Article: Rain causes late trains

[ozbob]

From the Queensland Times click here!

Rain causes late trains

Rain causes late trains

Zane Jackson | 2nd February 2010

YESTERDAY'S rain caused delays during peak hour on Ipswich trains as train drivers were told to go slow and brake early before arriving at train stations.

Peak hour trains to Ipswich were delayed.

YESTERDAY'S rain caused delays during peak hour on Ipswich trains as train drivers were told to go slow and brake early before arriving at train stations.

Queensland Rail's peak hour updates revealed four services were delayed for up to 12 minutes because of the wet conditions.

Despite rain affecting all of QR's Citytrain network area, the Ipswich line was the only track affected by the delays, which occurred between Dinmore and Goodna.

QR Passenger Executive general manager Paul Scurrah said train drivers were told to slow down for safety reasons.

"Our train drivers are instructed to reduce speed in some circumstances, including wet weather, in much the same way that motorists are advised to slow down on wet roads during rain," Mr Scurrah said.

"They are also instructed to brake earlier during wet weather and these factors can cause minor delays.

"Reduced operating speeds and earlier braking in wet weather are safety precautions and are common practice in railways across the world."

He said other trains were slightly delayed on the network but 110 trains – 94 per cent of yesterday morning's services – arrived in the city on time.

Commuters on the 5.47am Shorncliffe to Ipswich, 6.25am Rosewood to Caboolture, 6.24am Caboolture to Ipswich and 7.22am Petrie to Ipswich all faced delays.

Robert Dow, spokesman for commuter group Rail Back on Track, said it was the latest in a long list of delays for passengers on the Ipswich line.

He said recent weekend closures for track work – including this coming Sunday's closure – should give Ipswich commuters better service in the long run.

"Ipswich commuters have had to put up with a lot of delays recently, some of which where from track and signal faults, and other incidents which are outside of QR's control," Mr Dow said.

[Derwan]

While track and signal faults are somewhat avoidabe, rain isn't. Rain will always cause delays, and has done since the days of steam.

While it adds to the commuters woes, I think it's unfair to write an article about it that basicly puts it in the same category as avoidable delays.

[ozbob]

Queensland Times is the Ipswich newspaper, last week there were track and signal faults every day which caused a number of peak time disruptions.  There was another signal failure between Oxley and Darra yesterday afternoon that had buses running Corinda / Redbank for a while. The article is just highlighting why there were delays yesterday morning to inform the Ipswich reader base as to the exact cause.  In that sense it is worthwhile, although on the surface seems a bit of a beat up I agree Derwan.  Taken in the wider context though, and the fact that the QT receives a lot of feedback about disruptions understandable.

[Mozz]

After 35 years of travelling on the trains, mostly on the Ipswich line I can say the last 6 - 12 months have been the absolute worst with respect to signal faults, track faults and other mysterious faults causing delays and disruptions both inside of and outside of peak. Why?

40 - 45% increase in fares on 4th January has corresponded with 40 - 45% higher than normal service disruptions to commuters - coincidence or do we call in Mulder and Scully.......

[verbatim9]

From the Queensland Times click here!

Rain causes late trains

Rain causes late trains

Zane Jackson | 2nd February 2010

YESTERDAY'S rain caused delays during peak hour on Ipswich trains as train drivers were told to go slow and brake early before arriving at train stations.

Peak hour trains to Ipswich were delayed.

YESTERDAY'S rain caused delays during peak hour on Ipswich trains as train drivers were told to go slow and brake early before arriving at train stations.

Queensland Rail's peak hour updates revealed four services were delayed for up to 12 minutes because of the wet conditions.

Despite rain affecting all of QR's Citytrain network area, the Ipswich line was the only track affected by the delays, which occurred between Dinmore and Goodna.

QR Passenger Executive general manager Paul Scurrah said train drivers were told to slow down for safety reasons.

"Our train drivers are instructed to reduce speed in some circumstances, including wet weather, in much the same way that motorists are advised to slow down on wet roads during rain," Mr Scurrah said.

"They are also instructed to brake earlier during wet weather and these factors can cause minor delays.

"Reduced operating speeds and earlier braking in wet weather are safety precautions and are common practice in railways across the world."

He said other trains were slightly delayed on the network but 110 trains – 94 per cent of yesterday morning's services – arrived in the city on time.

Commuters on the 5.47am Shorncliffe to Ipswich, 6.25am Rosewood to Caboolture, 6.24am Caboolture to Ipswich and 7.22am Petrie to Ipswich all faced delays.

Robert Dow, spokesman for commuter group Rail Back on Track, said it was the latest in a long list of delays for passengers on the Ipswich line.

He said recent weekend closures for track work – including this coming Sunday's closure – should give Ipswich commuters better service in the long run.

"Ipswich commuters have had to put up with a lot of delays recently, some of which where from track and signal faults, and other incidents which are outside of QR's control," Mr Dow said.

Isn't about time that the government seriously starts thinking of putting new lines underneath the ground so that trains running on those lines are not weather effected. You hardly hear about weather effected delays of trains that run underneath the ground in other countries? There could be technical effected delays but never heard of late running trains underneath the ground because of rain.