722am Petrie - Ipswich Complaint - Its not QR's fault!

[crouchg]

I complained again when his service was termonated at Roma St for the 10th time in 3 weeks. Turns out that this service has been terminated short at Roma St 17 times in the last couple of months, fantastic service QR.

I got an interesting reply from QR to my complaint, they belive that late running trains Signal Failures and Train breakdowns are out of their control.


<qr reply>
Dear Mr Crouch

Thank you for your email.  I also refer to your other correspondence and our conversation yesterday (25/03/09).

Firstly on behalf of QR Passenger Pty Ltd (QR), I sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to you on these occasions.  The on-time running of Citytrain services is of paramount importance to QR and every endeavour is made to ensure that services adhere to scheduled timetables.

As discussed, QR has received several comments regarding the on-time running of service 1520.  A request was made to our timetable and planning area to review the records for running times of this service from 25 March 2009 back to the begining of January 2009.  The results of this investigation have revealed the following:

    * 8 occasions this service was affected due to delays with other services;
    * 4 occasions due to unit faults;
    * 2 occasions due to overhead power line failure;
    * 2 occasions due to signal failure;
    * 1 incident relating to a police incident.

As you can see the majority of these incidents are unrelated and unfortunately out of the control of QR.  Please be assured your concerns regarding lack of announcements regarding these services delays have been raised with Traincrew management.

Please contact me again if you have any further concerns.

I trust this information is helpful.

Kind regards

Wendy Johnston | Customer Relations Officer | QR Passenger Pty Ltd
E clu@qr.com.au  W www.qr.com.au

Upper Floor, Central Concourse, 305 Edward St, Brisbane QLD 4000

GPO Box 1429, Brisbane QLD 4001
Citytrain - General enquiries
<qr reply>

[ozbob]

Only guessing here, but I think they might have meant beyond the control of QR Passenger.

[crouchg]

Its terminating at Roma St again today as well!
That only 2 times this week that the service has gone to Ipswich!

[O_128]

i really hope anna decides to upgrade all oft he train signaling some of must be getting up to 30 years old now? issues with it on cleveland line this arvo meant that we were traveliing outbound on the inbound line

[bladesplace]

What REALLY peeves me off about when this happens, is that they don't seem to care about passengers like me who needed to go onto Ipswich to get the Rosewood connection. I basically had to wait another hour, as a new IPS/RSW service commenced from Mayne so it could leave on time.

How on earth is one supposed to explain this to ones boss, especially when this happens twice in a row? How is a boss supposed to believe not only is QR cancelling the same service twice in a row, but QR couldn't possibly neglect it's passengers like that?

You can always tell when this service will be cancelled - as soon as it's more than 5 minutes late from another station (Lawnton or Bray Park are good spots to tell), you pretty much well can haul the phone out and call ahead. And, instead of this Express Service taking around 35 minutes to the city, it takes around an hour as every other peak service is given priority over it. It's worse than an all-stops, on Wednesday we regularly stopped between stations for extended periods with no explanation given at all.

I started my dream job on Monday (despite being a very long commute), and I have a sneaky suspicion I'll find out I'm not required anymore next week - I've been an hour late more times than I've been on time this week. I hate having a disability that prevents me from driving, I'd gladly leave home much earlier if I could.

[ozbob]

I have alerted QR Passenger to this thread. 

It demonstrates well the impacts of cancellations on cross cbd journeys.

[justanotheruser]

What REALLY peeves me off about when this happens, is that they don't seem to care about passengers like me who needed to go onto Ipswich to get the Rosewood connection. I basically had to wait another hour, as a new IPS/RSW service commenced from Mayne so it could leave on time.

How on earth is one supposed to explain this to ones boss, especially when this happens twice in a row? How is a boss supposed to believe not only is QR cancelling the same service twice in a row, but QR couldn't possibly neglect it's passengers like that?

You can always tell when this service will be cancelled - as soon as it's more than 5 minutes late from another station (Lawnton or Bray Park are good spots to tell), you pretty much well can haul the phone out and call ahead. And, instead of this Express Service taking around 35 minutes to the city, it takes around an hour as every other peak service is given priority over it. It's worse than an all-stops, on Wednesday we regularly stopped between stations for extended periods with no explanation given at all.

I started my dream job on Monday (despite being a very long commute), and I have a sneaky suspicion I'll find out I'm not required anymore next week - I've been an hour late more times than I've been on time this week. I hate having a disability that prevents me from driving, I'd gladly leave home much earlier if I could.

I had a situation where I was going to be late for work because of a service not turning up (in my case a rail bus). When the next bus came and I got to the train station I complained and they ordered a taxi for me. My advice is jump up and down and tell them that you will be late to work. Being late to work is a sufficient excuse for QR to order a taxi to take you to your destination. You will not be required to pay for the journey. QR will make the booking and give the taxi company a reference number. At your destination the taxi driver will fill out a cabcharge docket which you need to sign. So if this happens again make a fuss and get that taxi.

[O_128]

It is time that the issue was brought up again of QR giving passengers a document saying that there service was actually late like they do in london. on top of that we should also have te rule that if a service is more thena 15 minutes late then you get a refund on your go-card.

[ozbob]

We have raised this compensation issue previously,  each time we have the Minister and TL have rejected it outright ..

http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=1433.msg6583#msg6583

Media Release 19 October 2008

SEQ:  Call for a public transport compensation scheme for poor service outcomes by TransLink and its Operators

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport commuters has called for a compensation scheme when buses, ferries or trains are cancelled or delayed for more than 15 minutes. Melbourne (1) and London (2) have such schemes, why not south-east Queensland?

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

?The non appearance of timetabled buses and to a lesser extent rail services in south-east Queensland is a major issue for many public transport commuters.  During peak times many of the buses, ferries and trains are so overloaded that passengers cannot board, this is the same effect for those unable to board as a cancellation.  Often a cancelled service leads to much additional expense for some commuters. For example, a cancelled or late service can lead to excess child care charges as the normal time for pick up of children from the centre is exceeded. Arrival late at work can mean loss of income.?

?For some, delayed or cancelled services means that connecting services are missed.  There is a lack of pro-active integration when there are delays.  This in turn means long waits, missed appointments or costly taxi fares. Is this ongoing shambles acceptable??

?Commuters who suffer these delays should be entitled to apply for reimbursement of their fares. This is only reasonable.?

?It is time that the go card ticketing chaos is resolved, public transport properly resourced and some innovation put in place with respect to integration between the various public transport modes and for fares.?

?It seems the election winds are beginning to blow in Queensland. Public transport and its poor performance is no doubt going to be one of the major issues in the south-east.?

References:

1.   http://www.connexmelbourne.com.au/index.php?id=75

2.   http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/fares-and-tickets-supplementary-info-08-01-02.pdf

Contact:

Robert Dow

Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[Fares_Fair]

Hello All,

Hopefully the new Minister for Transport, Ms Rachel Nolan will have a different perspective.
As the new MP hails from Ipswich, she may have some understanding of commuter issues.

It may be worthwhile introducing ourselves Bob (Rail Back on Track) if we haven't already done so
and raise these issues with her.

As a new Member of Parliament it would be good to see some 'affirmative' commuter action by the Minister. 

Regards,
Fares_Fair

[stephenk]

Having just has a look at the timetable. I can clearly see MJs predicament.

The train in question can arrive at Ipswich 14mins late, and still make the connection with the Rosewood service. Is there really a need to regularly cancel the train from Petrie beyond Roma Street? If QR cannot consistently run this service as timetabled, then they need to take a long hard look at their timetable. Most of these problems are within QRs control despite their denial - yes QR, a service delayed due to another service running late is within QRs control! The poor reverse peak frequency to Ipswich (with gaps of  32-36mins - worse than the off-peak frequency) also does not help matters in this case. The Rosewood service only being an hourly service also does not help matters.

How can this situation be improved?
- QR need to look at the sources of delays and act upon them. The recent system reliability has been very poor with between 5-25% of trains being delayed on a daily basis.
- Timetables need to be reviewed. It is not uncommon for the same services to be delayed nearly every day, when other services are unaffected.
- Improved reverse-peak and off-peak frequencies - 15mins for most of the network, and 30mins for less used parts of the network (such as the Rosewood and Doomben Lines).
- Customer charter to compensate late commuters, and provide incentive to QR to run services on time.

[mufreight]

The obvious means of reducing many of these problems is to hand full control of the Citytrain network over to QR Passenger whose prime objective is the reliable movement of commuters.
At the present time QR Passenger is at the mercy of a number of other entities such as Translink and other divisions of QE such as QR Network to operate their passenger services, in the event of signaling failures it is a QR Network problem with the inept Translink tasked with the sourcing of replacement buses, the same applies with overhead or power supply failures and to complicate matters further as Citytrain owns no locomotives they then have to arrange through QR Network for locos to haul disabled passenger services to clear the failure.
A return to a unified QR would solve many of the problems but that is unlikely so the obvious solution for commuters is to hand over control of the Citytrain network to QR Passenger who would then be entirely responsible for the maintenance of track, signaling and power supply and be in a position minimise problems with scheduled preventitive maintenance and to respond much quicker when problems arise with the flexibility to reschedule services and or provide replacement bus services to minimise commuter delays.
A good point to bring up with you local member or the new Transport Minister when you ask why can this system not be used here?  It works in Sydney so why not here? no doubt any response you may receive will be of interest to all.

[justanotheruser]

It is time that the issue was brought up again of QR giving passengers a document saying that there service was actually late like they do in london. on top of that we should also have te rule that if a service is more thena 15 minutes late then you get a refund on your go-card.

Why are you only interested in limiting the refund to GO card users?
I don't use the GO card because some days I will make 4 or 5 trips. This means I will pay more than if I buy a paper ticket. Please don't discriminate against those who don't wish to be ripped off.

[stephenk]

In London you can claim refunds on both the oyster card (reduced price tickets), and paper tickets (full price tickets). However, when you claim compensation, you are always refunded at the full single ticket price. So it's possible to pay 1.50 for a single journey, and be compensated 3.00. Yay, for customer charters!

[Fares_Fair]

I heartily agree with you justanotheruser.
Paper ticket holders would also be equally deserving of a refund.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[O_128]

I mainly just said go-card because it would be easier to refund than a paper ticket where.