Transport Minister Meeting held Tuesday August 30, 2011

[Fares_Fair]

A Sunshine Coast rail commuter advocate and member (not spokesman) of Rail Back on Track
met with the Minister for Transport and Multicultural Affairs, the Hon Annastacia Palaszczuk MP on Tuesday afternoon
to discuss Sunshine Coast rail issues and presented the Minister with a copy of his report titled 'The Sunshine Coast Case.'

I can report that the Minister thanked him for the report and said that the Government would respond.
She said that "there were things worth looking into" with regard to the speech (reproduced below) which paraphrased the 'Sunshine Coast Case' report.

Below is a copy of the speech made to the Minister explaining the situation.
Further down under this post is "The Sunshine Coast Case Report"
Found here: ----> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6647.0

GROWTH
"The Sunshine Coast will grow by 60% in the next 20 years and is the 3rd highest growth area in Queensland."
"It is the 5th highest growth area in the nation."  

THE ISSUE
"From all that I have read, the rail issues all point to the need for one thing, and that is that the rail line must be duplicated from Beerburrum to Nambour for improvements to occur to both passenger and freight services."
"As we enter the second decade of the 21st century – the line north from Beerburrum remains a  3'-6" narrow gauge, single line track to the 3rd highest growth region in the state."
"At Beerburrum, where the duplicated track abruptly ended in April 2009, it forms a bottleneck."

"The Sunshine Coast section of the North Coast Line (NCL) has a great potential for encouraging the use of public transport and easing congestion on the Bruce Highway between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane."
"Rail travel times can be reduced, services can be increased and reliability can be improved for both passengers and freight."
"These are crucial issues for those reliant upon public transport between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane."

RAIL BUSES HIGHLIGHT THE CONGESTION
"We need to make public transport attractive between the state's capital and the rapidly growing Sunshine Coast region."
"Current services between Caboolture and Nambour, which comprise 26 rail buses each day instead of trains, do not promote public transport travel."
"These constitute an astonishing 44% of our daily Sunshine Coast to Caboolture services."
"These buses take up to 1 & 1/2 hours to travel 54km, this is 3 times longer than a car at ½ hour, and 50% longer than a train at just over 1 hour."
"These buses encapsulate the congestion of the line in a nutshell."

FREIGHT SAVINGS, EFFICIENCIES AND ADVANTAGES
"There are cost savings to be had for the State Government and society of $492 million over 20 years, for an outlay of $344 million towards freight."
"These can be found in a QR Submission to the Productivity Commission, dated 5 July 2006."
"The savings include movement of 850,000 tonnes of road freight to rail, environmental cost gains, road pavement maintenance savings, savings in freight costs of between 2-6%, road accident cost savings and also the potential to save human lives on one of the most dangerous sections of the Bruce Highway for vehicle crashes, Brisbane to Gympie."
"That gain alone is priceless."

FREIGHT GROWTH
"Brisbane to Cairns non-bulk freight is predicted to grow at an average annual rate of 4.2% to 2025," according to a National Transport Commission rail productivity review for QR.
A joint State/Commonwealth Government report states;
"If freight transport growth was sustained at more than three per cent a year, there is concern that current NCL infrastructure may not enable rail freight to grow at the same rate, thereby resulting in the freight growth over three per cent a year 'spilling over' to road transport."
"That means more heavy vehicles or B-double trucks onto the Bruce Highway because of the congested and shared single-track rail line."

FREIGHT REQUIRES LONGER PASSING LOOPS
"Freight trains on the line are also stymied by short passing loops along the single-line track."
"The shortest passing loop, at just 682m long, is located at Palmwoods, half-way between Landsborough and Nambour."
"For the Sunshine Coast line, it means that a freight train cannot be longer than 670m, or else there is no room to pass the passenger trains."
"It results in 2 trains and 2 crews, where 1 could suffice." "Also there would not be as many freight trains competing for the same 'slot' on the line."
"Cost and efficiency savings are there for the taking."


JOINT COMONWEALTH / STATE GOVERNMENT REPORT
"A joint report produced by both State and Commonwealth Government departments, the '2007 Brisbane-Cairns Corridor Strategy'
exposes the critical need for rail duplication to improve freight & passenger services and to relieve congestion on the line."
This strategy was developed by; The Australian Government Department of Transport and Regional Services (DOTARS);
the Queensland Department of Main Roads (QDMR) and Queensland Transport (QT).

The 2007 Strategy, in its' analysis under Current Corridor Performance p7, states;
"a major current impediment to the corridor's overall performance" as "rail congestion between Brisbane and Nambour."

It describes (Caboolture -now fixed), Sunshine Coast and Gympie track sections as having "Poor rail track alignment (which) impedes efficient transit times."
"The latest timetable revisions bear testament to that with increased (and not reduced) travel times!"

SO WHAT HAPPENED ?
"The current duplication works ended abruptly at Beerburrum in April 2009, this early cessation of the work did nothing to improve services to the Sunshine Coast."
"In fact, a Transport Minister briefing note obtained under Right to Information (RTI) and dated 15 July 2009,
confirmed that 'the benefits of increased capacity would not be fully realised until the rail duplication is completed to Landsborough.'"
"This was originally promised to be completed to Landsborough by mid-2012 by the Hon Paul Lucas MP, then Minister for Transport and Main Roads, on 14 August, 2006."
"In August 2005, he described the Caboolture to Landsborough section of track as one of the weakest links in the Queensland rail network!"

ENGINEERS REPORT
The 'Landsborough to Nambour - Initial Advice Statement, produced by Arup Engineers in 2007 stated under section 2.3.2.1 and aptly titled 'Do nothing' Option;
"It is likely that the region would experience adverse socio-economic effects should the NCL between Landsborough and Nambour not be upgraded."
It goes on to state; "Increases in demand are likely to significantly challenge the ability of the current infrastructure to support an acceptable level of rail service in the future."

"That future is here."


Regards,
Fares_Fair.