Article: Agency silent on rail plans

[ozbob]

From Caboolture Shire Herald click here!

Agency silent on rail plans

20 Aug 08 @ 07:54am by Glenn Roberts

TRANSLINK will not say what plans it has to upgrade rail services to the Caboolture district despite the looming delivery of new passenger trains.

The State Government has ordered 44 three-car train sets for delivery by the end of 2010 and the South-East Queensland Infrastructure Plan and Program shows it plans to acquire another 58 three-car train sets.

TransLink Transit Authority spokesperson Adam Nicholson said the next major rail timetable change would focus on addressing demand across a number of busy rail corridors, including the Caboolture line.

?Extra services will be scheduled on the Caboolture line coinciding with the arrival of new trains and the completion of vital infrastructure,? Mr Nicholson said. Not only is TTA coy about its plans for deploying new rolling stock, it will not say what percentage of capacity its peak period services on the Caboolture line are carrying, beyond saying the line was ?heavily patronised?.

Robert Dow, a spokesman for lobby group RAIL Back On Track, said QR?s ability to run Exhibition loop services in addition to the normal timetable suggested there were sufficient resources to add extra early peak services on the Caboolture line.

[ozbob]

Feedback received, thanks.

Further to your editorial in the City News this week..  how is it that QR can put on an extra train at 5.00 pm for the Ekka - that I observed coming through Central basically empty -  but they can't find an extra one for the hundreds of people daily who have to cram on the 5.04 or wait 25 minutes for the next (Express) train for stations beyond Petrie.

I have seen a few passengers actually pass out in the past 12 months on that 5.04 train.   It's disgusting.

[brad C]

As I commute daily on the Caboolture/North Coast Line, I am intrigued with TTA's comment about 'completion of vital infrastructure' as a precursor to the introduction of new services on the Caboolture line.
Is this to mean duplication north of Caboolture, the Brunswick Street station upgrade or perhaps additional capacity to the Caboolture stabling areas???
Apart from these works in progress, I can see no other challenges other than the delivery of more rollingstock that would preclude the introduction of at least some additional AM and PM peak services to stations beyond Petrie.

If patrons on the Ferny Grove line are concerned about large gaps in the timetable to serve stations such as Alderley, there are equally large gaps in the Caboolture timetable such as the infamous 20 minutes between 1638 and 1704 for passengers beyond Petrie, and the frustrations of the reversion of a 30 minute gap in trains post 1800hrs.
Gaps in services on the Ferny Grove line post 1800hrs range from 7 minutes between 1757 and 1804, to 10 minutes between 1804 and 1814 with no standing passengers.
Passengers on Caboolture services post 1800 are regularly still standing until Zillmere, which expressed as a Ferny Grove destination, would equate to standing almost to the terminus!!
It is time for major improvements on this busy corridor, not a nip and tuck to existing train times like we see time and time again.
Last major 'improvement' for stations between Petrie and Caboolture was September 1993 (although I felt the system actually went backwards at that time).

[ozbob]

I understand some figures on loading on QR Citytrain might be made available soon.

Cheers
Bob

[stephenk]

Given that the Ekka loop service can run 6tph, and the Caboolture pm peak is 10tph (16:30 tp 17:30 ex Central), then there is track capacity through the core section for 16tph (plus 2tph to Shorncliffe, and 1tph Gympie) - a service increase of 60% for the Caboolture Line.

BTW the gaps for stations not served by Caboolture Line expresses in the evening peak are 18, 11, 12, 19, 9. Two of these gaps are beyond what I would see as an acceptable gap of 15mins. Likewise the 22min gap to stations beyond Petrie during the pm peak (16:42 to 17:04) is also unacceptably long. Yet again QR/Translink need to look at their express service and short turning service patterns to provide a fairer service for all passengers.

It seems illogical that the service drops to 30mins after 18:04. In comparison lines in Melbourne have an enhanced service pattern until around 19:30pm.


Brad C - maybe you would like to swap a Caboolture Line train from between 17:00-17:30 for use on the Ferny Grove Line, so that the Caboolture Line can have an extra train after 6pm taken from the Ferny Grove Line?