How would you sort out the rail network?

[ozbob]

Despite the assurances in parliament today, I remain unconvinced that the disruptions are under control.

How would you address the problems?



Queensland Parliament Hansard 10th November 2009

Citytrain

Hon. RG NOLAN (Ipswich?ALP) (Minister for Transport) (10.16 am): In recent weeks there have been a number of delays which have inconvenienced commuters on the Citytrain network. While in the last financial year 91.74 per cent of trains ran on time, this figure had improved to 94.3 per cent in the September quarter this year. In the last couple of weeks, however, the performance of the rail network has been poor. In October, 4.8 per cent of trains were delayed due to track issues, and last week this was 8.5 per cent. This is not good enough. I apologise to commuters for this recent and unacceptably poor run.

On their behalf, I have demanded answers from Queensland Rail and we are taking steps to improve performance. My advice from Queensland Rail is that the recent performance is the result of a series of unfortunate incidents at critical locations and is not indicative of a systemic maintenance issue.

In the last week, for instance, one major delay occurred on the Cleveland line because a storm disrupted power. Another unacceptable delay occurred when a worker severed an optical fibre at South Brisbane and a third resulted from a police incident.

I am advised that there is no evidence to indicate an overall deterioration of the network. Queensland Rail conducts visual inspections three times a week and regular track audits using computer technology. That auditing indicates that the ?overall track condition index??a technical measure of track quality?has been constant for the last five years, notwithstanding an increase in services. To maintain this standard, the government funds QR for track maintenance. This year, at $56 million, the Citytrain track maintenance budget is at its highest level ever.

It is true that QR has recently introduced new rules to enhance safety on the network. This has led to some increase in the time taken to respond to incidents in some cases. Safety is and always will be our No. 1 priority, but these new measures will take a little while to bed down. I have directed Queensland Rail to meet with unions and work with them to get the balance right between safety and responding quickly to incidents.

No-one likes delays, and again I apologise to commuters. I can assure them that our network is maintained appropriately and that we are continuing to work towards building a better public transport system.

[#Metro]

1. Independent audit by external rail experts once a year
2. A "test" system (Like how fire management systems in buildings have "test mode")
3. Modelling of critical choke points, and contingencies ("What if a fault occurs here")
4. Redundancy (i.e. Tennyson loop has come in handy numerous times). Exhibition loop could be used as a redundancy if systems fail at Central/Roma St/Valley.

[Fares_Fair]

1.
Establish independant monitoring of the statistical information regarding on-time performance
and not limit it to the current 3min 59sec and peak-times only 'laissez faire' latitude.
This would show the true picture of their performance and perhaps prompt a better response.

I believe that the current information does not give an accurate indication of the systemic failures
(and that is indeed what they are) that we are regularly experiencing.
If the data is wrong or deliberately misleading then the process is doomed from the very start.

2.
Establish the reasons for the multiple points failures, especially since all occurred within a week of each other.
It would appear to be a common point of issue.
Create a plan to resolve them more swiftly in the future.

3.
As per point 2 above but for signals and why they appear to fail so often during very mild wet weather.
Repair or raise or shield or eliminate the reasons for the wet weather failures.

4.
Ensure stand-by crews are closely available to meet demand should workers call in sick or be otherwise absent.

5.
Practice incident scenarios with trained maintenance crews, e.g. at Mayne or on unused tracks where it won't disrupt services.

6.
Ensure accurate communication occurs with the hapless commuters, so that they can plan or rearrange their transport options accordingly.

7.
Ensure timely eRail updates, last few disruptions resulted in no eRail updates for the Sunshine Coast line.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[mufreight]

Well for a start the Minister could disband Translink and redirect the funding to QR Passenger,
Step two. remove both QR Network and QR services from any involvement with the commuter network.
Step three, sach her current coteire of incompetent self serving advisers.
Step four the Minister should taking an innovativere approach to the problems that have amplified under her ministry resign so that she could be replaced by someone actually commited to getting the job done who might actually do something productive. 

[Arnz]

Well for a start the Minister could disband Translink and redirect the funding to QR Passenger,

While Translink has it's faults.   Forcing a removal of all integration Translink had put together and reverting back to the bad old days when bus operators and trains competed with each other with more expensive fares than the current fare levels is a very very bad call.

While there are alternatives, this one won't work.  You'll have the Transdev (Operator of BCC ferries) and the private bus operators crying about the lack of funding.

[#Metro]

The politicians require a QANGO like Translink to co-ordinate tasks across the network.
Politicians can't oversee the network, that is why they set it up in the first place.

Restructure Translink, possible. Abolish it, probably not IMHO.

[p858snake]

I would probably say replace TransLink with a fully proper government dept, directly answerable to parliament....

And perhaps return most of the control to the systems to their individual bodies (eg: QR, BT ect) so they can schedule how and when they want, but make them have two types of services:
* Priority Services: Have to make certain dead lines (eg: city by X time), or have to link up to other services (eg: train to bus or ferry)
* Additional Services: The providers can set these to be anything they want and when ever they want, for example if they notice a higher demand at a location they can stick a train on or if there was a special event they can work out provision.

[mufreight]

Well Trollybus there is a body of opinion that not only would the restructuring of Translink work but that a restructured entity that was limited in its scope to being a coordination and fare collection body as an office of Queensland Transport would work more efficently.
Contracted operators (such as ferries) would then still provide as a minimum the levels of service requested by Queensland Transport but would have a degree of flexibility that would enable them to better address commuter demand.
The restructured Translink should be an office of the Queensland Transport and as such accountable to government and would remove the present administrative duplication (frequently triplication) of effort that at present swallows up funding in administrative costs rather than funding services and results in a paralysis of decisions relating to improvements in the system and release the funding presently being expended on duplicated administration for the provision of the  services that the currently Translink fails or refuses to provide.
As a QANGO Translink has proved to be a black hole of inefficiency employing more and more inefectual seat polishers at salaries not warranted by their track record of levels of expertise or ability, funds that could be better expended on the provision of service, with little if any accountability either to government of the commuters.
The enforced dictatoral abolution of existing alternative ticketing systems and fare hikes to support a sadly flawed and inefectual Translink has done nothing for the political credibility of the government and nothing for commuters by the improvement in the coordination and provision of services.