Article: Commuters face delay as work shuts city line

[ozbob]

From the Queensland Times click here!

Commuters face delay as work shuts city line

Commuters face delay as work shuts city line

Chris Garry | 7th November 2009

FRUSTRATED Ipswich commuters will face a third weekend of rail delays as the Ipswich line is shut down for track work.

But come Monday morning, passengers could face bigger problems according to Rail Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow.

Mr Dow said catching a train the morning after major track work was not advised.

?It will be interesting to see what happens on Monday morning, because there are always problems with a rail line after it has had major track work,? Mr Dow said.

?There may be more signal failures which would delay passengers trying to get work.?

The last two weekends have seen signal failures on Saturdays cause hundreds of passengers to wait outside train stations for replacement busses.

This weekend will again see passengers face delays as all services between Rosewood and Corinda are replaced with buses, from first service Saturday to last service Sunday.

?Ipswich commuters have shown great patience the last two weekends considering the long delays on the line,? Mr Dow said.

?And while QR can not help the delays this weekend as they have been scheduled for a while, it will still frustrate passengers.?

There were even delays on the Ipswich line yesterday after a bus became stuck under a rail bridge near Graceville.

TransLink spokesman Andrew Berkman said this weekend?s track closure was part of the South East Queensland Infrastructure Plan and Program, which would eventually provide more capacity on the Ipswich line.

The work sees new tracks being built and Oxley and Darra stations upgraded with new facilities, security, accessibility and extra parking.

Rebecca Krutli, 19, from Leichhardt said the 7.15am train from Ipswich was regularly late.

?It?s pretty annoying when it makes you late for work and it seems to happen at least once a week,? she said.

Pauline Bird, 75, from Thagoona, said she found most trains to run on time, but she did not catch them during peak hours.

?I don?t use them to get to work though, so I imagine if you wanted to get to work and the train was late it would be frustrating,? Ms Bird said.

Shadow Transport Minister Fiona Simpson said that in the last two weeks CityTrains only met daily on-time performance standards on one day.

I think I said there are often problems after major track work ... no matter