Wacol level crossing - comments?

[ozbob]

Has anyone any comments to make on the level crossing at Wacol?

Here is a police media release on the crossing:

Motorists urged to take care on Wacol Station Road

Police are urging motorists to take care on Wacol Station Road at Wacol after a change to traffic lights near the rail crossing.

Drivers should not move through the rail crossing until the green lights are showing.

Metropolitan South Regional Traffic Coordinator Inspector John Murnane said the rail crossing on Wacol Station Road had been controlled by flashing lights and boom gates however new traffic lights had recently been installed.

?Traffic lights were installed on either side of the railway crossing at both Wacol Station Road on the western side and the Akenside Street intersection on the eastern side of the rail crossing.

"A red and yellow traffic signal installed on the western side of the railway crossing operates when a train approaches.

"The cause for concern is that as the boom gates rise, some motorists are moving off while still facing a red traffic signal on the western side of the railway crossing.

"This traffic signal will stay red until it is safe to proceed.

?Some motorists are blindly following the line of traffic through the red signal at the rail crossing, and are then forced to stop across the rail line while they wait for the traffic lights at the Akenside Street intersection to change,? Inspector Murnane said.

Motorists are asked to take care around the new traffic conditions.

Last updated 25/10/2006

Media and Public Affairs Branch
07 3015 2444

[brismike]

Yes it is very dangerous and motorists can very easily make a mistake thinking they can move off when the boom gates go up. Only to then get stuck at the red traffic light. Shudder to think what might happen if before the light went green, the boom gates came back down right on top of a vehicle stuck over the railway lines. 

Personally i'm very much aware of this possibility and won't get into that situation. However for someone unfamiliar with the area it is a real danger.

[ozbob]

Yes, major problem Mike.  Here are some photographs of the crossing at Wacol this afternoon.

When I was there, I observed three people run across the crossing (lights flashing, warning alarms sounding, boom gates down) just before an Ipswich bound SMU .....























Photographs R Dow 7th January 2009

[mufreight]

Regular practice at Wacol for pedestrians running for their train to ignore the pedestrian gates and run around the booms to cross the line, it is only a matter of time till one gets hit as for motorists a recent sighting was a corrective services officer in uniform driving a government car who did a zig zag through the booms ahead of a coal train heading west at that crossing so it would seem that one can not excuse stupidity but one wonders how it would be possible to prevent these mentaly deficient people from putting the lives and wellbeing of others at risk.

[glen_2006]

I've travelled through this level crossing, and its more chaotic during peak-hour. If there is an accident on the Ipswich Motorway, the traffic builds back along Wacol Station Road. There is also another small side street before the crossing where other vehicles sometimes come out of. So yes, it is definately a confusing experiance each time.

[ozbob]

From the Satellite 8th April 2009 page 1

Risky business

[mufreight]

This crossing which has a tragic history should be replaced with an overpass as part of the current works on the Ipswich Motorway with the extension of the existing Progress road overpass accross the motorway.

[ozbob]

Wacol was once a busy goods station.  The level crossing at Wacol is very confusing for many motorists.  Quad tracks, two in use (mains) and two tracks which connect the up and down yards.

Today was a good day to visit Wacol as the on ramp at Goodna for the Ipswich highway is being re-positioned as part of the road works and all traffic is detoured via Wilruna St to Wacol Station Road, and hence over the Wacol level crossing.  Traffic was backed up from Wacol to almost Gailes.  Many motorists not being familiar with the crossing were being caught on the yellow diamond zones with traffic light changes.  Not sure what can be done here (apart from grade separation) to make it any better.  Warning signs are clear.  Maybe some additional lights that advise not to proceed unless there is a clear path through the crossing.

Wacol level crossing is complicated by the two lines that access sidings.  The incorporation of red traffic signals with the standard red flashing lights  (one direction only)  seems to have helped control traffic at this confusing crossing when lights activated.  Wacol level crossing has seen fatalities in the past.

From Google Maps next two images










Photographs R Dow 10th September 2011


































Photographs R Dow 11th September 2011

[somebody]

Hmm, interesting.

I think a road link from the east side of the railway line before Akenside St to the bridge over the Ipswich Motorway through the grass would reduce, but not eliminate this problem.  There could still be issues with people waiting to turn right into Akenside St.  Anyone confused hasn't been paying attention to either the diamond lines on the road or the sign saying four tracks.

The other solution is camera enforcement of people fouling the crossing, which is likely to be much more effective and probably cheaper.

[mufreight]

Apparently planning has been done for a rail overbridge to replace this crossing in conjunction with providing a further two traffic lanes accross the Ipswich Motorway which will provide a four lane connection between Progress Road and Wacol Station Road.
Progress Road has recently been widened to four lanes from the Ipswich Motorway interchange to Boundary Road and it is planned to extend the four lanes on Progress Road from Boundary Road to Clendon Street at Richlands which will then provide a four lane road from Blunder Road to the Motorway.

[ozbob]

Indeed mu.  There was a computer simulation of the Ipswich highway upgrade that did clearly show a grade separated crossing at Wacol.

Unfortunately it appears the simulation link is now dead, but clearly the long term plan.   In the meantime maybe some additional warning signs or something might be needed.

See --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=639.msg8030#msg8030

[mufreight]

Since they had an information session at Wacol Station early last year (I seem to recall it was) and nothing has surfaced since I would think that it was more a lets employ some more seat polishers to write more reports, as the current government has shown many times it is cheaper to engage experts and consultants to write a few more reports and justify not doing anything in the forseeable future but adding such a project to the we are being seen to be doing something that we have no intention of doing unless someone else pays for it list.
Such is the failed political maladministration of the state at present.

[Cam]

When the Dinmore to Goodna section of the Ipswich Motorway upgrade is completed next year, there will be a minumum of 3 lanes in each direction. I expect that some of the current traffic on Wilruna St in the afternoon will use the upgraded motorway instead of avoiding the congestion at Gailes.

[Cam]

In addition to my previous post, residents of Gailes, Camira & the nothern part of the suburb of Springfield still need to use Wilruna St or Formation St to access the Ipswich Motorway at Wacol otherwise they back track to the Goodna on ramp or the Springfield Parkway to use the Centenary Highway.

There really should be another entry/exit point to the Centenary Highway between Woodcrest College & Addison Rd, Camira to take some of this traffic.

[barnesy]

do   the   yards   still   get   used??   Also   noticed   a old   line   going   into   the   wacol   industrial   estate   what   is   the   history   behind   that   line.
Regards
shane

[Stillwater]

I am getting weary of the situation whereby a question is asked of the state government along the lines of:
What are you going to do about xyz problem?  And the answer that comes back is: We are having a report prepared into that problem and it would be inappropriate to act until we have all the facts.  OR This problem warrants a report being prepared, and that is what this government will do.  Unlike our opponents we are acting, they just whinge.  OR  We commissioned a report into the problem and the preferred solution has been identified.  It will cost many millions of dollars and has been scheduled to start in 2032, subject to the federal government giving us the money.  Is that the way to run the so-called Smart State?  It certainly is a world-class performance in obfuscation.

As for simulations and artists' impressions, they are illusions peddled by a government that denies the reality of the situation we all face in the here and now ... which is where and when action should occur.

[ozbob]

do   the   yards   still   get   used??   Also   noticed   a old   line   going   into   the   wacol   industrial   estate   what   is   the   history   behind   that   line.
Regards
shane

The yards are no longer used actively as they once were, but are used to store old railway wagons pending disposal etc., and track work vehicles from time to time.

The old industrial line is now closed, it was used to provide freight access to the estate. I believe there was once plans to extend it further into the estate as well. 

[colinw]

The old industrial line is now closed, it was used to provide freight access to the estate. I believe there was once plans to extend it further into the estate as well. 

I believe that when the Wacol spur was first proposed (back in the 1970s), there was at least one call for it to be used as the start of a branch line to serve Inala.

[ozbob]

A picture of an ARHS Tour 2000 class motor on the Wacol branch 1983 --> http://gallery3.qrig.org/index.php/members-gallery/gw/General/2024-2026-Wacol-Spur-250683

Some more photographs 2005 --> http://gallery3.qrig.org/index.php/members-gallery/Rocket_rodney/Wacol-Industrial-Estate

[ghostryder]

Wacol yard over the years was used as a holding and weighing point for coal hoppers awaiting loading at South Brisbane. When Roma St had a active goods yard Wacol was seen as a possible place to take pressure off Roma St. Pending verification IIRC it had livestock watering facilities as well. It also had a wagon repair facility built in the 1950s IIRC and it was in the location near where the line ran into the Wacol industrial Estate. After the wagon repair facility was demolished part of the area was used for unloading grain i am not sure if that still happens there or not. The weighbridge for coal trains IIRC was demolished a few years ago. And the level crossing back then had double gates each side of the crossing.

scott

[mufreight]

The old weighbridge remains intact on the now isolated siding on the down side of the main line, grain is no longer unloaded at Wacol with all grain for the feed mill in the Wacol Industrial Estate having been brought into the mill by road for many years now.
Once the grain traffic ceased being rail hauled into the mill it was quickly found to be more convenient to use road transport from the downs to the mill direct rather than road to the loading point on the downs, rail to Wacol then transhipping to road again to the mill, and the experts wonder why rail lost the traffic.

[ozbob]

 

Google Maps

> https://bit.ly/2Lbh3LD