Railway line to Jimboomba

[Jacek]

I wanted to continue the topic Yarrabilba and "RAIL - Back On Track" told me the discussion has not be updated for more than 220 days and I should consider starting a new topic. Let's start then.

Attached is a schematic of the current, closed railway line to Jimboomba. It is a little bit more than 25km long, stil in good shape, non electrified, single railway line. There was discussion about reopening the line related to the new investment at Yarrabilba. Do you think it is worth to continue???

For example applying an Australia made product like they did in 1940... (http://www.precisionscalemodels.com.au/models/v-r-%E2%80%9Cwalker%E2%80%9D-rail-motor-102153-h-p-diesel-rail-car-trailer/) and modernise the railway line so that there will be a connection with Queensland Rail network in Bethania, adding some smaller railway stops between Bethania and Logan Village as well as Logan Village and Jimboomba that could improve the public transport in the region and develop the region with Beenleigh being the capital of the region. Logan City seems to be too big to be able to positively influence development in smaller regions....

Anyway, interesting to see other views as the South Side deserve something to be happening here as well!!!!! Not just MBRL, not just the BAT....

[dancingmongoose]

I'd like to see the old Beaudesert line restored to a condition where it is usable and electrified when the new line opens, with the two linked up, regardless of any development. It would give a diversion for dead runners without taking up route space, and would allow operation to continue on the line in case of issues in a way similar to how trains from Ipswich and Springfield can still access the city via Tennyson if there's an issue between Milton and Sherwood

[Gazza]

I don't want to see the old Beaudesert line put into use...It's nothing more than an allignment, it has no sleepers or track for the most part, apart from the junction at Bethania.

Have a look at the lessons learnt with the Beerburrum duplication. They could have duplicated along the existing allignment, but Trackstar worked out that it was cheaper, and more advantageous to just build on a new straighter route nearby.

Why wouldn't you just apply the same logic here? The area isn't built up, so why follow an old route that was basically determined by what men with picks and shovels could build at the time?

[Gazza]

It would give a diversion for dead runners without taking up route space,

Wouldn't it take up space on the constrained Beenleigh line?

and would allow operation to continue on the line in case of issues in a way similar to how trains from Ipswich and Springfield can still access the city via Tennyson if there's an issue between Milton and Sherwood

Or could just build a proper built for purpose modern railway, like the Mandurah & Joondalup lines.

[SteelPan]

THE answer to all these proposals, is to NOT refer to any such proposals as "rail" projects! 

They should be given "cover names" that include such terms as, "proposed AFL team for Jimboomba" or the "Meeting of G20 Leaders for Jimboomba" - (complete with "party" [apparently] for the teaming masses, I mean citizens, so long as they don't approach the area and stay behind the huge safety fences - hey you all look like terrorists, don't argue, you'll be arrested  we know best) - or, the "NRL Stadium for Jimboomba" would be an excellent cover in Qld - use of these types of names, as opposed to anything referring to "rail" will ensure front page/lead item news coverage from our soooo brainy modern media, political support with zero facts/figures required and the open cheque book that goes with it and so many suits walking around wanting to get behind it, you'll need more than a 15mins scheduled service timetable to move them all!

Use the word "rail" - dead in the water!

Sadly, there's not really any spin in the above at all! 

[achiruel]

Hmmm...any junction north of Bethania would require a second bridge across the Logan River = $$$

However, if another branch were to hang off the Beenleigh line, it may require triplication of the bridge anyway.

It looks as though the worst part of the alignment is where it branches off the Beenleigh line, unfortunately most of this area is now built out so realignment would cost $$$.

Most of the rest is through open fields and hopefully realignment should be (relatively) inexpensive.

Alignment across Allans' Creek clearly needs fixing and the bridge would need replacement.  Or would it be better to not bother going to Jimboomba and do a new alignment south from Logan Village to Yarrabilba?

What would the travel time to Brisbane CBD be on this trip be anyway? Horrendous I'm guessing, although I guess that's a result of being planted firmly in the sticks.

[Old Northern Road]

I doubt the area surrounding the Beaudesert line even has the density to support a 30min bus service let alone a rail line.

[Jacek]

I fully agree with SteelPan. This is important to call development project in different way that a rail project. As soon as you call something rail project people see $$$$$$$$$ not seeing benefits.

There was a question about travel time to CBD. I don't see it this way. This is an independent railway from Jimboomba to Bethania, working as a light railway. Stop at Bethania, next stop at ALDI-Bunnings, next one at Canterbury Collage, last at Diry Creek Rd and off you go straight to Logan Village. First stop at Opal Gardens, next in the middle of Logan Village. By the way I quite like the thought to connect the line with a new bit directly to Yarrabilba with first stop at Mollenhagen Rd, next at Camp Cable Rd, next Yarrabilba Central, Plunket Rd, Swan Park and Plunkett Conservation Park. I wouldn't resign from exploring the Jimboomba line, after the Mollenhagen Rd stop, I would suggest Nel's Horse Riding School, Camp Cable Rd, Tamborine St and Jimboomba Central.

Someone who wants to travel from Jimboomba to City would have an express train stopping only at Logan Village and Bethania. Travel time... well depends if we stick to single line as it is and build automated passing loops... I would say really 20-30 minutes to get to Bethania from Jimboomba. I know still long time but I don't think we can consider the line to be a city line...

[SurfRail]

I think there is no real chance of rail penetrating this part of the world again.

The best solution would presumably be to run a suite of high frequency bus services between various destinations in the region (Springfield, Flagstone, Jimboomba, Yarrabilba, Logan Village and Beenleigh) and feed these into the Ripley Valley, Flagstone and "BaT-leigh" lines.

Extending the 534 to Beenleigh Station via Marsden and Waterford West and upping frequency would also be something to look at.

[nathandavid88]

Extending the 534 to Beenleigh Station via Marsden and Waterford West and upping frequency would also be something to look at.

The 534 already takes the better part of an hour just to get between Springfield and Browns Plains at present, and you're looking at another half an hour at least between Browns Plains and Beenleigh if you just go down Logan River Road (the fastest most direct route but one which kills patronage as the catchment is only one side of the road for most of its length). That makes for a massive trip that would be duplicated over several sections by existing routes – 545 Browns Plains – Marsden, 550 Marsden – Waterford West, 562 Waterford West – Beenleigh (parts of) and is a full route I just don't know if there's demand for. I'd lean more towards a direct Beenleigh – Browns Plains route (one of the main intra-Logan connections that don't currently exist) where people could connect for Springfield.

Starting with services to Jimboomba and Beadesert, do we know how the short sectioned but now hourly 540 from Beaudesert to Browns Plains has been received? Personally, with the exception of the lack of weekend services, the 540 I think does a good job of covering the needs of that area currently and will do so well into the mid term I feel. There's no lack of CBD services from Browns Plains, and the 540 could easily go to half hourly if demand requires it.

As for Logan Village and Yarrabilba, I've mentioned before that Logan Coaches are running a private, non-Translink service out this way. It runs between Canungra to Loganlea Station (with some services continuing – needlessly IMO – to either Beenleigh Station or Loganholme Station) Monday – Friday (two morning inbound and two evening outbound services) and Saturday (three morning inbound and three afternoon outbound). This services Canungra, Tamborine Village, Yarrabilba, Logan Village and Woodlands, some of which are areas that I'm expecting to see population surges in the next 10 years. I think this makes a good starter service that I feel Translink should really look at funding as a parallel service to the 540, bumping up the frequency to hourly 7 days (how the 540 should be too IMO.)

The Logan Coaches service timetable (on page 2):  http://www.logancoaches.com.au/images/pdf/canungratimetable.pdf

[SurfRail]

^ There is also some good reading in the Salisbury to Beaudesert Corridor Study and the Mt Lindesay investigation materials (not sure if this second one is still up anywhere).

[dancingmongoose]

Salisbury to Beaudesert
http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Projects/Name/S/Salisbury-to-Beaudesert-Rail-Corridor-Study.aspx
This might be the Mt Lindesey one
http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Projects/Name/W/West-Mt-Lindesay-Development-Corridor-Major-Road-Network.aspx

[nathandavid88]

I've had a read of the Salisbury to Beaudesert line study and I'm a big supporter of it. It will create a major paradigm shift for the Western suburbs of Logan (around Browns Plains) with the main CBD transport route being by rail from Hillcrest, rather than the 140 and 150 from Grand Plaza. The line really is needed for Beaudesert and Greater Flagstone and will probably pull a large amount of Yarrabilba's feeder services. My concern is simply how long it will be before we finally get it. If it's true to form, probably 20 years after we needed it...

Looking at the Mt Lindesay corridor study, I personally don't agree with all their ideas for initial bus coverage routes for the region. They seem to have this idea that each route has to connect with almost all of the core areas, creating huge, meandering routes that I think would feel like they would take forever to get anywhere, and some of them have unusual ideas for interchange locations (Woodridge Rail?) while leaving out what I would consider nobrainers (Loganlea or Kingston Rail). That might just be me though.

The routes proposed were:

Route A – from Beaudesert via Bromelton and Flagstone to Springfield Rail Station
Route B – from Flagstone via Jimboomba and Yarrabilba to Beenleigh Rail Station
Route C – from Grand Plaza via Park Ridge and Yarrabilba to Beaudesert
Route D – from South Flagstone via Grand Plaza to Woodridge Rail Station

[HappyTrainGuy]

Yawn. I'd rather see Browns Plains get a elevated railway line along Mains Road than this waste of money.

[SurfRail]

Yawn. I'd rather see Browns Plains get a elevated railway line along Mains Road than this waste of money.

If you were to convert the SEB to a rubber tired metro I would branch it at Griffith Uni with a Loganholme (M1) and Calamvale (Mains Rd) branch.  This would serve the busiest stretch and enable closer station spacing while the Flagston route would be faster and would only need stations at Acacia Ridge and Algester or Parkinson (no need for 2) north of Hillcrest.

The railway would be easier and cheaper to build first.

[aldonius]

Hopefully the Flagstone stuff will be done by a time roughly proportional to when Springfield was completed. Having said that, Flagstone isn't nearly as major a development, yeah?

Anyway, if there's only one station for Algester and Parkinson, the place to put it has got to be Nottingham Rd. Similarly for Acacia Ridge, the best place would be just south of Beaudesert Rd.

[James]

If you were to convert the SEB to a rubber tired metro I would branch it at Griffith Uni with a Loganholme (M1) and Calamvale (Mains Rd) branch.  This would serve the busiest stretch and enable closer station spacing while the Flagston route would be faster and would only need stations at Acacia Ridge and Algester or Parkinson (no need for 2) north of Hillcrest.

The railway would be easier and cheaper to build first.

You know, that is probably the first decent metro idea that I've heard of. Deals with the billions of P-rockets in Logan and the billions of P-rockets in the Sunnybank/Calamvale/Parkinson area, without forcing transfer for pax along the very high use Mains Rd corridor. Also provides a strong interchange point in Altandi.

I would personally rather put metro down Mains Rd before you do Flagstone. Flagstone seems to be a foamy never-never type development. Buses from out that way could feed into a Mains Rd metro anyway.

[SurfRail]

I don't think there is a strong case to ever run passenger rail south of Flagstone to be perfectly frank.  Undullah / Flagstone will be fine as Stage 2 of a line which initially goes to Greenbank and acts as a park'n'ride and interchange collector for that stretch. 

I would plop stations at Acacia Ridge, Parkinson, Hillcrest, Boronia Heights and Greenbank, then for Stage 2 probably just New Beith and 1 or 2 stations in the Flagstone precinct.  At the same time, try and realign the corridor for both this service and the ARTC line which will run parallel (eg to get rid of the kink around Paradise Rd and to take a more direct and faster route generally south of the Logan Mwy.  That may encourage the ARTC to tip money in to help do it.