Queensland Rail

[achiruel]

I'm not really sure what the issue is if drivers want to continue to drive part-time/semi-retire, provided they are in good health and pass all require medical checks.

[SABB]

Workforce planning is very difficult to do in QR. No one will nominate a retirement age because, if you do that you immediately rule out the possibility of getting a voluntary redundancy package, if and when they next arise. QR will not give a redundancy to anyone who they know will be retiring shortly. I know of many people who just stayed around until the VERs came on offer.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1115769916991234053

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1116427191242219520

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1119023576571506689

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1121899660275175426

[ozbob]

Queensland Parliament Hansard

https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/hansard/2019/2019_05_02_DAILY.pdf

Ministerial Statements p 1406

" ... The largest recruitment and training program in Queensland Rail's history is underway: 142 new
drivers, 276 new guards, with 81 drivers in training for a net gain of 76 drivers ... "

=========

Still a long way from the 200 ... 

Today is day 945 of #railfail  so at the present rate will take a total of 2487 days to reach net gain of 200

Which is 1,542 (4.2 years) days from today  ...

[ozbob]

Up to a net gain of 78 ...

https://twitter.com/MarkBaileyMP/status/1125618486711967744

[BrizCommuter]

BrizCommuter: Extra train services = Restored train services
https://brizcommuter.blogspot.com/2019/05/extra-train-services-restored-train.html

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/7NewsBrisbane/status/1127851572229099521

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1128017008065302528

[achiruel]

Also required: extend southern line short working to Altandi (increased bus/rail interchange opportunities).
Investigate feasibility of Cleveland branch short workings to Murrarie (for the same reason). I understand there is something to do with crossovers etc that makes this difficult, but it really needs to be looked at, 590 is an important cross-town route that really needs better bus/rail interchange.

[Arnz]

Working on getting enough resources for short running between Springfield and Bowen Hills (if not between Springfield and Kippa-Ring) would also allow for all-day expresses between Ipswich and Brisbane to link in with the Caboolture/Nambour expresses.

Pre-Landsborough duplication, this would be followed by extending some existing daytime Caboolture terminators to Landsborough, for shoulder peak half-hourly services to Landsborough up till 10am (there's hourly headways between Nambour and Roma Street/Ipswich in the morning should peak) and again from 2:30pm to 6pm.

Post Landsborough duplication, most if not all of Caboolture terminators would be extended to Landsborough.  60 min headways beyond Landsborough may be possible, and hourly to Nambour on weekends (no Landsborough terminators).

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1136655352546582528

[ozbob]

CRU https://www.cru.qld.gov.au/Reports

Fixing the Trains—December Quarter 2018 (PDF, 3.02 MB)

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1136710684853407744

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1137800897948291072

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1139248254325968896

[STB]

Also required: extend southern line short working to Altandi (increased bus/rail interchange opportunities).
Investigate feasibility of Cleveland branch short workings to Murrarie (for the same reason). I understand there is something to do with crossovers etc that makes this difficult, but it really needs to be looked at, 590 is an important cross-town route that really needs better bus/rail interchange.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Altandi is a turnback station, requires crossovers, and would probably conflict with Gold Coast trains, Kuraby would be a more logical location as it's already set up for turnback operations, just that we need the trains and crews to do it.

Regarding Murrarie, I believe that was the original plan when the services were extended to provide a 15min frequency to the city, however from memory, there were some issues including scheduling to enable a turnback without turnback crews and/or occupying the track for more time than it can handle before conflicts occur, hence it ended up being Cannon Hill instead.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1139561829934325760

[ozbob]

Day 1000 of #railfail is Wednesday 26th June 2019.

[ozbob]

Understand Queensland Rail has reached 100 driver net gain today.

[ozbob]

Understand Queensland Rail has reached 100 driver net gain today.

Time for the restitution of the October 2016 timetable ... 

[achiruel]

Didn't they need net 200 drivers gain for that?

[ozbob]

Didn't they need net 200 drivers gain for that?

200 is the ' target '.  Don't be surprised if we see the reintroduction sooner than another 923 993 days ... 

[ozbob]

Page 18
https://www.strachaninquiry.qld.gov.au/assets/commission-of-inquiry-report-trains-crewing-report.pdf



Factor in the addition of the 32 weekly services from 13 May 2019, sill down around 440 services cf. 4 Oct 2016 timetable.

[achiruel]

Didn't they need net 200 drivers gain for that?

200 is the ' target '.  Don't be surprised if we see the reintroduction sooner than another 923 days ... 

I suspect it will take far less than another 923 days to reach the second 100 drivers.

In the meantime, I think aiming for a consistent Monday-Friday timetable would be a good interim measure. One that particularly annoys me (for personal reasons, although I imagine it's a bad look for tourists in general) is the short working of the 0834 ex Domestic Airport service which terminates at Roma St instead of Varsity Lakes on Fridays.

[ozbob]

Yo.  The Friday timetable is very frustrating for a lot of passengers agreed. 

I have feeling though they might just go straight back to the Oct 2016 timetable.  Have heard a few rumblings ...

[SurfRail]

What I'm more concerned about is that they don't go any further than October 2016, so we get stuck with no further 15 minute headways anywhere (including none on weekends except for paired routes such as Darra to the city).

The infrastructure already exists to support, with a fair degree of reliability, consistent operating patterns all day 7 days a week as follows:

- Caboolture and Sunshine Coast - every 30 minutes to Caboolture current express pattern, every second train to Nambour, several shuttles per day from Gympie North to Nambour
- Kippa-Ring - every 15 minutes current express pattern
- Shorncliffe - every 15 minutes all stations (and if there was an issue with the single track to Shorncliffe you could turn back every second train at Sandgate)
- Airport - every 15 minutes all stations
- Doomben - every 30 minutes all stations
- Ferny Grove - every 15 minutes all stations
- Ipswich - every 30 minutes current peak hour express pattern, every second train to Rosewood or get the shuttle working properly
- Springfield Central - every 15 minutes all stations
- Beenleigh - every 15 minutes all stations to Kuraby, every second train to Beenleigh
- Gold Coast - every 30 minutes
- Cleveland - every 15 minutes all stations to Manly, every second train to Cleveland

CRR and associated signalling should enable 15 minute headways on the Caboolture line given the increased service density on the mains permissible inbound of Northgate.  Cleveland duplication (even if not done all in one hit) will enable 15 minute headways to Cleveland and tidying up Sandgate to Shorncliffe will also help that.  Kuraby to Beenleigh will continue to be a sticking point.

If we can't get to at least this preliminary position before CRR opens you'd question why we are even bothering.  If the system only does any kind of heavy lifting in peak, it hardly seems worth it.  (I can't think of anything worse for CRR than to have a Gold Coast train, then a Beenleigh train 6 minutes later and then nothing for 24 minutes.)

[ozbob]

Agree.  I see the restitution of the Oct 2016 timetable as the beginning of further improvements.

Good summary.

The Citytrain network is a poor pax performer.  I would like to see 100 million passengers/year by 2024 (presently ~ 53 million). 

We all know the reasons for the poor performance, frequency terrible particularly counter-peak and out of peak.

Poor support in terms of feeder buses.  Constant problems with connections.

The mediocre service level is not satisfactory for the level of financial investment made by all Queenslanders.

I am conceptualising a ' Target 300 ' campaign in my head at present.  A total of 300 million passengers total all modes SEQ by 2029 (Present ~ 184 million). 

The days of wine and roses are over ...

[ilovebrisvegas]

What I'm more concerned about is that they don't go any further than October 2016, so we get stuck with no further 15 minute headways anywhere (including none on weekends except for paired routes such as Darra to the city).

The infrastructure already exists to support, with a fair degree of reliability, consistent operating patterns all day 7 days a week as follows:

- Caboolture and Sunshine Coast - every 30 minutes to Caboolture current express pattern, every second train to Nambour, several shuttles per day from Gympie North to Nambour
- Kippa-Ring - every 15 minutes current express pattern
- Shorncliffe - every 15 minutes all stations (and if there was an issue with the single track to Shorncliffe you could turn back every second train at Sandgate)
- Airport - every 15 minutes all stations
- Doomben - every 30 minutes all stations
- Ferny Grove - every 15 minutes all stations
- Ipswich - every 30 minutes current peak hour express pattern, every second train to Rosewood or get the shuttle working properly
- Springfield Central - every 15 minutes all stations
- Beenleigh - every 15 minutes all stations to Kuraby, every second train to Beenleigh
- Gold Coast - every 30 minutes
- Cleveland - every 15 minutes all stations to Manly, every second train to Cleveland

CRR and associated signalling should enable 15 minute headways on the Caboolture line given the increased service density on the mains permissible inbound of Northgate.  Cleveland duplication (even if not done all in one hit) will enable 15 minute headways to Cleveland and tidying up Sandgate to Shorncliffe will also help that.  Kuraby to Beenleigh will continue to be a sticking point.

If we can't get to at least this preliminary position before CRR opens you'd question why we are even bothering.  If the system only does any kind of heavy lifting in peak, it hardly seems worth it.  (I can't think of anything worse for CRR than to have a Gold Coast train, then a Beenleigh train 6 minutes later and then nothing for 24 minutes.)

Totally agree with all this. I've noticed on Google Maps there's a 3rd track at Kingston which looks like could be easily used as a passing point. What if Beenleigh and Gold Coast services were timed so that the services heading inbound crossed at this point, like how Gold Coast line inbound services overtake Beenleigh line inbound services at Bethania in the morning peak. While it would add 3-4 minutes to the Beenleigh service, it could potentially enable 15 minute all day frequencies on the Beenleigh line - particularly if the outbound Gold Coast and Beenleigh line services run a similar timetable to the afternoon peak services all day. It would provide overtaking opportunities in both directions.

[ilovebrisvegas]

Totally agree with all this. I've noticed on Google Maps there's a 3rd track at Kingston which looks like could be easily used as a passing point. What if Beenleigh and Gold Coast services were timed so that the services heading inbound crossed at this point, like how Gold Coast line inbound services overtake Beenleigh line inbound services at Bethania in the morning peak. While it would add 3-4 minutes to the Beenleigh service, it could potentially enable 15 minute all day frequencies on the Beenleigh line - particularly if the outbound Gold Coast and Beenleigh line services run a similar timetable to the afternoon peak services all day. It would provide overtaking opportunities in both directions.

Although I've just realised that would create some conflict in the morning on the counter-peak services as there would be no provision for Gold Coast outbound services to overtake Beenleigh line outbound services. Ok, the Government just needs to get their A into G and upgrade this corridor asap! 

[achiruel]

Could an outbound passing loop be constructed as well? I think there might be room for one between the HV power lines just south of Kingston station and the Logan Mwy overpass.

[ilovebrisvegas]

Could an outbound passing loop be constructed as well? I think there might be room for one between the HV power lines just south of Kingston station and the Logan Mwy overpass.

Or maybe one could be done at Woodridge - although it would mean a sacrifice of some of the car parking space. Could merge back into the main line just before the bridge over Wembley Road.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1141736514130345984

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1142518836500955136

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1143181998866874373

[ozbob]

Excitement building ...   

[ozbob]

Yo.  The Friday timetable is very frustrating for a lot of passengers agreed. 

I have feeling though they might just go straight back to the Oct 2016 timetable.  Have heard a few rumblings ...

Sent to all outlets:

25th June 2019

End of rail fail in sight !

Greetings,

RAIL Back On Track welcomes the restoration of the October 2016 Queensland Rail Citytrain Timetable from Monday the 29th July 2019.  This will put back around 430 weekly services and a consistent weekday (Monday to Friday) timetable.

The first wave of service cancellations (53 in number) occurred on the 30th September 2016, and during October 2016, further waves of cancellations lead to the situation of ' rail fail ' being declared.  Since then there have been a number of reduced service timetables as Queensland Rail recovered the numbers of train crew.

We call for a weekend of free travel on the SEQ public transport network on the 27th to 28th July (exception Airtrain and CityCat) to acknowledge the impact on the travelling public of the reduced service rail timetables over the past years.

Once the new timetable is in place, we would like to see progress for improved train service frequency on the Sunshine Coast Line (promised more services by Government in 2015, never delivered) and improving services between Nambour and Gympie North.  After that further frequency improvements to day inter-peak and counter-peak services on all lines.

We thank all at Queensland Rail for the working hard to get back the October 2016 timetable.

Best wishes,

Robert

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

[ozbob]

Facebook ...

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1143315939204595712