21 Feb 2011: SEQ: Review of proposed timetable for Caboolture and Ipswich lines

[ozbob]

Media release 21 February 2011

SEQ:  Review of proposed timetable for Caboolture and Ipswich lines is also required

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org), a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers, calls for the proposed Caboolture and Ipswich rail timetables to be again reviewed as well as the Sunshine Coast timetable.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"A recent poll on RAIL Back on Track members had only 25% prepared to call the combined proposal 'good' for the draft Caboolture - Ipswich timetables, with 75% calling it mediocre or worse (1).  One widely supported service pattern in an earlier poll (2) involved a 15 minute service all stations between Richlands and Shorncliffe, with a service between Ipswich and Caboolture also on a 15 minute frequency with limited stops between Darra and Northgate.  An upgrade to this would be to have the 15 minute service to Petrie and an additional half hourly or better service to Caboolture or even Landsborough, with limited stops between Bowen Hills and Petrie."

The issues with the draft timetables are:

1: Too much fat is being added.  4 minutes are being added Darra-Ipswich, we could go along with no more than 2 minutes to improve reliability.  Also, the Milton-Darra express, stopping only at Indooroopilly is an average speed of only 55km/h.  It should be a couple of minutes better than this over 13.7km with a single intermediate stop.  Also 3 minutes are being added to the Caboolture line's inbound trips, but not outbound.

2: Counter peak service to Milton and Toowong has no better than a 15 minute frequency.  This should have no gaps of more than 10 minutes.  It is a considerable deterrent to public transport use to south side commuters heading to Milton to have to wait for up to 14 minutes for the second train on top of whatever wait applies for their south side train.

3: Counter peak service to Ipswich is only 15 minutes.  Ideally this would be turn up and go as well as an express service.  Seems to make sense to have the express trains which might have people on them rather than the current practice which is to run out of service (3).

4: No increase to Caboolture line service off peak.

5: Lack of a full time express to Caboolture and Ipswich.

6: Only a marginal increase for Shorncliffe.

7: A reduction in the number of through services to Rosewood.  Shuttles waste time.

8: All stopping Northgate-Bowen Hills for Caboolture, Petrie and Nambour services.  One possibility to not have to have this is to have tighter headways through Bowen Hills platforms 1 and 2, best done by having the crew changes at Central or Roma St where there are four platforms for these trains.

9: No improvement in first inbound service times, and still with the reduced service frequency on Sunday mornings and the early finish on Sunday evenings.

"The interim timetable for the Richlands branch is acceptable.  RAIL Back on Track members would prefer that the new timetables are done optimally, given that we may have to live with them for a while.  Decentralisation is often touted as one of the tools of congestion management. Without frequent counter-peak services decentralisation will remain as only a theoretical concept in the congestion chaos!"

References:

1.   http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=5357.0

2.   http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=4452.0

3.   http://transporttextbook.com/?p=373

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[ozbob]

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