Media Release from Queensland Opposition Re Citytrain Cancellations

[ozbob]

Tim Nicholls MP
Shadow Minister for Transport and Traffic Management
Shadow Minister for Trade
Shadow Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations   
Member for Clayfield            
28 September 2007


Train cancellations causing commuter chaos

South-east Queensland?s Citytrain network is facing a reliability crisis with figures obtained by the Queensland Coalition showing almost 500 trains were cancelled in the first month of 2007/08 alone.
Shadow Transport Minister Tim Nicholls said the 470 unscheduled train cancellations in July 2007 were more than half of all cancellations in the previous year, and if the trend continued, there would be a 600 per cent increase in train cancellations in 2007/08.

?We hear weekly reports of trains being cancelled leaving commuters stranded with little or no alternatives to get home. The new Transport Minister needs to tell the traveling public of south-east Queensland how he is going to fix this problem,? Mr Nicholls said.

?The tired old excuse of train crew illness which has been trotted out month after month just doesn?t wash anymore.

?The unscheduled train cancellations and overcrowding problems, which force commuters to use buses to ensure they can get to work on time and get home, does nothing to increase confidence in the State Government?s public transport planning.?

Mr Nicholls said the recent O?Donnell report identified poor maintenance of rolling stock as a contributing factor to the coal bottlenecks at ports and it was disturbing maintenance issues were now affecting the passenger network too.

?Labor claims it is spending $100 million a week on transport and road infrastructure but the commuters of Brisbane aren?t seeing any benefit,? he said.

?After five years, south-east Queensland commuters are still waiting for the new ?Smart cards? and so far this Labor Government has only been able to deliver two of the much promised 44 new three car passenger train sets.

?The Queensland Labor Government?s failure to plan for growth and invest in infrastructure over the past nine years is the main reason south-east Queensland is in the grip of a water crisis, and this same failure to plan is now plaguing our passenger train systems.?

Question on Notice 1140 that confirms number of cancelled services Queensland Parliament click here! PDF

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes has a follow up story  click here!


Flu leaves commuters in the cold
Tony Moore | September 28, 2007 - 11:55AM

Almost 500 Queensland Rail Citytrain services were cancelled in July - more than half of the entire amount of cancellations in the previous year.

The Queensland Opposition today highlighted the staggering figure, which has been blamed on the severe impact of the flu.

A Queensland Rail spokesman said 383 of 469 cancellations in July were caused by drivers and guards calling in sick.

However, the Opposition has demanded an answer on whether the delays were actually the result of inadequate planning and delays in bringing new trains on line.

Shadow Transport spokesperson Tim Nicholls released figures this morning showing that while 903 train services were cancelled in 2006-07, a massive 469 services had been cancelled in July.

"Now I am not suggesting that this is going to happen, but if this rate continues for 12 months then cancelled train services are going to increase by 600 per cent," Mr Nicholls said.

The information and the figures come from an August 21 question on notice reply from the former Minister for Transport and Main Roads to Mr Nicholls.

Mr Nicholls said he was wary of the continual excuse provided by Queensland Rail that services were cancelled because drivers were calling in with the flu, or that services had been cancelled for maintenance reasons.

"If that is such a big problem, why isn't it affecting Brisbane Transport and the council's bus fleet?" he asked.

Mr Nicholls said Queensland Rail also needed to explain why the two new trains added to the Queensland Rail fleet and added to the Gold Coast line were two three-car sets and not two six-car sets as originally promised.

Queensland Rail has promised to add 44 Citytrains to the network by 2010 at a cost of $500 million, but only two have been added to date.

A spokesperson for Transport Minister John Mickel confirmed extra train services had been cancelled primarily because of the flu.

"We do have a pool of additional drivers, but you couldn't realistically expect to cover all of these."

The spokesperson promised information on the two trains added to the Gold Coast rail service.

The reliability of the Citytrain service - after the impact of these unscheduled train services - has dropped marginally from 99.6 per cent to 97.9 per cent.

[ozbob]

From RAIL Back On Track

Citytrain Commuter Compensation Scheme Needed --> http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=237.0

[ozbob]

Brisbane mX  has followed up with a story

Train chaos as flu causes cancellations  click here!

In the article actually published in the mX (Sept 28) a spokesman for the  Minister is quoted as saying ' that the August (2007) cancellations were less than half of the July (2007) figures '.  This means in effect several hundreds of cancelled services.  Still a very unacceptable situation from a frustrated commuter's position.

[Derwan]

Funny... I was reading the headline of the mX article when I heard the announcement that the 3:38 Petrie service was cancelled due to "operational reasons".

[ozbob]

ABC Online News story click here!

Opposition says train service off the rails

Posted Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:18pm AEST

The Queensland Opposition says the passenger rail network in the south-east is in crisis.

Figures released in response to a question on notice show almost 500 services were unexpectedly cancelled in July, which is more than half of all cancellations for the previous financial year.

The State Government says most of the cancellations are due to crew illness, but Opposition spokesman Tim Nicholls says that is becoming a tired excuse.

"We're constantly told that the flu is causing the problem. Well the flu is no longer a good excuse for trains not running on time," he said.

"In fact this government should be planning for things like the outbreak of flu like they plan for school holidays, like they plan for the Christmas period as well.

"This is indicative of a Government that can't plan for its growth."

[ozbob]

We would like to thank Mr Nicholls for asking the question on notice in Parliament.

It is very concerning the number of cancelled services, and is proving to be very frustrating for Citytrain passengers.  There is clearly a lot more involved than just illness.  Years of inadequate resourcing of QR in terms of staff and equipment are taking their toll. 

We think the extra trains presently being progressively rolled out will help a lot, as well as the extra crew now in training.  44 new 3 car sets will only increase capacity by about 30%, we don't think that is enough for the long haul.  An additional 22 3 car sets should be ordered now.  Once all triplications and duplications in place and new lines constructed, these additional units will be needed to provide the timetable frequencies that will be required, as fuel price rises and population pressures continue to build.

Regards
Admin