Article: Region's snail-paced reforms to public transport be a light-rail rocket

[ozbob]

From the Couriermail Viewpoint 2nd December 2011 pages 36-37

Region's snail-paced reforms to public transport be a light-rail rocket





Interesting that toilets mentioned as well ...

[#Metro]

What a nice article. And in the Courier-Mail too!
Double surprise!

[ozbob]

Long haul commuting does take time.

Yesterday I left Sippy Downs, USC at 3.10pm on 615 bus.  The is scheduled to arrive at Landsborough rail at 3.30pm, a 11 minute break till the 3.41pm Ipswich service departs.  This train arrives at Goodna at 5.33pm.  The 524 bus departs at 5.31pm, the next bus being the 6.01pm.

I was home around 6.20pm.  A journey time of 3 hours and 10 minutes.  

I don't think that is that unreasonable for the length of journey.  All trains cannot meet buses and vice versa.

Was really lucky though on the 615 (the bus was very full, group of high schoolers returning from a day out at the beach), the road congestion around Sippy Downs was very bad and the heavy rain didn't make it any easier.  We arrived at Landsborough with one minute to spare.

If that connection was not made the next train through Landsborough is at 4.48pm, there is an earlier rail bus but no gain at Caboolture.  This train is then the 6.58pm Ipswich service which gets to Goodna at 7.35pm, after the 7.23pm bus, the last bus being at 8.20pm. If I didn't make the Landsborough connection journey time would have been 5 hours 20 minutes ...

This is why the connections are so critical where frequency is so poor.  A point that needs attention.  Have the bus timetables from Sippy Downs been adjusted for the obvious end of school day peak traffic issues?  Is bus priority needed through there?

[#Metro]

Sometimes I think we are using the wrong mode for very long distances like that.
Higher speed trains 250 km/hour are probably needed, but that won't happen as it will cost too much.

Continuing to extend the QR Network is like extending and extending and extending a bicycle track and expecting it to suffice.
At some point it becomes not that great.

[ozbob]

There will probably not be high speed for many many years, what can and should be done is track improvements to at least get a reasonable frequency, and some speed improvements.

If you look north of Beerburrum on the western side a click or two along the line some very early abandoned earth works for the Beerburrum to Landsborough duplication can be noted ..

If frequency improves connections do become a little less problematical.   It is a double-challenge when both bus and rail frequency is abysmal ...  

[Jonno]

It shows to me that our Politicians and Department Heads do not really see public transport/long distance rail as a more efficient, safer, cleaner form of transport and they are oblivious to the waste of taxes that spending on roads is!  To them public transport is for those who can't drive, those with plenty of time on their hands or tree huggers!

[#Metro]

It shows to me that our Politicians and Department Heads do not really see public transport/long distance rail as a more efficient, safer, cleaner form of transport and they are oblivious to the waste of taxes that spending on roads is!  To them public transport is for those who can't drive, those with plenty of time on their hands or tree huggers!

I think regional High Speed rail, separate from the standard QR network is a goer. Here the vehicle has an inherent speed advantage over the car and possibly fuel cost and comfort as well (driving for hours is tiring and very dangerous).

This isn't maglev or anything like that, but something that travels at 200km/hour would be decent speed that would dramatically cut journey time. For very long distance journeys it makes sense to have a high speed vehicle because increases in frequency are unlikely to save as much time as speed increases in the vehicle over long distances.

These trains have a decent passenger capacity but do require high quality track
http://www.bombardier.com/en/transportation/products-services/rail-vehicles/high-speed-trains/zefiro/v300zefiro---italy?docID=0901260d80173a19

then there are lower speed services around 160-180 km/hour
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_%28train%29

It doesn't make sense to use slow speed (130 km/hour) QR citytrain services for places like GC and SC

[ozbob]

If there was a rail corridor equivalent to the Caboolture <-> Beerburrum standard, that would work well.  It is chalk and cheese travelling through those sections compared to the rest.  Frequency is also important to cut down on the wait time, particularly with the poor connections.  It will be a progressive improvement, there is a need now which is only going to grow significantly.

The GC line from Beenleigh south is very good.

[Set in train]

The GC line from Beenleigh south is very good.

Except for the Coomera - Helensvale bottleneck 

If that was built with the rest of the duplication, construction costs would've been much cheaper than whatever far flung decade it is built in!

[somebody]

The GC line from Beenleigh south is very good.

Except for the Coomera - Helensvale bottleneck 

If that was built with the rest of the duplication, construction costs would've been much cheaper than whatever far flung decade it is built in!

Not sure it would make much difference.  Precious little cash was spent on the Gold Coast duplications.

[SurfRail]

The GC line from Beenleigh south is very good.

Except for the Coomera - Helensvale bottleneck 

If that was built with the rest of the duplication, construction costs would've been much cheaper than whatever far flung decade it is built in!

Not sure it would make much difference.  Precious little cash was spent on the Gold Coast duplications.

Main reason of course being that the corridor and formation already existed, including bridge supports which were designed to allow easy duplication.  The Coomera River bridge is another story of course, due to its length.  Getting the rails up to either side of the viaduct will be easy, but it will be an expensive proposition to get the bridge in.

[Cam]

It doesn't make sense to use slow speed (130 km/hour) QR citytrain services for places like GC and SC

While it would be nice to have services capable of a higher top speed than 130km/h on the Gold Coast Line, such services would still travel at less than 100km/h for most of the trip between Beenleigh & Brisbane due to the slow speed limits.

Considerable expenditure needs to be made on straightening all lines & improving curves to allow for higher speeds within the Brisbane metropolitan area. However, there are more urgent issues requiring funding beforehand. e.g. duplication between Coomera & Helensvale & the line to Nambour.