New timetables for the Caboolture and Sunshine Coast lines

[HappyTrainGuy]

I must say I'm liking the 12.16/12.46am Kippa Ring to City service on Friday and Saturday nights. Not so much the Sunday night with the last service being at 9.46pm. The last service from Virginia is at 10.24pm. Apart from that weekdays seems like a bonus with the first train being even earlier inbound.

Outbound looks f***ing GREAT! Especially Friday and Saturday night with the last service getting their at 2am. Combine that with the nightlink train on Saturday morning and Petrie-Northgate are massive winners in this. Slot in 3 extra trains and we'd have a 24hr train service with the longest wait being an hour. Soooo close! Sunday on the other hand.... would be great if there could be a 24hr outbound railway service running from Friday morning to Sunday night to get those people home safely from the city. Might even be an idea to have the night link trains alternate ie one goes to Caboolture, next one goes to Kippa Ring. City-Petrie benefits from hourly night link trains while Kippa Ring/Caboolture still get trains but every 2 hours. This could also be a good way to judge if night link trains could be worth wild on both lines or even running a 24hr network in both directions Petrie-City with MBRL making the trips (the drunks heading home while shift workers take up the inbound slack - and potential outbound trips to Redcliffe - which can already be seen on the early weekday and Saturday morning services).

Outbound Petrie arrival Friday night to Saturday morning (Virginia-Petrie All Stops):
9.59
10.29
10.59
11.29
11.59
12.29
12.59
1.29
1.59
4.29 (weekend)
5.59 (sat only)
6.29 (sat only)
6.59 (weekend)

[Simon]

You'd think they'd review the whole sector - and include the Ipswich/Springfield line as well.

That's something that i'm rather peev'd about as well. One would think it would be a good idea to do the whole sector at the same time, especially considering the only thing that needs doing (well, only thing that will be done, is more the wording for it...) is to fix the span of hours (particularly for Springfield, but also for Ipswich in the morning) and get rid of the hourly trains on Sunday morning.

Me too. I was expecting that Neil Scales would be able to successfully lobby for improved counter peak services to Milton in particular, but also Towoong, Indooroopilly and the whole Darra-Ipswich bit.

[Arnz]

^^ More students travelling between Gympie and Sunshine Coast campuses of the University of the Sunshine Coast.  USC plans major expansion of Gympie campus and has taken over uni campus at Hervey Bay from the University of Central Queensland.

http://www.gympietimes.com.au/news/usc-gympie-offer-first-year-science-and-engineerin/2829912

On a related note, USC won the tender for MBRC's new university at the old Petrie Mill.  USC expects to grow the Petrie Campus to 10,000 students by 2030.

Petrie station will play a major role for Caboolture, Kippa Ring AND Sunshine Coast line passengers/commuters for many years to come.  Especially now that Petrie station will be catering for the USC students attending Petrie campus when it opens in 2020.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/usc-wins-petrie-campus-tender-could-grow-by-10000-students/story-e6frgcjx-1227612779739

[Fares_Fair]

The draft Sunshine Coast timetable (for when the Moreton Bay Rail Link opens in 2016) is a welcome change..

For the first time in over 5 years, some of our journey lengths have reduced in time, some by around 6 minutes in peak times (e.g. the 5:01am, 5:56am and 6:20am southbound trains from Nambour).
The majority of our express legs have been modified to now consistently run Petrie to Northgate to Eagle Junction to Bowen Hills.
The Gympie North train express legs are modified, and now run express Caboolture to Bowen Hills with extra stops between at Petrie and Northgate.

There is also a reduction in the dreaded Rail Buses that supplement our week daily trains, from 13 per day in each direction back to 8 per day each direction.
4 of these comprised the 1 northbound and 3 southbound rail buses that just ran between Nambour and Landsborough, they're gone.

Southbound gems... One is the 4:30pm train that currently takes 2 and half hours. It will save 30 minutes and take 2 hours.
Second gem is the new 9:08am train which will save 25 minutes (1:52minutes) compared to the current 9:13am service (2:17minutes).

A few journeys have also become 2 minutes longer and a few are 2 minutes shorter.
The proposed 5:33pm southbound train will take 10 minutes longer than the current 5:39pm train.
It is a bit of a mixed bag, but a good move in the right direction time-wise overall.

I have begun my analysis of the entire timetable which will show total journey times and average journey lengths for all northbound and southbound trains, including weekends.
It will provide a list of the fastest and slowest trains between Gympie North / Nambour to Roma Street Brisbane on our Sunshine Coast line.
It will highlight the remaining 16 rail bus services (best avoided) if time is of the essence.

Just a reminder, nothing of this draft timetable ever eventuated.
Much like the nine trains that Hon Jackie Trad promised for 2016 - promise broken.. again.

Instead we got the tremendous Rail Fail of October 2016, when the MBRL opened -
and no new services for 5 years, until 2 March 2020 (1 new one, 1 extension of a Caboolture service)

[HappyTrainGuy]

Don't forget an unideal platform layout for short starters and 9 car trains.

[Fares_Fair]

^  Thank you HTG