Hon. Ms Annastacia Palaszczuk to announce timetable changes this week

[Fares_Fair]

CRG Meeting - North Coast Line.
Monday 7th March, 2011.
Red Bridge Motor Inn, Woombye
6:00pm - 8:00pm (went into overtime).

It was reported in this meeting that the Minister for Transport and Multicultural Affairs, Hon. Ms Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, Member for Inala
would be making an announcement this week about the draft 2011 timetable changes.  

This release will be a testament to the major capacity bottleneck issues of the Sunshine Coast line.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[ozbob]

Look forward to it, as do we all no doubt ..   

[Stillwater]

Perhaps Ms Palaszczuk is holding off making an announcement pending the protests (based at Landsborough, it would seem) about new fares.  Let that all die down so as not to swamp the 'good news' with negativity.  I can see some logic in that.

[Fares_Fair]

If it was good news she would release it early to offset the train boycott protest.
Conversely, if it's more bad news I reckon she would wait until after the train boycott.

There's a wall of silence at the moment.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Golliwog]

Or perhaps because she knows the Sunshine Coast commuters are a very vocal minority? Yes you guys do get the (very) sharp end of the stick, but from the 2009 Passenger Load survey, there are 873 of you in the inbound AM Peak boarding between Nambour and Elimbah, compared to 11073 boarding between Caboolture and Virginia.

I'm certainly not saying that makes it ok to leave you guys like this, but given the constraints on the system (whether or not they should exist is a totally different argument, the fact is they do) there does ned to be some rationalisation of the timetable, and using up valuable track capacity so they can provide the small minority with a slightly faster commute is not the way to go.

[Fares_Fair]

I must admit I am surprised by the figures you quoted - I'm sure there are more of us. 

I understand that it won't be anyway.
One doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to see that it's impossible to put on more services and at the same time reduce travel times for Sunshine Coast commuters.

I very much doubt we will win on the time of journeys - the infrastructure just doesn't allow it !
Our journeys will indeed get longer ... and so will the incentive to drive.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[ozbob]

There is a tremendous pax potential on the Sunshine Coast.  The line capacity is 'restricting services' which confounds the ability of people to use the services.  Many are forced onto the roads.  It cannot continue ...  time the SCL had one hour out of peak and better peak services.  It is achievable today, the bull about not being able to achieve that basic frequency is just nonsense.  The upgrade from Beerburrum to Landsborough is a high priority.

[mufreight]

Seems that there is a definate trend here, make the services as inconvenient as possible and this inhibits patronage, if the numbers of passengers either remains low or drops then the government is not forced to invest in constructing new nfrastructure or upgrading existing infrastructure and similarly Translink can argue against providing better more frequent services and instead expend their funding employing more seat polishers on excessive salaries to compile reports and studies to justify doing nothing productive or constructive..
Affordable Public Transport is a service that Government is obliged to provide as a comunity service with one of the key benefits being to reduce the demands on road infrastructure, something that both the current inept and short sighted government and Translink management conveniently overlook at their future peril.

[#Metro]

Or perhaps because she knows the Sunshine Coast commuters are a very vocal minority? Yes you guys do get the (very) sharp end of the stick, but from the 2009 Passenger Load survey, there are 873 of you in the inbound AM Peak boarding between Nambour and Elimbah, compared to 11073 boarding between Caboolture and Virginia.

The number of passengers is directly related to the quality of service.
The demand for mouldy, rotten apples for eating will always be suppressed and low.

Improve the quality and you will get more customers. Sunshine Coast is growing. Sure extending infrastructure costs money, but it has a much better case than extending the rail line to la la land flagstone and Yarabilla where next to nothing exists already.

[somebody]

time the SCL had one hour out of peak and better peak services.  It is achievable today, the bull about not being able to achieve that basic frequency is just nonsense.  

Hmm.  Achieving that on current infrastructure, all the way to Nambour would be interesting.  Timings from the draft timetable.  Crossing at Landsborough you would have:

Northgate	:00
Petrie	:14
Beerburrum	:42
Landsborough	:02
Nambour	:33
-
Nambour	~:23
Landsborough	:02
Beerburrum	:31
Petrie	:58
Northgate	:14

You cannot use the third road to Lawnton on the above timetable.  So these trains would make it harder to add suburban services.  Also a ~50 minute dwell at Nambour, a precision cross at Landsborough and a "dance of the trains" at Woombye.

Crossing at Beerwah:

Northgate	:00
Petrie	:14
Beerburrum	:42
Beerwah	:56
Landsborough	:02
Nambour	:33
-
Nambour	:20
Landsborough	:48
Beerwah	:56
Beerburrum	:09
Petrie	:36
Northgate	:52

Can use the third road, but still needs a "dance of the trains" at some point and also has a 47 minute dwell at Nambour.

Crossing at Glass House Mountains:

Northgate	:00
Petrie	:14
Beerburrum	:42
Glass House M	:50
Landsborough	:02
Nambour	:33
-
Nambour	~:09
Landsborough	:37
Glass House M	:50
Beerburrum	:58
Petrie	:25
Northgate	:41

Can use the third road, ~36 minute dwell at Nambour but needs a "dance of the trains" somewhere north of Landsborough.

With "dance of the trains" and no precision cross:

Northgate	:00
Petrie	:14
Beerburrum	:42
Landsborough	:02
Mooloolah	:09
Eudlo	:14
Palmwoods	:20
Nambour	:33
-
	At Eudlo	At Palmwoods	At Mooloolah
Nambour	:59	:11	:47
Palmwoods	:08	:20
Eudlo	:14	:26
Mooloolah			:09
Landsborough	:29	:41
Beerburrum	:51	:03	:36
Petrie	:18	:30	:03
Northgate	:34	:46	:18

The only one of the above which doesn't have a crash is the Mooloolah dance.  And that doesn't allow the the trains to use the third road to Lawnton.  The Eudlo one would work if the duplication had extended to Glass House Mountains.

Death to the "dance of the trains"!  Crossing at Glass House Mountains seems the most operationally reasonable approach.  I favour only half the trains extending beyond Landsborough, as that will speed up the remaining trains and the bus isn't much slower beyond there.  You should be able to end the railbuses south of Landsborough with such a timetable.

With duplication Eudlo-Palmwoods:

Northgate	:00
Petrie	:14
Beerburrum	:42
Landsborough	:02
Eudlo	:14
Palmwoods	:20
Nambour	:33
-
Nambour	:05
Palmwoods	:14
Eudlo	:20
Landsborough	:35
Beerburrum	:57
Petrie	:24
Northgate	:40

The southbound train still doesn't reach Beerburrum in time for the northbound train to enter that section.

[Stillwater]

From Dr Philip Laird: "The single track between Caboolture and Nambour, in all likelihood, is the nation's most congested section of rail track.

" The attendant delays and ongoing rail congestion imposes an ongoing cost to efficient rail freight and passenger train operations. These delays include restrictions on freight train movements during peak hours and the use of a 'railway bus' between Caboolture and Nambour whose use for some scheduled services leads to a 2 hr 30 min train journey between Brisbane and Nambour (enough to discourage anyone from using public transport again)."

His full report here, http://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/public_submissions/published/files/82_smasuniversityofwollongong_SUB.pdf gives some interesting insights.

[mufreight]

The southbound train still doesn't reach Beerburrum in time for the northbound train to enter that section.

Thus the urgent need to complete the realignment and duplication Beerburrum to Glasshouse and duplicate Moololah to Eudlo, or alternatively Eudlo to Palmwoods.      

[somebody]

The southbound train still doesn't reach Beerburrum in time for the northbound train to enter that section.

Thus the urgent need to complete the realignment and duplication Beerburrum to Glasshouse

Yes.  Should have been done with the Beerburrum duplication IMNSHO, but looking forward, should we go all the way to Palmwoods or Nambour, or can we accept the partial duplications you have previously mentioned?  I don't see the benefit in duplicating Glass House Mountains-Landsborough if nothing is done north of there.

Beerburrum-GlassHouse is also the longest remaining single track section south of Nambour.  Duplication would provide more paths for 7xxm freight trains, as well as more paths for 1km and longer freight trains.

[mufreight]

The money to do the entire Beerburrum to Nambour is simply not there at the present time, by doing Beerburum to Glasshouse and Mooloolah to Eudlo gets the best result per dollar spent at this time with money that could be made avaliable.
The next works should be the move of the stabling at Nambour to Yandina and reconstruction of Nambour station to provide two through platforms and the realignment and duplication of Eudlo to Palmwoods.

[Stillwater]

Has anyone heard any more about stabling options Nambour-Yandina?  Latest I believe is that an option immediately adjacent to Nambour and anout about 1km north have been identified, but not yet investigated.  Doesn't seem to be much hurry either.

[mufreight]

Until such time as the current stabling at Nambour is relocated any reconfiguration of the station layout at Nambour is impractical and would be another bandaid project that would largely have to be replaced within a short period of time.