Connecting SEQ 2031 - The rail revolution ...

[ozbob]

Feedback:  4BC radio, report that New Generation rolling stock which was originally 200 now down to 175.  Anyone able to confirm?

[O_128]

Ozbob how many carriages should really be ordered? Should we make a release or am I to assume that these trains will suffice for the "urban link" trains (will they have 3 doors) and at some point in the next 5 years we will see the 160kph trains ordered for SC and GC.

[ozbob]

Ozbob how many carriages should really be ordered? Should we make a release or am I to assume that these trains will suffice for the "urban link" trains (will they have 3 doors) and at some point in the next 5 years we will see the 160kph trains ordered for SC and GC.

No idea,  we need to wait for actual details. 

[ozbob]

Ozbob how many carriages should really be ordered? Should we make a release or am I to assume that these trains will suffice for the "urban link" trains (will they have 3 doors) and at some point in the next 5 years we will see the 160kph trains ordered for SC and GC.

No idea,  we need to wait for actual details.  

From the Queensland Parliament Hansard (see http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6920.msg72548#msg72548 ) it does seem that the initial 200 3 car trains have been pruned to 75 six car sets (150 3 car).

It does depend on what they actually are.  Is the reduction due to the fact that different units for long haul interurban will be acquired?  If  the 75 six car sets are a direct replacement for EMUs then a lesser fleet expansion.  I expect that the EMUs will be around a while yet ... lots of questions now.

[HappyTrainGuy]

NGR is to replace 87 EMUs.

[somebody]

NGR is to replace 87 EMUs.

So a smaller fleet after the upgrade?  Can you say downgrade?

[HappyTrainGuy]

Not really a downgrade. Its roughly a repeat numbers order of the SMU260/IMU160 series.

[ozbob]

87 EMUs  3 car = 44 six car sets ...

[Arnz]

NGR is to replace 87 EMUs.

So a smaller fleet after the upgrade?  Can you say downgrade?

87x EMUs is about 43.5x 6-car sets.  If the rumours of the cutting of the 200x 3-car sets (100x 6-car) to 150x 3-car (75x 6-car) sets is true, that still leaves 30x 6 car for (shortened) expansion.

[HappyTrainGuy]

The total order number was never finalised. It was up to 200 depending on the outcome of other pending proposals.

[O_128]

Im going to go on a limb and say that the EMUs easily have 10+ years left in them there a great train and there really is nothing wrong with them.

That leaves 75 new 6 car trains Plus what I would assume would be about 20-25 9 car Tilt trains for the GC/SC.

[somebody]

87 EMUs  3 car = 44 six car sets ...

Ah yes.  Ok.

[SteelPan]

STOP PRESS, STOP PRESS, STOP PRESS

Connecting SEQ 2364 Set to be launched!

Rumours in state government circles are growing that the long awaited and WORLD CLASS "Connecting SEQ 2364" is about to be offically launched.  An unnamed source in the Minister for State BroadbandX25000, AsianEconomicFiscalEnahcementPolicy, CHINESE-'stralia Defence Coop and Transport Concepts office, confirmed a launch was "looking good".  A spokesman for the Transport Concepts Department, Nigel Lookingbusy said, this plan builds on the last plan, which was very much a child of the even earlier plan.  This one though, is something really special, we've used a whole new series of super detailed colour graphing attributes, there's even going to be available, in limited number, what's called "hard copy" versions, the type of study report say your grandparents probably read, back when the long forgotten "cross river rail" paragraphs were being included"

Mr Lookingbusy said it was "amazing" to see the latest WORLD CLASS report grow over the last 10 years.  "We started with just a few lines, we took some older report wording and moved different words around - then we had a paragraph, that soon became a page and we were really off and running.  Look at it now, over 3,500 pages of words, graphics and a few amazing interactive features.  You almost really believe we're going to develop rail based public transit - it's simply amazing!"

Mr Lookingbusy said the report was no doubt the highlight of his career so far in the Transport Concepts Department and if he was lucky, he may one day be involved in the reports evolution into the next generation of Transport Concepts Connecting SEQ Report.  A small government unit is believed to already be considering enahnced title attributes as a major feature for the next report.

As for Mr Lookingbusy, he was off racing to the impossibly busy Central Station to catch his 3 hours all stations train to Ipswich, for the patchy bus change to a WORLD CLASS SupaLink bus, for the 90min final leg to his house 7km southwest of Ipswich.

[mufreight]

Steel Pan, I would almost think that you were being cynical in your post but unfortunately the content of your post has been confirmed by Premier Doingbuggerall who has suggested that the program may have to be defered for a further ten years due to lack of funding the previously allocated funding having been expended on the production of the Connecting SEQ 2364 report and the payment of long service entitlements of the 2463 public servants who were employed on the production of Connecting SEQ 2364.

   

[Stillwater]

Personally, I am waiting for the next round of enterprise bargaining over pay rates for state public servants that will require state employees to use part of their pay rise to purchase a lotto ticket each week, with any winnings to be split 50-50 between the employee and the government.  Then Treasurer Andrew Fraser will be able to boast about a 'real funding scheme' for public transport in Queensland!

[SteelPan]

Steel Pan, I would almost think that you were being cynical in your post but unfortunately the content of your post has been confirmed by Premier Doingbuggerall who has suggested that the program may have to be defered for a further ten years due to lack of funding the previously allocated funding having been expended on the production of the Connecting SEQ 2364 report and the payment of long service entitlements of the 2463 public servants who were employed on the production of Connecting SEQ 2364.

   

spot on!

[SteelPan]

Personally, I am waiting for the next round of enterprise bargaining over pay rates for state public servants that will require state employees to use part of their pay rise to purchase a lotto ticket each week, with any winnings to be split 50-50 between the employee and the government.  Then Treasurer Andrew Fraser will be able to boast about a 'real funding scheme' for public transport in Queensland!

I'd be amazed if any modern govt could keep their hands OFF 50% of a lotto win!  

[mufreight]

Personally, I am waiting for the next round of enterprise bargaining over pay rates for state public servants that will require state employees to use part of their pay rise to purchase a lotto ticket each week, with any winnings to be split 50-50 between the employee and the government.  Then Treasurer Andrew Fraser will be able to boast about a 'real funding scheme' for public transport in Queensland!

I'd be amazed if any modern govt could keep their hands OFF 50% of a lotto win!  

Unfortunately 50% of nothing is nothing and that is how much Premier Doingbuggerall intends to spend on public transport as public transport is not relevant to her lifestyle as she never has need of it having numerous publicly funded Ghia model sedan chairs at her disposal.

[Derwan]

Let's get back on topic. 

[ozbob]

http://www.railexpress.com.au/archive/2011/november/november-2nd-2011/top-stories/rail-the-key-for-south-east-queensland-transport-future

Rail the key for South East Queensland transport future
by Rail Express — last modified Nov 01, 2011 08:52 PM
— filed under: Weekly Top Stories, Rail

With the region's population expected to grow from 2.7 million in 2006 to more than 4.2 million in 2031, a new report released by the Queensland Government says that rail, with its ability to efficiently move large numbers of people, will remain the backbone of the future transport network for South East Queensland.
 
Rail the key for South East Queensland transport future

The Department of Transport and Main Roads has released Connecting SEQ 2031 - An Integrated Regional Transport Plan outlining the Queensland Government's vision for meeting the transport challenges of the region over the next 20 years.
Connecting SEQ 2031 has been developed as the guiding transport planning and policy document to support the desired outcomes of the South East Queensland Regional Plan 2009-2031. It delivers amongst other things:

    a master plan to address the critical issue of transport for the region's ongoing success
    a central document that consolidates the transport-related actions from many of the Queensland Government's studies and policies
    a basis for prioritising funding to support the numerous transport and land use plans that have been developed within government.

The report says that by planning for and managing growth within the existing urban footprint, higher density communities can be created and people moved around more easily, but in order to achieve this, travel patterns need to fundamentally change by:

    doubling the share of active transport (such as walking and cycling) from 10% to 20% of all trips
    doubling the share of public transport from 7% to 14% of all trips
    reducing the share of trips taken in private motor vehicles from 83% to 66%.

While ambitious, the report says these targets can be met if the average south-east Queenslander changes just three of their 17 weekday trips each week from car to public or active transport.

New rail lines are included in the plan - expanding the reach of the rail network to more communities across the region.

However, in the interim, other initiatives have been proposed to improve the rail network's capacity, such as high frequency services over extended peak periods, and improved signalling and timetabling.

Rail revolution

Connecting SEQ 2031 outlines the plan for a 'rail revolution'; a complete overhaul of the rail system to provide a modern, high capacity network that will mean, for most passengers, rail transport will be quicker and more reliable than driving a car.

The network will be expanded with new rail lines, including Cross River Rail and extensions to north-west Brisbane, Kippa-Ring, Maroochydore, Redbank Plains, Ripley, Flagstone and Gold Coast Airport and a proposed Brisbane subway.

A key component of the 'rail revolution' is to optimise the use of existing rail infrastructure before Cross River Rail is delivered, and support the future transformation of rail services after Cross River Rail is in place. This will include improved timetabling, signalling upgrades and new generation rolling stock.

Cross River Rail

Cross River Rail is the proposed new north - south rail line in Brisbane's inner city, including a new tunnel under the Brisbane River and four new underground inner city stations. This will mean more frequent trains and better services for all of southeast Queensland's rail passengers. Cross River Rail will allow a transformation of the way rail services operate in southeast Queensland.

Enabled by Cross River Rail, the plan proposes in the future to sectorise the rail network:

UrbanLink - high frequency 'turn up and go', all stops services on the inner network

ExpressLink - all day (6 am–9 pm) express services connecting outer Brisbane suburbs to destinations across the region.

CoastLink - express services from the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast to Brisbane in about an hour. There could also be all stops UrbanLink services on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast to cater for local travel in these growing cities.

New types of rail services

Light rail on the Gold Coast
Light rail will provide high frequency services to transform the busy coastal movement corridor on the Gold Coast. Construction of light rail from the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct to Broadbeach is well under way, with completion scheduled for 2014. Connecting SEQ 2031 envisages light rail extending to Coolangatta, with a connection to regional rail services at Helensvale.

New passenger rail lines

    Cross River Rail
    Sunshine Coast line from Beerwah to Maroochydore
    Moreton Bay Rail Link – Petrie to Kippa-Ring
    North West Transport Corridor – Cross River Rail to Strathpine
    Salisbury to Flagstone
    Richlands to Springfield and Redbank Plains
    Ipswich to Ripley
    Extend Gold Coast line to Gold Coast Airport

Brisbane subway
With an extra 100 000 people forecast to live in inner Brisbane (CBD, Spring Hill, Milton, South Brisbane and Fortitude Valley) and employment numbers doubling by 2031, there will be about 2.4 million trips a day in the inner city (up from one million in 2006). To help distribute these trips across the vibrant inner city core, an entirely new and separate Brisbane subway is proposed between Bowen Hills, the CBD and Toowong.

Freight rail
While the main focus of the report is on passenger movements it also highlights the need to plan and facilitate the provision of freight rail lines to link the region with major markets including:

    a dual gauge rail line with freight as the priority use from Acacia Ridge to the Port of Brisbane (facilitated by the proposed Cross River Rail project)
    dual gauge dedicated freight line from Bromelton to Acacia Ridge (with no overhead power lines to allow for double stacked containers)
    a dual gauge southern freight rail bypass from the Interstate Line at Kagaru to the Western Line west of Rosewood
    preservation of a corridor for a dual gauge freight rail line from Gowrie to Grandchester
    undertake targeted upgrades of existing rail lines to improve separation of freight and passenger rail and provide passing loops for longer trains.

The full report can be downloaded at www.connectingseq.qld.gov.au/

[HappyTrainGuy]

There already is a dedicated DG line to Acacia Ride without electrical supports...

[mufreight]

There already is a dedicated DG line to Acacia Ride without electrical supports...

What are those funny things alongside and overhead the DG line between Sailsbury and Dutton Park, preperations for Xmas decorations?

[HappyTrainGuy]

dual gauge dedicated freight line from Bromelton to Acacia Ridge (with no overhead power lines to allow for double stacked containers)

[colinw]

dual gauge dedicated freight line from Bromelton to Acacia Ridge (with no overhead power lines to allow for double stacked containers)

Said dual gauge to Bromelton is far from finished, and is sitting in an uncompleted state ignored by ARTC for well over a year now.

At this stage it is looking very much like one of these:

[somebody]

I wish the ARTC could finish the SSFL.  All these other projects can wait.

[somebody]

HappyTrainGuy is right - the big slowdown started with the "door closing" announcement. I well remember the chaos on the trains when that was introduced. The timetable basically fell apart overnight.

Another defeat for common sense.

Checking the Mar 2008 & Feb 2009 IPS timetables, it seems that the outbound trains did it in 53 minutes compared to 58 now and 50 in 1995.  I would say that most of the slow down has occurred in the latest timetable revision.  Inbound it was 54 minutes in the Feb 2009 effort.  It is interesting that it was the inbound trains which I noticed as being unreliable in picking me up.  I think in a lot of cases they made up most of the time by Central, assisted by the 1 minute dwell at Roma St, which was pretty annoying for the outbound.

I've pretty much given up on using the trains for home/city trips except for peak hour and first/last services.

[colinw]

Ipswich line is about 38km long, so that means that since 1995 the all stations Ipswich has reduced from an average speed of over 45 km/h to an average speed now of a bit over 39 km/h.

[SurfRail]

Ipswich line is about 38km long, so that means that since 1995 the all stations Ipswich has reduced from an average speed of over 45 km/h to an average speed now of a bit over 39 km/h.

I'd love to see a test train run without door announcements - maybe just a "bebebebebebebebeep" like the Tangaras as a minor concession to "safety".  Bet you it would shave about 5 minutes off the trip.

I'm also going to be very annoyed if the NGR sets only have 2 doors per side per carriage.

[HappyTrainGuy]

I think it was 94 they started trialing the door mods on EMUs? They started modifying the door closure systems on all EMUs just prior with a new timetable implimentation in early 95 during the rollout of the new SMUs and their door warning systems/progressive introduction and rollout with the EMU door mods which was finalised across all 88 EMUs in late 95-96 along with 6 car units to cope with the extra demand.

Since then theirs been more demand and an introduction of multiple different rollingstock capabilities. More lines, Traction motors and gearing setups ie IMUs hate short runs compared to EMUs that love stop start/plug doors vs sliding doors/breaking performance/rollingstock-track behavour in different weather conditions - Sunny, sprinkles, rain ie one favours one condition more than the other. But the biggest fact would be a different service organiser (Translink) with a system wide intigration of trains to meet busses and vice versa. All of which could play parts in how the service is run.