Article: Commuters angry over rail delays

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Sunshine Coast Daily Story
Monday 17 October, 2011
by Rae Wilson

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2011/10/17/commuters-off-their-tracks-over-rail-delays/

A LONG-TIME Sunshine Coast commuter wants the railway line duplication back on the agenda after a "horror" two months on the tracks.

Rail Back On Track member and Sunshine Coast commuter advocate Jeff Addison said he lost five hours in August and three hours in September because of travel delays between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane.

He said the single track between Nambour and Beerburrum was competing with freight trains which would only get worse as the Coast's population soared by 60% in the next 20 years, according to the Population Projections 2011 edition.

Mr Addison said the duplication was supposed to be completed to Landsborough by next year but work stopped 24 days after the last election in 2009.

"The LNP won that (Glasshouse) seat from Labor and 24 days later the work stopped," he said.

"I can't understand it. I've read government reports calling for the line ... to be duplicated.

"It's part of the national freight corridor. About 850,000 tonnes of freight could be off the roads and onto tracks if the lines were duplicated.

"Not many people realise that 44% of weekday daily train services between the Sunshine Coast and Caboolture are not trains, but buses that pretend to be trains.

"There's 26 of them every single day. People arrive at the train station and get put on a bus instead.

"The single line track cannot accommodate the trains and so it uses buses to replace the trains.

"As you can imagine it must do wonders for the tourism industry to the Coast. If the cost doesn't get you the 1.5-hour bus ride, for 54km, will."

Mr Addison said he met with the Transport Minister in August and she told him the rail line's duplication to Landsborough was planned for 2020, funding pending.

But he said the Sunshine Coast was the third largest growth area in Queensland according to the government's own records and this project should not be on the backburner.

"The essence of it, as a commuter who experiences it every day, is that it needs to occur," he said.

The Transport Minister was not available to comment yesterday.

Commuter rail problems? Comment below and/or email letters@scnews.com.au.