New timetable - Gold Coast/Beenleigh Line

[ozbob]

Media release 22 May 2011

SEQ: Cross River Rail  delays may slow Gold Coast services

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 suggests that delays to the Cross River Rail project may slow the Gold Coast trains.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"RAIL Back On Track members have discussed options for improved rail capacity for the Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines at length (1). The lack of timely track amplifications over the years, and the need to run express services and all stopping services together complicates and limits opportunities for improvements unless innovative stop-gap strategies are implemented."

"One innovative proposal which would help give much needed capacity is to have the Gold Coast trains serve all stations between Yeerongpilly and the CBD.  This would allow standing space on the Gold Coast trains to be utilised without violating the 'standard' for no more than 20 minutes of standing.  Further, the Kuraby and Beenleigh trains could then bypass these stations and get a faster service while increasing the effectiveness of the standing space utilisation."

"These changes in operating patterns would not be popular with all but is one way of gaining some increases in capacity until Cross River Rail is implemented. Delays to the Cross River Rail will force TransLink and Queensland Rail into these type of changes."

"RAIL Back On Track calls on all sides of politics to reaffirm their committment to the Cross River Rail project and to commencing this project without any more delays. Current Labor policy is a that two year delay will be necessary (2,3).  Cross River Rail will speed up the Gold Coast, Beenleigh and Kuraby trains significantly as compared the current Merivale Bridge route which suffers from a poor alignment and train path limitations.  With the Kuraby trains, it requires of course that they go via the Cross River Tunnel which isn't in current plans."

"Cross River Rail also has significant flow on benefits for the entire rail network as it will ease the CBD rail bottleneck which will be at capacity shortly.  Cross River Rail is an essential and critical project for future transport sustainability (4)."

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

1. http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=5569.0

2. http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=2034.0

3. http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=5341.0

4. http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=5855.0

[ozbob]

Yeerongpilly

Yeronga

Fairfield

Dutton Park

Park Road

South Brisbane

5 additional stops + 5 to 8 minutes or so is my guess to travel time.

[BrizCommuter]

Completely agree with that idea!

[somebody]

Yeerongpilly

Yeronga

Fairfield

Dutton Park

Park Road

South Brisbane

5 additional stops + 5 to 8 minutes or so is my guess to travel time.

It shouldn't be more than 5 minutes, and possibly less.  QR's IMUs have significantly better acceleration than CityRail's rolling stock.

[somebody]

Completely agree with that idea!

Surprised you didn't say that you disagree with making the Kuraby and Beenleigh trains express between Park Rd and Yeerongpilly!

[Arnz]

IMU160/SMU260s has the fastest acceleration out of the fleet.

Also, I'd have to disagree with the Park Road - Yeerongpilly expresses for the Kuraby trains.  You could probably run the Beenleigh expresses on the DG instead of the GCs.  

In regards to the XPT, all the trains (including the GC trains) need to be stopping all-stations Yeerongpilly to Brisbane City on the main two tracks during the period the XPT takes up the DG to utilise maximum capacity.

[somebody]

Also, I'd have to disagree with the Park Road - Yeerongpilly expresses for the Kuraby trains.  You could probably run the Beenleigh expresses on the DG instead of the GCs.  

Which reduces the numbers of passengers picked up by the Gold Coast trains and therefore requires them to serve more stations to collect the same numbers of passengers.