Redcliffe Peninsula line & associated changes - rail

[Stillwater]

A very good piece in today's Sunday Mail says Queensland Labor's strategy is to make the Premier look good.  She must be portrayed as the 'people's friend' and people's champion' because the government's perception among voters is directly linked to her personal popularity.

[ozbob]

Noticed the signal south of Kallangur at yellow and route set to run wrong road to Petrie.

Shuttle operations in place already?

Practise? 

I have noted at times some unusual train movements between Corinda and Darra West.  For example running UP on the DOWN main say from Corinda to Darra.  It is all bi-directional so I think from time to time for driver training they run these variations to gain competency/experience should it be required for operational reasons.  Guess the same is being done at Petrie.

[ozbob]

A very good piece in today's Sunday Mail says Queensland Labor's strategy is to make the Premier look good.  She must be portrayed as the 'people's friend' and people's champion' because the government's perception among voters is directly linked to her personal popularity.

Are you furious too Mr Stillwater?  I am goddamn furious !!    

Being furious however doesn't fix the fundamental network issues or duplicate the railway north of Beerburrum hey?

[ozbob]

7 News --> Qld premier 'furious' over rail chaos

[dancingmongoose]

I was very lucky that I wasn't affected by the cancellations on Friday. Getting to work was fine but returning home would have resulted in a half hour wait in the CBD had the Ipswich service not been running 10 minutes late and I just managed to catch it. 

This talk of sacking QR staff is just knee-jerk overreaction. That won't solve anything. Politics are to blame. If heads are going to roll, lets start with Emerson

[petey3801]

This is my personal $2 worth.

I'm tired of hearing the blame for this debacle laid on cuts to the public service by the former LNP Government.
An utter load of rubbish in my personal opinion, based upon the facts.
This Government is wholly to blame for these circumstances.
Queensland Rail acknowledges their failure with a trained driver shortage, made apparent only after the 650 new services kicked in on 4 October 2016.

As has been said many times so far, no, the current government is NOT wholly to blame for the current situation. Things might happen instantly in your world, but here in the real world, they do not. Yes, the current government must take some of the blame, but by far the previous government must take the majority of the blame.
Several guard and driver schools have been run since the Newman govt's recruitment freeze, but it simply wasn't enough to overcome said freeze.

Rationale is as follows:

1. This Government tried to hide the truth, and delibetately misled our RBoT Administrator.

Can't comment on this, possibly the minister was told it would become better as time went on by someone in QR, perhaps he hoped it would. I don't know.

2. This responsibility shirking government has been in power for 18 months!

How many times do you have to be told that training doesn't happen overnight?
By the time the new government got in and settled in, found out where each area of government was at etc.etc., that would easily be a month. Put out expressions of interest for guards to go to driver - About a month, give or take. Go through the selection process (psychometric testing of various stages, interviews, medicals etc), easily 2-3months, depending on how many applicants. Notice of successful application and school commencement date, a good few weeks (depending on what school intake, but minimum of a few weeks for admin etc purposes). Guard school, give or take 3-4months. Driver school, average of around 12 months, with the first 3 or so months of driver school being mostly theory school before starting route knowledge. No more than around 20 people per school (preferably less), two tutors per school. Tutors also need to be available for reaccreditation of current drivers, route tuition of current drivers when required etc. Since Newman's govt had completely stripped the training dept of QR, there were not enough tutors left in order to run several schools at the same time.
First several schools were to try to bring numbers back to pre-Newman days, as 3 years is a VERY long time in an ageing workforce (note: Something like 40% of traincrew are due to retire within the next 10 years - That is a MASSIVE number!! And doesn't include those who retired during the recruitment freeze!). It is quite likely that we're still not back to the staffing numbers in traincrew that we were at before Newman came along.
As for new tutors, once again - Expression of interest, testing, successful application etc, plus training for tutors all takes time and, as far as I know, there is (I believe it is actually a law) that states how soon you can recruit for positions after those positions have been made redundant (whether by putting them back to drivers or them taking the retirement option), meaning it was some time before tutor ranks could start to be bolstered again, meaning only so many schools were able to be run at once. There are still several schools in the pipeline which are currently on hold awaiting more tutor availability.

3. The Redcliffe Peninsula Line agreement was signed in July 2010 by then PM Julia Gillard et al.
4. Construction contract awarded to Thiess, was signed in August 2013.
5. Early construction works commenced in January 2014.

Yeah, and the Newman Gov't ripped $130-odd million out of the budget "removing the gold plating" (translation: Using inferior, cheaper products, the ramifications of which will likely be seen much sooner than if good quality products were used).

6.  Under the former LNP Government, on time running hit a peak of 96%.
7. On time running today is at around 84% under Labor.

You conveniently leave out the fact that the OTR reached its highest levels in a decade this year, under the current Labor government. Also, OTR stat reporting was changed under the current government to reduce the amount of things that could be written off as 'force majeure', making higher OTR that much more difficult to achieve.

8. What have the Government been doing for 18 months, seemingly unaware there was a problem even when 50 services were cancelled Friday week ago. Followed by a spectacular 100 last Friday?
9. How long does it take to train driver trainers? Over 18 months? No.

See above. It does not take 18 months to train driver trainers/tutors, however the time it takes to train them takes away from available time to train drivers. Or do you think drivers train themselves?

10. This extraordinary debacle is unprecedented in the history of transport in Queensland, but it appears we better get used to them.
11. At the opening on 4 October was a Prime Minister, a Queensland Premier, a Queensland Deputy Premier, a Transport Minister, local State MP's, a Mayor of Moreton Bay, a Federal Opposition MP, a Federal MP et al.
At the debacle announcement all were in apparent hiding while Queensland Rail was made to walk the plank.
13. Human error is clearly the reason and the CEO of QR has apologised.
If only the State Government could do the same.

Not much to say about the handling of the current situation, which has been poor by all parties involved.


Possible reasons that it was thought there were enough crews to work the new timetable:
Perhaps the amount of pilots and tutors required for the Lawnton to Petrie (north) as well as the Petrie to Kippa Ring sections was underestimated?
Perhaps the modelling used a lower amount of crews on leave than what actually occurred?
Perhaps the modelling missed some of the required crew breaks during shift?
Perhaps there are more crews off on sick leave than modelled for?
Perhaps there are more crews off the road (for various reasons) than modelled for?
There are multitudes of reasons as to why the modelling came out the way it did. I do not know what the modelling said and why it said there were enough to go around, but remember, as the CEO said, QR only actually needed an extra 20 drivers on Friday to eliminate the cancellations, so it is reasonable to expect that the modelling may have said it was ok (albeit very tight), with some unforseen factors occuring since said modelling had taken place.

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Furious Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk demands answers on rail debacle

A furious Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has said heads could roll over the Queensland Rail debacle that led to more than 100 services being cancelled on Friday.

Disruption to services across the CityTrain network is expected to continue for weeks as the understaffed service trains enough drivers to cope with the opening of the Moreton Bay Rail Link.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was absolutely furious about the debacle.

"I don't blame commuters for being furious as well," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"I want answers. I want answers and my minister wants answers."

Ms Palaszczuk said Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe would brief cabinet on Monday on the issue, and about not having enough train drivers.

"I want to know, very clearly from the Queensland Rail board, how did this happen?" Ms Palaszczuk said.

"And why was my minister not notified about it at an earlier date?"

Ms Palaszczuk said Mr Hinchliffe was notified on Thursday night.

She said she was not ruling out someone losing their job over the fiasco.

"Because how did it get to this? It has been planned for many years about the opening of the Moreton Bay Rail Link," she said.

"I understand the training must happen for the drivers but surely someone in Queensland Rail knew that this was going to be a problem and failed to alert higher up the line."

Ms Palaszczuk said Mr Hinchliffe had advised her an extra 100 drivers were commissioned in 2015.

"They are coming online soon."

The Queensland Rail board convened an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the crisis and put in measures to address service issues.

On Sunday, Deputy Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington criticised Mr Hincliffe, claiming he was in hiding.

Ms Frecklington said the issue did not happen overnight.

Mr Hinchliffe said he addressed the board and executive leadership team to express the clear expectation that government had for service delivery of public transport.

A new Queensland Rail train timetable will be rolled out from Tuesday to cope with a dearth of drivers, following mass cancellations last week.

More than 100 Citytrain services were cancelled on Friday due to a lack of crew, with the recent opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula line cited as the main reason.

Queensland Rail chief executive officer Helen Gluer said on Monday, the normal timetable would operate and there were no planned cancellations.

"There may, as is always the case, be alterations on the day, but there are no planned cancellations," she said.

From Tuesday, an interim timetable will be in place, which will involve fewer services, spread across the Queensland Rail network, to cope with not having enough workers.

"The interim timetable will be different from the existing timetable because with our current staffing arrangements we are unable to deliver that level of services," she said.

Ms Gluer said there may be "further alterations" - also known as cancellations - for the next two weeks.

She said the interim timetable would attempt to minimise impacts on the AM and PM peaks and spread services across the entire network.

There will be no buses replacing trains as part of the new timetable.

Ms Gluer said the interim timetable would be available for the public to view either later Sunday or Monday on the TransLink website.

"We need to get back to a reliable level of service as soon as possible," Ms Gluer said.

"People need to be sure... that the train will get them there on time.

"At the conclusion of those two weeks we will be delivering our usual standard of service to a timetable that people can rely on."

Ms Gluer said after delivering a reliable service, Queensland Rail would look at what went wrong.

"I am quite sure it will be a number of issues," she said.

" Ms Gluer said the interim timetable would be available for the public to view either later Sunday or Monday on the TransLink website. "

[BrizCommuter]

Sounds like Mr Hinchcliffe either hasn't been on top of his portfolio, or QR have been trying to hide things. Wasn't he asking QR what was going on three weeks ago?

[ozbob]

When I first raised concerns with the cancellations I was told (by QR sources) that it would settle down and be over by the end of October.  I was told that a couple of times. So my guess is they just didn't realise the compounding factors would impact as they did.  The Minister was probably told much the same.

There are a number of issues occurring all at once.  They couldn't get access to the rail corridor to for complete training till after the major closure (track work was not completed till then).  So I am not going on a blame crusade.  Petey has laid out the longer term stuff as well.

My concern now is that the public be given a full and complete explanation, and an accurate indication of the service plan from here.

Also it is high time the bus network was sorted too!   

[BrizCommuter]

My concern now is that the public be given a full and complete explanation, and an accurate indication of the service plan from here.

Going by past experience, I doubt that will happen.

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Brisbane train times: New timetable to cause two more weeks of potential delays

COMMUTERS travelling with Queensland Rail look set to endure another fortnight of potential delays as the network adjusts to an interim timetable.

Queensland Rail chief executive Helen Gluer today confirmed the interim timetable will be finalised by Tuesday, but warned there may be further changes over the next two weeks.

"We will be working hard to manage our resources and minimise the impact in peak times, as well as making sure we give as much advance notice as possible," Ms Gluer said.

"We ask that our customers to continue to check the Translink website to plan their journey."

The interim timetable is expected to remain in place until Queensland Rail is confident that it can restore its routine services.

Ms Gluer yesterday conceded Queensland Rail had been unprepared for the opening of the Redcliffe line and was in need of more drivers.

"Recent service alterations have resulted in uncertainty and we sincerely apologise to our customers and are disappointed that we have not been able to deliver on the high service we pride ourselves on," she said today.

"We have worked tirelessly to try to achieve workarounds to make the new timetable work and unfortunately, we have not been able to deliver this."

The Queensland Rail Board will meet tomorrow after Transport Minister Stirling Hinchcliffe asked the Board to "satisfy itself that the Executive Leadership Team has put in place an appropriate interim arrangement to restore continuity of services across the entire network".

[techblitz]

Things might happen instantly in your world, but here in the real world, they do not. Yes, the current government must take some of the blame, but by far the previous government must take the majority of the blame.

first of all.....mr addison has been arguing YEARS for sunshine coast line upgrades....so no things don't happen overnight in his world.

Disagree with your percentages.....they have to be adjusted now that more has come to light...

Labor 50% for failing to see the approaching debacle....still not known if it was their own doing or not(could have been 50% QR)
liberal 50%

ozbob was recently shown the hand...and it wasn't by the previous government.

[ozbob]

Queensland Rail is hoping to release an interim timetable later tonight or early in the morning. @VivienVD #7News https://t.co/HMaXaedU42

— 7 News Queensland (@7NewsQueensland) October 23, 2016

[trail]

Its interesting if you follow the events going back from the Newman Government up until now.

Around 145m was cut saved from the MBRL project if I recall.

Just to cover some of these points by yourself and petey, the money that was cut/saved/whatever from the MBRL budget was never there to begin with. If you look at some of the historic info (e.g. reference design) and info behind the tender process like here:

http://www.slideshare.net/informaoz/mango-murphy-department-of-transport-main-roads-qld
http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/moreton/changes-made-to-the-design-of-the-moreton-bay-rail-link-ahead-of-construction-beginning-in-2014/story-fni9r1i7-1226771494817

The scope that was delivered by the project is generally no different to now, other than some roadworks that was added in, the grade separation at Petrie was flipped (NCL over MBRL was reference design) and Lawnton to Petrie was added and changed completely (2-track new bridge with 3rd track on rectified old bridge to now 4-track new bridge).

What this means is that no scope was cut from the job that was originally planned back in 2010. The $140m saving most likely came from the tender process and associated savings - probably cheaper design to build with the grade separation changes plus requiring less shutdowns on the NCL. You can see this happening a lot at the moment with construction projects as QLD is no longer in a construction boom, but project budgets for jobs like these were set back in the boom days. All the talk about removing the gold-plating and the like from the job would just be political point scoring by the LNP/Scott Emerson, as if there wasnt the issue with the signals then the LNP would have looked like heroes.

QR was booted out of the MBRL project despite having its own area dedicated to the task.

If I recall the LNP stopped QR from tendering on the project, because they would have spent a lot of money doing it and most likely would not have won (1 in 4 odds).

Many issues still plagued the MBRL project which is now up front in the public domain creating negative headlines.

But yet the issues with the NGR train orders and delays have hardly made a peep. To me they have been just as much of a stuffup if not more - hence some of the 3-car units running peak timetables. Some of the MBRL issues werent helped by the project team telling people that it would be open early which got expectations up, but I must admit I have read and heard alot of other rumours around the job that ended up being plain wrong (something about curved platforms, the Energex supply being inadequate, the opening was delayed because the roadworks to the stations werent complete, etc.)

[Fares_Fair]

@petey
Rather than make unchecked claims..
The fact is the Newman Govt DID NOT rip $130 million from the MBRL budget. Thats a fallacy.
The Deputy Premier, Hon Jackie Trad was asked by ABC radio why they were not excited about the $159 million (actual) saving from the original $1.147 billion price to the $988 million final cost.
Her answer: There were Federal Govt scoping changes. Nothing further was said.

Regarding training, we know that employing 100 drivers and 100 guards was only approved by the Palaszczuk Govt in November 2015, and training began in December 2015 according to a Brisbane Times report today.
What we need to know is when was the request made by QR, and how long did it take to get the response?

Would training be implemented before the scope of requirements were known?, I.e. the Palaszczuk Govt Redcliffe Peninsula timetable and number of services proposed.

QR (I assume) were aware of their training resources (or lack thereof) when this employment plan was approved.

All this occurred on this Governments watch.
This Government IS responsible for this mess.
That's how Government works.

Politics aside, I hope that no one is scapegoated over this unfortunate human error.

[#Metro]

First several schools were to try to bring numbers back to pre-Newman days, as 3 years is a VERY long time in an ageing workforce (note: Something like 40% of traincrew are due to retire within the next 10 years - That is a MASSIVE number!!

Install ATP and DOO. Automate as much as possible. This is very expensive, and the lead times are very long.

[petey3801]

@petey
Rather than make unchecked claims..
The fact is the Newman Govt DID NOT rip $130 million from the MBRL budget. Thats a fallacy.
The Deputy Premier, Hon Jackie Trad was asked by ABC radio why they were not excited about the $159 million (actual) saving from the original $1.147 billion price to the $988 million final cost.
Her answer: There were Federal Govt scoping changes. Nothing further was said.

Regarding training, we know that employing 100 drivers and 100 guards was only approved by the Palaszczuk Govt in November 2015, and training began in December 2015 according to a Brisbane Times report today.
What we need to know is when was the request made by QR, and how long did it take to get the response?

Would training be implemented before the scope of requirements were known?, I.e. the Palaszczuk Govt Redcliffe Peninsula timetable and number of services proposed.

QR (I assume) were aware of their training resources (or lack thereof) when this employment plan was approved.

All this occurred on this Governments watch.
This Government IS responsible for this mess.
That's how Government works.

Politics aside, I hope that no one is scapegoated over this unfortunate human error.

It is absolutely pointless trying to explain anything to you, you really do have absolutely no idea.

[#Metro]

Are you furious too Mr Stillwater?  I am goddamn furious !!    

Moving to NSW!!


http://www.memes.at/faces/kill.gif

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk...



http://www.memes.at/faces/super_rage.jpg

[Fares_Fair]

@petey
Rather than make unchecked claims..
The fact is the Newman Govt DID NOT rip $130 million from the MBRL budget. Thats a fallacy.
The Deputy Premier, Hon Jackie Trad was asked by ABC radio why they were not excited about the $159 million (actual) saving from the original $1.147 billion price to the $988 million final cost.
Her answer: There were Federal Govt scoping changes. Nothing further was said.

Regarding training, we know that employing 100 drivers and 100 guards was only approved by the Palaszczuk Govt in November 2015, and training began in December 2015 according to a Brisbane Times report today.
What we need to know is when was the request made by QR, and how long did it take to get the response?

Would training be implemented before the scope of requirements were known?, I.e. the Palaszczuk Govt Redcliffe Peninsula timetable and number of services proposed.
QR (I assume) were aware of their training resources (or lack thereof) when this employment plan was approved.

All this occurred on this Governments watch.
This Government IS responsible for this mess.
That's how Government works.

Politics aside, I hope that no one is scapegoated over this unfortunate human error.

It is absolutely pointless trying to explain anything to you, you really do have absolutely no idea.

Yes, and you always make unchecked anti-Newman motherhood claims (which is your view), e.g. "Since Newman's govt had completely stripped the training dept of QR, there were not enough tutors left in order to run several schools at the same time."

Can anyone prove this claim?
I doubt it.

Even if true, I would assume that QR made this decision (if indeed one was made that 'completely stripped' them of their own training dept) and they knew that the Redcliffe Peninsula Line was coming.
But hang on, that's the previous Government's fault?
I don't think so.

I use facts to support my position in media and here, always have, always will.
I know training takes time but that this project has been in the construction offing since January 2014.
My points are valid.

[petey3801]

Here's some advice: Don't always take the media's word. If I can really be bothered, I might type up an actual reply at a later date when I am on a computer. But your so called "facts" leave a lot to be desired. Considering you seem to believe that from start to finish, the recruitment time is less than one month (November 2015 to December 2015), it is quite likely that I won't be able to be bothered to write out yet another reply to this crap, considering my other post earlier this afternoon. Believe what you want, but I can tell you now, going by your last few posts, your beliefs are a load of crap.

[Fares_Fair]

I didn't say that recruitment times were only a month.
Don't put words in my mouth.

I said what I said.
I said that they were approved in November and started in December 2015, as reported.

Happy for you to point out what facts I stated are incorrect.  There were opinions in amongst them. 
For the record:
Point 2 is part opinion (first half).
Point 10 is opinion.
Point 11 is part opinion (second half).


My questions above are valid and I do not expect you to answer them.
My facts don't make motherhood statements or try to belittle opposing views.

You are entitled to your opinion.
I don't need to stoop to invective.

[#Metro]

So I assume that in addition to drivers, they also need guards at the back too? So is it really 20 drivers or 20 drivers PLUS 20 guards as well?



Compared to incompetents Red Team and Blue Team opposition, at this rate, even Pauline Hanson and Orange Team start to look good!! 

[Fares_Fair]

QR CEO Ms Helen Gluer stated that if they had 20 drivers available, the 100 cancellation situation would not have occurred.

[Gazza]

at this rate, even Pauline Hanson and Orange Team start to look good!!

Dunno why Hanson and public transport get mentioned in the same sentence.

If people want to vote for a party where you know that there is a strong degree of internal knowledge and support for public transport, that would be the Greens right? That's literally their bread and butter.

[#Metro]

If people want to vote for a party where you know that there is a strong degree of internal knowledge and support for public transport, that would be the Greens right?

Who is the leader of Green Team in QLD? No media profile, apart from Sri. 

[Fares_Fair]

Richard Di Natale is the Australian Greens' leader.
Larissa Waters is the senator for QLD & Co-Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens

^^
Yes, Gazza, the greens are full on for sustainable and public transport from my dealings with them in the run up to the last state election.
Their local candidates have kindly offered to help press the case for rail, if I require it.

[#Metro]

Richard Di Natale is the Australian Greens' leader.
Larissa Waters is the senator for QLD & Co-Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens

These are both Federal. They will not be running for QLD Gov't.

Who is leading for State?

Yes, Gazza, the greens are full on for sustainable and public transport from my dealings with them in the run up to the last state election.
Their local candidates have kindly offered to help press the case for rail, if I require it.

Yes, that's great. They also ran with CentenaryGlider and bus changes (rather than LRT). If anything, they should capitalise on this.

[Gazza]

If people want to vote for a party where you know that there is a strong degree of internal knowledge and support for public transport, that would be the Greens right?

Who is the leader of Green Team in QLD? No media profile, apart from Sri. 

Who's the ONP leader at the Qld state level?

[Fares_Fair]

No one that I know of.
The Greens party was deregistered by the AEC in 2015.

Andrew Bartlett was a candidate for the Greens at the last Federal election. He was vying for a North Queensland Senate vacancy.
He has acted as their spokesperson.

Pauline Hanson herself is a Queensland Senator. Unsure if they have a separate state leader per se.

This is way off topic in this thread.
Apology to Administration, please relocate as required.

[#Metro]

This is way off topic in this thread.
Apology to Administration, please relocate as required.

True. Apologies.

It was a joke, but then Gazza went all literal to the letter.

[Fares_Fair]

at this rate, even Pauline Hanson and Orange Team start to look good!!

Dunno why Hanson and public transport get mentioned in the same sentence.

If people want to vote for a party where you know that there is a strong degree of internal knowledge and support for public transport, that would be the Greens right? That's literally their bread and butter.

I met with Pauline Hanson in the run up to the state election and put the case for rail duplication to her on 24 January 2016.
I met with the Greens and independents as well. I met with anyone who would meet me.

She stated in the media recently (print and TV) that the number one Sunshine Coast priority should be rail duplication.
Clearly she paid attention and acknowledged the critical need.
Reason enough to include in the one sentence 

[HappyTrainGuy]

But yet the issues with the NGR train orders and delays have hardly made a peep. To me they have been just as much of a stuffup if not more

That's because there is nothing to make a peep over. The initial 'delays' came during the tendering phase. They aren't running that late and a lot of the issues that have been brought up have been rectified. Not much difference to the 160/260 issues where they were rubbing some tunnel walls or the drivers immobilising the train under acceleration when the motors hit that crucial phase. Anyway they expected to start receiving them mid 2016 before pending final acceptance testing. After the initial fleet expansion order has been accepted and completed the single ended EMUs are bye bye when each ngr unit is accepted to the network.

If I recall the LNP stopped QR from tendering on the project, because they would have spent a lot of money doing it and most likely would not have won (1 in 4 odds).

I suggest you look into TrackStar. They were responsible for the Caboolture-Beerburrum realignment, the Springfield Railway line, the Robina-Varsity Lakes extension and pretty sure they did the Beewah overpass too. Pretty sure all those projects consistently came in under budget and ahead of schedule.

[Fares_Fair]

Caboolture to Beerburrum was some 3 and a half months late (April 2009). Yes, TrackStar Alliance built them comprising Thiess, Aurecon, AECOM, QR and TMR. Caboolture to Beerburrum budget was $298 million. It was on budget.

[#Metro]

Caboolture to Beerburrum was some 3 and a half months late (April 2009). Yes, TrackStar Alliance built them comprising Thiess, Aurecon, AECOM, QR and TMR. Caboolture to Beerburrum budget was $298 million. It was on budget.

What was QR's role within the alliances?

[Fares_Fair]

Queensland Rail were the client.
The Alliance also included Connell Wagner Engineers and United Group.

I have posted information on the TrackStar Alliance on the forum in the past.

[#Metro]

Queensland Rail: Temporary timetable to cancel 30 Citytrain services per day

There will be 30 train services cancelled each day under an interim timetable as Queensland Rail attempts to fix a crisis caused by not having enough drivers.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/queensland-rail-temporary-timetable-to-cancel-30-citytrain-services-per-day-20161023-gs8t75.html


Barely two months ago, this comment released by RBOT about the bus network:
http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=12396.msg178923#msg178923

The continued passive non-management of essential public services is setting the Palaszczuk Government up for a massive electoral defeat in our opinion.

Looks very prophetic now, doesn't it? 

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe to brief Cabinet on emergency QR board meeting

PASSENGERS can expect further train turmoil for at least the next fortnight as 30 weekday services are cut, 11 changed and waiting times are pushed out by an extra 15 minutes.

A pared-down timetable will be announced today as Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe flies into north Queensland to brief Cabinet on an emergency Queensland Rail board meeting yesterday and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk threatens sackings over the embarrassing mess.

Mr Hinchliffe will have to defend himself against claims he's been missing in action after he was spotted at the Gold Coast 600 yesterday, rather than meeting the QR board or media over the fiasco.

Instead, QR chief executive Helen Gluer was left to explain how a new interim timetable – slashing services from 1306 a day to 1276 – will operate from tomorrow as her staff scrambled to draw it up.

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said it was "extraordinary" that Mr Hinchliffe had left Ms Gluer to take the heat while he spent the day in a corporate box.

"A minister, especially a minister for transport, who wants to stand up and cut ribbons also needs to stand up and take responsibility for a major public transport failure," he told The Courier-Mail.

"Passengers have every right to feel disgusted that the minister would rather be enjoying the corporate hospitality of the V8 Supercars than actually be working to fix the problems that we saw on Friday and to make sure they don't happen again."

But Mr Hinchliffe – who was only told about the timetable crisis on Thursday – rejected the criticism, saying he was attending as the Commonwealth Games Minister.

"As Commonwealth Games Minister, I had a keen eye on what was happening off the track," he said. "Every major event offers learnings for us as we approach the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April 2018."

It came as Ms Palaszczuk declared she was "furious" over the driver shortages.

"I am absolutely furious," she said. "I don't blame commuters for being furious as well ... and let me make it clear, I want answers. I want to know very clearly from the Queensland Rail board how did this happen and why was my Minister not notified about it at an earlier date?"

Asked whether sackings could flow, she said: "I'm not ruling it out because how did it get to this?"

The major disruptions have been blamed on a lack of drivers, exacerbated by the opening of the new Moreton Bay Rail Link earlier this month.

"Surely someone in Queensland Rail knew that this was going to be a problem and failed to alert higher up the line," Ms Palaszczuk said.

Ms Gluer said the priority now was settling the timetable for passengers.

Under the interim timetable, passengers have been warned to expect sudden changes and cancellations.

The Government commissioned an extra 100 drivers in November 2015, which are expected to start work "soon" following a year of mandatory training.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

How about briefing the public?

Good Morning,

We note that the Minister for Transport will brief the Cabinet on Monday on the urgent Queensland Rail Board meeting held over the weekend and presumably on the service delivery plan from here.

How about briefing the public too?

We are sick and tired of mediocre public transport.  It is not only rail that has issues at present, although their performance had been excellent until the opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula line, the bus network, particularly for Brisbane is a mess.  Consistently (years) Brisbane Transport has failed to meet even the minimum ontime running standards specified in contracts.

Constructive suggestions for improvement are ignored.  It is too hard for Government to do the right thing it appears, politics and incompetence takes precedence.

It matters little whether ALP or LNP, both have failed.

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

Latest: How about briefing the public?https://t.co/JXmCHu9hCD#qldpol@AnnastaciaMP @StirlHinchliffe @TimNichollsMP @TMRQld @TransLinkSEQ pic.twitter.com/5bNfGlbJhu

— Robert Dow (@Robert_Dow) October 23, 2016

[ozbob]

The simple facts are these.

The Newman Govt had planned to break up Queensland Rail and flog it ( fundamentally why QR was kicked out of the MBRL construction alliance, despite the excellent project history to that point), and in fact on the night of the election there were financiers in place ready to act.  As election events proceeded the financiers were ordered to leave the building ...

As a consequence of this ' plan ' a number of things had happened.  The training crew and training centre with Queensland Rail had been allowed to run down.  The Newman Government was not concerned with the longer term impacts as they figured it would be the new franchisee's problem.  There is a hell of lot of what the LNP Government did that is not publicly known.

When elected the ALP had to first recognise the issues, then start to recover from the damage during the previous three years.

They have been tardy in driving this recovery but none the less they nearly did it.  The new drivers will be available within a month.  A good recovery effort considering what had to be re-established.

I think it is time to put the blame game and partisan politics aside and look towards making the overall public transport network a functional one.

:bi