkaraka.

^ thanks.  I guess this leaves the NGR fleet in a risky situation ( more risky than normal? ) ...  perhaps the current  3 car ' plague ' is related?

Quote from: ozbob on April 14, 2021, 08:06:43 AM
^ thanks.  I guess this leaves the NGR fleet in a risky situation ( more risky than normal? ) ...  perhaps the current  3 car ' plague ' is related?

I certainly think questions need to asked to authorities about this situation.

Andrew reported SMUs on the Kippa-Ring branch last evening instead of the usual NGRs. Might be related?

The 5:22pm to Caboolture (ex-Springfield) and 5:28pm to Nambour (both NGRs) has been swappa-roonies recently.   Generally the latter is formed from the yard but whenever the earlier is running late it gets swapped with the one from the yard (which is normally scheduled for NBR).

A few times recently in the past 2 weeks the earlier service has been running late from Springfield and ends up forming the Nambour service on the fly by the time that leaves Milton.

Quote from: ozbob on April 14, 2021, 01:28:43 AM
" ...  More than a hundred services last week saw passengers packed into three carriage trains, because larger ones weren't available.  ... "

While peak hours services are likely "packed" there are many daytime off-peak, night and weekend services that could easily run as 3 car sets and still have enough space for social distancing. I'm talking 30 people on a 6 car train. It depends on when they run as to how many services are genuinely "packed".

Quote from: BrizCommuter on April 14, 2021, 08:20:24 AM

Quote from: ozbob on April 14, 2021, 08:06:43 AM
^ thanks.  I guess this leaves the NGR fleet in a risky situation ( more risky than normal? ) ...  perhaps the current  3 car ' plague ' is related?

I certainly think questions need to asked to authorities about this situation.

Alstom has confirmed to media that the workforce at Wulkuraka is much the same as before at 150.  It is possible a few temporary positions may have changed.

^  I am only guessing here, but there may have been a period where a skeleton staff was maintained until transfer arrangements were finalised.  This may have given rise to the sources suggesting the reduced workforce.  It is possible that there might be a NGR maintenance backlog which is affecting fleet availability of NGRs, but I expect it will probably be back on track shortly.

Quote from: ozbob on April 15, 2021, 01:26:33 AM

Quote from: BrizCommuter on April 14, 2021, 08:20:24 AM

Quote from: ozbob on April 14, 2021, 08:06:43 AM
^ thanks.  I guess this leaves the NGR fleet in a risky situation ( more risky than normal? ) ...  perhaps the current  3 car ' plague ' is related?

I certainly think questions need to asked to authorities about this situation.

Alstom has confirmed to media that the workforce at Wulkuraka is much the same as before at 150.  It is possible a few temporary positions may have changed.

Doesn't seem to match a report from an insider. You never know who to believe these days.