Article: Wire thefts force more rail chaos

[Fares_Fair]

Article: Wire thefts force more rail chaos
Sunshine Coast Daily
by Kathy Sundstrom
8th August 2012 at 6:28 AM

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2012/08/08/wire-thefts-force-more-rail-chaos/

ABOUT 1000 Sunshine Coast rail commuters have had to juggle their schedules or arrive late for work in Brisbane.

Eight Sunshine Coast stations are closed while Queensland Rail continues with emergency repair work after the theft of 530kg of copper wire from its sites.

It is unclear when the situation will be resolved.

Queensland Rail had hoped on Friday the closure of the stations would be only for one day.

But by late yesterday afternoon the rail authority was unable to say when the stations could be operational.

The stations affected are Mooloolah, Eudlo, Palmwoods, Woombye, Eumundi, Pomona, Cooran and Traveston.

Express trains have been stopping at Gympie North, Yandina and Nambour, with buses operating in both directions to all stations.

While the latest changes were frustrating for regular rail commuter Jeff Addison, they were nothing new.

"As it is, about 44% of our regular trains are buses," Mr Addison, from the Rail Back in (sic) Track group, said.

Mr Addison said commuters understood the latest closures and delays were not the fault of Queensland Rail, but he did wish communication could be improved.

He has been relying on social media like Twitter to keep him posted about possible delays.

"They refer to it by the euphemism as a power outage. Everyone knows it is not one," he said.

Mr Addison prepared for a possible delay by arriving at the station 10 minutes early yesterday morning.

"I ended up catching the bus, but we missed the connecting train at 6.42am," he said.

"I had to wait another 10 to 15 minutes for another train to come through. It adds on about an extra half an hour to your morning."

Homeless man, Blair Edward Hudson, appeared before the Caboolture Magistrates Court on Monday charged with 90 offences in relation to the theft of the copper wire.

[Fares_Fair]

Jeff Addison ‏@Jeffrey_Addison

I had a brief interview with Ch 9 @WINNews_SCoast on 'copper train pain' delays to Sunny Coast commuters?
Airs tonight.
Thank you WIN News.

10:58 AM - 8 Aug 12 via Twitter

[ozbob]

Lot of local interest ... 

Prime Radio QLD (Hot 91.1 and Zinc 96.1 on the Sunshine Coast)  have also followed up.

[Fares_Fair]

Lot of local interest ... 

Prime Radio QLD (Hot 91.1 and Zinc 96.1 on the Sunshine Coast)  have also followed up. 

90.3 ABC (Sunshine) Coast FM yesterday as well.

Bit of confusion over how long the disruptions will last.
The TransLink website says closed stations will re-open shortly ?? (however long that is)

Sources within QR have said Mooloolah station open by the end of the week, with the rest to follow after.

Barriers went up at Palmwoods platform entrance sometime yesterday. 
Received report of same at Woombye as well.

I think there was far more involved in it than first thought, more widespread theft was discovered, either that or they are using the disruption to replace all of the earthing cables and stakes now.
A sensible move.

Hopefully WIN 9 News story tonight will resolve it.

[Fares_Fair]

The same eRail message is being issued on a daily basis, viz:

Disruptions on Nambour line between Nambour and Landsborough due to power fault. Expect 30 mins delay. Service to resume by 9 August 2012 11:59pm.

Win 9 News stated (from QR) that Mooloolah would be open by this Friday, with the other 6 stations to follow.
No time frame was available for the remainder.

TransLink website says they will be open shortly. Shown below.

Caboolture - Gympie North emergency repairs.
Last updated: 5.54am Thursday 9 August 2012

Sunshine Coast line train services are changed between Caboolture and Gympie North due to emergency repairs.

•Trains will run express Gympie North - Yandina and Nambour - Landsborough
•Buses will operate in both direction all stations from Gympie North - Yandina and Nambour - Landsborough

Be sure to plan your journey in advance and allow for extra travel time due to track works (up to 60 minutes).

To avoid delays customers may wish to consider alternate travel to/from Gympie North and Nambour.

Emergency repair works will continue throughout the week so that Traveston, Cooran, Pomona, Cooroy, Eumundi, Mooloolah, Woombye, Palmwoods and Eudlo train stations can re-opened shortly.

We thank you for your patience.


Clearly there is a communication breakdown between the two entities.
It appears that they just do not know how long the work will take - or alternatively, it has a very low priority for completion.

[Stillwater]

Sadly, I think the latter is the case, FF.  One issue yet to be resolved is whether the design of the 'permanent' temporary platforms on the Sunshine Coast Line (with crawl space beneath each platform and no CCTV cameras there) makes these locations extra vulnerable to this type of theft again.

[Fares_Fair]

Credible report received that works make take another 2 weeks to resolve.


Near identical eRail alerts are being issued daily with only the date changing, e.g.

erail 12.43am 7 Aug 2012
Disruptions on Nambour Line between Nambour and Landsborough due to power fault. Expect 30 mins delay. Service to resume by 9 Aug 2012 11:59 PM.
Alt. transport operating between Nambour and Landsborough.

erail 10.42pm 9 Aug 2012
9 Aug 2012
Disruptions on North Coast Line due to power fault. Expect 1 hr delay. Service to resume by 10 Aug 2012 11:59 PM.


Hoping you are wrong SW but the speed of the works suggest otherwise.
I guess they are replacing all of the fittings now with less-valuable material to avoid this happening in future (unless SS prices go through the roof)

[Stillwater]

Ahh, that makes sense ... not just replacing what was stolen, but replacing all vulnerable copper wire fixtures with SS.  But why wouldn't QR just tell us that and pick a date that is feasible, say 17th, rather than telling us the problem will be fixed tomorrow, then the tomorrow after that, and whoops, the tomorrow after tomorrow.

[Fares_Fair]

From QR Twitter

Sunshine Coast stations closed for emergency repairs will reopen for train services tomorrow AM. Platforms shortened to allow cont. repairs.

[Arnz]

Good to hear.  But one question.

I wonder if the "Zero (c)harm" rules of shutting 3-carriages (as currently applied to the Rosewood line) apply to those effected stations (since their platform extensions are still closed for repairs).  But in this case, they would have to move the passengers at Mooloolah, as opposed to Landsborough in the past roughly 4 years ago.

[Fares_Fair]

I'd say so, Zero Harm still rules. We wondered why they didn't use the platforms sooner.
Still, good news.

[Golliwog]

http://jp.translink.com.au/travel-information/service-updates/details/1343971420

Caboolture - Gympie North emergency repairs



Last updated: 8.32pm Sunday 12 August 2012

Sunshine Coast line train services will resume normal services stopping at all stations from first service Monday morning.

Access for passengers at some stations will be limited to a shortened available area on the platform.

There are temporarily changed conditions at some stations due to emergency repair works. Passengers are advised for their own safety to stay behind any fenced off areas on platforms at the following stations:

    Palmwoods
    Woombye
    Eudlo
    Eumundi
    Traveston
    Pomona
    Cooran

Please seek assistance from station staff before boarding to ensure you are well positioned to disembark at these affected stations.

We appreciate your patience during these repair works.

Affected services:

    Sunshine Coast
    Ipswich/Rosewood
    Richlands

[Stillwater]

"Please seek assistance from station staff before boarding to ensure you are well positioned to disembark at these affected stations."

lol, what staff?

[Fares_Fair]

The embarkation and disembarkation from the front doors of the first carriage is potentially overkill given the circumstances.
The danger has possibly been around for weeks.

I can understand their want to keep it the same for all stations, both short and long, and to ensure that any station staff (if existent) can funnel all passengers though one door to ensure they aren't spread along the length of the platform and wander into a danger area; being the temporary platform sections (but these are now fenced off by orange mesh).

I really would have thought the front carriage both doors could easily be used until the repairs are completed in whoever knows how long.

Still, very happy to have some sort of normality with a train service. 

[Stillwater]

QR work crews at Pomona station today, replacing wiring on the temporary platform.

[Fares_Fair]

Palmwoods temporary platform barriers have been removed (this morning or late last night) and the scaffolding to these temporary platforms now have an earth wire lead going from the top to bottom in every single bay of the vertical fence barriers.
Never seen so much wire in all my life.
It's even connected to the mesh (criss-cross) fence material itself.

Much more wire than there ever was before the copper thefts were discovered.

Looks like the 'temporary' platforms are intended to remain for many, many more years to come. 

[Fares_Fair]

TransLink SEQ ‏@TransLinkSEQ
Train stops at Palmwoods and Woombye are now fully operational.
http://bit.ly/SuiQLS

3:38 PM - 24 Aug 12 via TransLink SEQ · Details

From the link:


Caboolture - Gympie North emergency repairs
Last updated: 3.36pm Friday 24 August 2012

Sunshine Coast line trains have resumed normal services stopping at all stations.

Access for passengers at some stations will be limited to a shortened available area on the platform.

There are temporarily changed conditions at some stations due to emergency repair works.

Passengers are advised for their own safety to stay behind any fenced off areas on platforms at the following stations:

Eumundi
Pomona
Cooran.
Passengers at these stations are required to board and disembark from the front carriage of the train.

Please seek assistance from station staff before boarding to ensure you are well positioned to disembark at these affected stations.

We appreciate your patience during these repair works.

Affected services:

Sunshine Coast
Ipswich/Rosewood
Richlands

[Arnz]

According to sources, 6-car 160/260 series units (Wi-Fi equipped units) should be getting the all-clear to return operating on the SCL shortly.   They were removed temporarily from Nambour services when the platforms partially re-opened with only one-car available due to zero (c)harm.

Hence most if not all of the IMU100/120s fleet were allocated primarily on the Nambour/Gympie line in the past few weeks, with older SMUs to fill in the gaps, to keep toilet equipped services to a maximum.  The older SMUs are usually late into Nambour due to the slower top speed, but were fine heading back into Brisbane due to the precision crossing fat built into the timetable (as well as eating into the turnback time at Nambour).

[ozbob]

Twitter

TransLink SEQ  ‏@TransLinkSEQ

All Sunshine Coast line stations open with normal platforms in use.