Queensland Rail - Annual and Financial Report 2016-17

[ozbob]

Queensland Rail - Annual and Financial Report 2016-17

> http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/TabledPapers/2017/5517T1845.pdf

[ozbob]

29th September 2017

Media Release
Acting Deputy Premier, Minister for Transport and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning
The Honourable Leeanne Enoch

2016-17 snapshot reinforces QR's focus on becoming modern, world-class railway

Queensland Rail has released its performance snapshot for 2016-17, reinforcing the organisation's continued focus on delivering a modern, world-class railway service.

Releasing QR's Annual Report today, Acting Minister for Transport Leeanne Enoch said that while the organisation had faced a number of challenges last financial year, Queensland Rail continued to make good progress to restore service reliability.

"Queensland Rail has worked hard to stabilise its services, improve on-time running and significantly reduce cancellations throughout 2017," Ms Enoch said.

"This year, we have been able to return to a level of nearly 94 per cent peak on-time running and in August 2017, Queensland Rail achieved its best OTR results since the service disruptions in 2016, with more than 95 per cent of trains reaching their destination on time.

"We know we need to do more, which is why the Palaszczuk Government will continue to work with QR to implement all of the Strachan Commission of Inquiry recommendations.

"Already, in 2017 QR has made good progress in implementing key activities under the 'Fixing the Trains Action Plan' including accelerating the recruitment of drivers and guards, improving rostering practices and modernising training.

"QR has also completed rigorous stress testing of the timetable and developed tools to inform reliable workforce and timetable planning moving forward.

"In 2017, QR has also taken steps to refocus on the customer, having launched the 'Commuter Catch-Ups Program', through which QR has already talked to more than 2,800 commuters at 24 stations.

"QR is also proud to continue to connect communities and support growth in local economies across regional Queensland.

"In the North West, where 100 QR workers live locally between Townsville and Mount Isa, we are investing $25 million to replace sleepers to improve reliability, as well as $43 million to improve track stability and reliability for freight services.

"While at the end of 2016, we constructed 1.3 kilometres of new track on the Cecil Plains branch line to enable livestock services to operate from western Queensland through to Oakey for the first time in a decade."

Queensland Rail CEO Nick Easy said the coming year presented significant opportunities to continue to modernise and transform rail in Queensland through the delivery of a number of exciting major projects.

"We are continuing to work collaboratively to ensure reliable transport for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, including the delivery of the $163 million Coomera to Helensvale Duplication project, an $8 million investment to reinforce the power supply along the Gold Coast line, and $10 million in refurbishment works at six Gold Coast line stations," Mr Easy said.

"We're also continuing to work with DTMR on the upcoming integration of New Generation Rollingstock (NGR) into our Citytrain fleet.

"While our $685 million capital program in 2017-18 will continue to modernise our network, including an extensive maintenance program to improve reliability, and the continued rollout of $212 million in station accessibility upgrades at priority stations.

"We look forward to making significant progress with these changes in the year ahead."


2016-17 Snapshot:

    51.69 million passenger trips taken on the Citytrain network
    1.54 million hours spent maintaining the SEQ network
    Since October 2016 to date, more than 100 trainee drivers and 260 trainee guards recruited, and 35 drivers and 96 guards now fully qualified and working out on the network
    Continued $212 million program to upgrade accessibility at SEQ stations over five years
    Peak on-time running performances returned to more than 94 per cent
    $236.1 million spent maintaining the regional network
    More than 760,000 passengers travelled on the Travel and Tourism network
    450,000 passengers experienced Kuranda Scenic Railway - 38,000 increase on 2015-16 financial year
    21 per cent reduction in the number of level crossing near miss incidents compared to 2015-16
    More than $500,000 in fundraising and donations from customer and employees and more than $500,000 worth of in kind opportunities.
    More than 28,000 students educated about rail safety
    More than 20 security and emergency preparedness exercises undertaken with emergency services.

ENDS

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[#Metro]

"modern" ... so modern that PWD can't use the service and non-compliant things are replaced with ... other non-compliant things.

"world class" ... so world class that ancient trains that are breaking down daily are on the network and frequency is very low.

"This year, we have been able to return to a level of nearly 94 per cent peak on-time running and in August 2017, Queensland Rail achieved its best OTR results since the service disruptions in 2016, with more than 95 per cent of trains reaching their destination on time.

^^ meaningless numbers. The timetable was cut and still is. Removing services from timetable is moving the goal posts.

QR could theoretically cancel all services except 1 train per day. If that train ran on time, they could statistically claim 100%

on time running and 100% availability.

Rhonda from Utopia is busy, isn't she?

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

30th September 2017

#RailFail: What Exactly Is "World Class" about the SEQ Suburban and Interurban rail network?

Greetings,

Today marks the first anniversary of #RailFail. A sorry day for passengers in SEQ. Rail services are being further reduced this long weekend to ration staff  and services for special events. The day to day passenger does not fare well these days.

We note the tabling of the Queensland Rail Annual Report ( http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/TabledPapers/2017/5517T1845.pdf ) and an associated media statement ( http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2017/9/29/201617-snapshot-reinforces-qrs-focus-on-becoming-modern-worldclass-railway ).

Of course, Queensland Government MPs, who probably don't catch the train often, seem to think that it is becoming "modern" and "world class"  railway.
Queensland Rail suburban and interurban operations have a long way to go before such a claim can be made.

The points below need to be considered:

> Patronage: Transperth (Perth) trains now carry more passengers than Queensland Rail. Perth is a smaller city with a smaller rail network.

> Frequency: Transperth trains are much more frequent than Queensland Rail.

> Safety: Queensland Rail does not operate automatic train protection (ATP) on the suburban network to prevent trains running through red lights. Other Australian cities do.

> Modernity: Queensland Rail's fleet is ageing, some trains approaching 40 years old. Mechanical issues and operational issues abound.

> Customer Service: Hundreds of one-star negative reviews flooded the QR Facebook page that the review section of the Facebook page was disabled and the star rating removed.

> Communications: Often communications are zero-information content non-descriptions, such as "operational issue".

> Disability access: Many platforms feature huge gaps, dangerous step-ups/step-downs, making life difficult for those with a disability. New NGR trains are presently not DDA compliant.

> Work practices: Trains are run with two staff members, at a substantial cost. Melbourne modernised their network, doing away with guards more than twenty years ago. Transperth, same gauge and many trains the same as Queensland Rail, has driver only operation.

> On time statistics/availability: Trains that skip stops appear to count as 'on time'. Services cut from the timetable don't appear as cancellations provided that they are a "new timetable". Essentially this is moving the goalposts and results in a statistically meaningless metric being reported.

> Timetabling: Timetables are scrambled, with different timetables Monday-Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This is international worst practice. Further alterations are overlaid on top of this confusion to ration staff time for special events.

The SEQ rail network has a long way to go before a notion of " world class " can be seriously entertained.

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track https://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

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