Queensland Rail - Commonwealth Games timetable

[ozbob]

ABC News --> Commonwealth Games transport: Buses to replace some Brisbane commuter trains

In order to get 1 million spectators to the Gold Coast during the Commonwealth Games, some of Brisbane's busiest commuter train lines will be replaced with buses.
When trains will run on your line
Airport: Weekday peak every 15-30 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every 30 minutes.

Beenleigh: On some days, buses will replace trains at most stations. Service frequency will change regularly. Check Translink website.

Caboolture: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Cleveland: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Doomben: Weekdays every 30 minutes, Saturday hourly services, no Sunday services.

Ferny Grove: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Gold Coast: 24-hour services during the Games. Train frequencies will change regularly. Check Translink website.

Ipswich: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Rosewood: Weekday peak every 30 minutes, off-peak every hour, weekends every hour.

Redcliffe: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Shorncliffe: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Springfield: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Sunshine Coast: Weekday peak every 30 minutes, off-peak every 90 minutes, weekends every two hours.

Source: Translink

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said services on the Gold Coast line would run six times an hour in most cases, with eight services an hour planned for peak periods.

The Gold Coast's light rail will also have services every six minutes for a nine-hour period, while a shuttle bus service will connect the "spine" of venues in the region.

The Commonwealth Games timetable will operate between March 30 and April 20, with an extra 6 million journeys expected.

But some of Brisbane's busiest commuter trains will have reduced timetables and will be replaced by buses, including most of the Beenleigh line.

"You will see a high frequency bus service for a lot of the Beenleigh line, with the exception of Woodridge, Coopers Plains and Yeronga, which will have express services down to the Gold Coast," Mr Bailey said.

"At various times on the network when we do maintenance, there will be bus supplements. In this case it is similar except we have made them high frequency to minimise the inconvenience,"

Mr Bailey did not think the replacement buses would have an big impact on commuters.

    "It will be quite convenient. In some cases it will actually be faster, in some cases it will be similar, and in some cases it will be a weeny-bit slower," he said.

"It will just depend a bit on the network."

Services on other SEQ rail lines will be reduced to accommodate for a three-fold increase in activity on the Gold Coast and Airport lines.

"We've got a finite level of rollingstock and drivers. You have make changes if you are going to make triple the trips to the Gold Coast and Commonwealth Games," Mr Bailey said.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told Parliament last year "categorically" there would be no line closures, but Mr Bailey insisted the Beenleigh line would have a "continuous service" with the replacement buses.

People can find information about public transport and road closures on a new Commonwealth Games transport website.

The website is a separate initiative, not advertised on the main Commonwealth Games site or Main Roads information page.

Day-long congestion predicted on Gold Coast stretch of M1

The Commonwealth Games transport plan also includes speed limit changes to the M1/M3.

The M1 is the major road linking the Gold Coast to Brisbane and has been plagued by traffic problems for years.

A Department of Transport forecast, which was released to the ABC under a Right to Information request, found that during the Games states there will be a "very high crash risk" on both sides of the M1 motorway south of Mudgeeraba at exits 82 and 85.

The plan also warned of expected congestion along virtually the entire Gold Coast strip of the motorway.

It predicted all-day congestion for the duration of the Games in the southbound lanes of a 33-kilometre stretch of the road from Coomera to Tugun.

The Government announced on Sunday the speed limit would be lowered from 110kph to 100kph between Logan and Gaven, while there will be a 10kph reduction at Eight Mile Plains.

Commonwealth Games chairman Peter Beattie said transport was the biggest challenge for the event.

Traffic chaos due to fatal accident

Just an hour after the transport announcement, a man died after he was struck by a car on the M1, causing heavy congestion towards Brisbane.

Police said the man was inspecting his broken-down vehicle in the emergency lane, when he was hit from behind at about 11:30am.

The man was caught underneath his car and died at the scene.

The incident occurred about a kilometre north of the Smith Street on-ramp near Helensvale, with police closing two lanes while the Forensic Crash Unit investigated.

' Potentially Fragile ' I think are the words to describe the overall plan. 

It will not take much to cause some signficant disruption. 

Let's hope it all goes well!

[BrizCommuter]

Or a Coopers Plains boom gate strike.

...caused by someone driving as an alternative to catching the axed Beenleigh Line?

[ozbob]

Queensland Times 5th February 2018 page 4

Rail services escape closure

[Stillwater]

The idea of a timetable is that it is constant -- we all adapt our travel patterns to the comings and goings of buses and trains that arrive every day at the station or stop, reliably and usually on time.  A trust is built up that the train or bus will be there according to the pattern our mind is trained to accept.

How many disruptive, ever-changing timetables do we have in any one year in Queensland?  Different train timetable on Fridays to Monday-Thursdays, different timetable Saturday to Sunday, buses replacing trains regularly, on the Sunshine Coast buses performing the task of trains, sh%t schedules and now Commonwealth Games schedules.

The public struggles to keep up in circumstances where the world 'timetable' is whatever the daily order of buses and trains following each other on a route, often where the changes mean the buses and trains don't connect.  'The timetable' becomes a variable feast that has people scrambling for their cars.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/960266261107113984

[tazzer9]

Im fairly sure that the sunshine coast line will have to do away with toileted trains.  Apart from the services which are covered by an ICE.  Gold coast line will require all the high speed trains.   And i'm pretty sure we don't have enough HS units for all GC services to be covered by a HS unit.   So be prepared for a few EMU's and early SMU's to be back on the GC line. 

Something they could try is to run all the ferny grove-GC trains with an SMU/EMU and have it skip ormeau to avoid having a another service behind it get slowed down as well. 

[BrizCommuter]

Im fairly sure that the sunshine coast line will have to do away with toileted trains.  Apart from the services which are covered by an ICE.  Gold coast line will require all the high speed trains.   And i'm pretty sure we don't have enough HS units for all GC services to be covered by a HS unit.   So be prepared for a few EMU's and early SMU's to be back on the GC line. 

Something they could try is to run all the ferny grove-GC trains with an SMU/EMU and have it skip ormeau to avoid having a another service behind it get slowed down as well.

I would hope that QR would be trying to keep the EMUs well away from the Gold Coast Line during the games. I'm interested to know if some lines such as FG will have services running through to the Gold Coast.

[SurfRail]

I think the light rail won't cope simply due to the sheer volume of people using it.  Currently at 7.5 minute frequencies it has decent patronage even on the services that won't connect to a train.  Some off peak services are currently to the point of being intrusive to my personal bubble.  Especially since the nerang-broadbeach and nerang-surfers buses won't be the best option during the games.  As you have said, most bus routes won't see a massive improvement driving more people to the light rail.

It got to over 80,000 people on the opening exhibition day in 2014, which is only slightly over its design capacity (and all of that was concentrated during the middle of the day).  It hasn't been anywhere near that territory since - Stage 2 opening was markedly busier than normal but nowhere near 2014 opening levels as I understand it.

Average daily loadings would be somewhere north of 24,000 per day by now going from what has been publicly reported, and it will be higher once uni is back in full-swing.  However, the timetable capacity for just stage 1 was about 75,000 trips per day.  I wouldn't be worried about them.

[BrizCommuter]

Looking at journey planner timetables. Changes to clockface times will occur. FG Line terminates at Roma St 

[tazzer9]

During peak hours who knows what will be through routed.  But off peak weekday I would say the airport, doomben and ferny grove lines will all be through routed to the gold coast. Shorncliffe line will remain coupled to the cleveland line.  Weekend i would presume the same except having bowen hills starters/terminators to fill in the extras. 

[BrizCommuter]

During peak hours who knows what will be through routed.  But off peak weekday I would say the airport, doomben and ferny grove lines will all be through routed to the gold coast. Shorncliffe line will remain coupled to the cleveland line.  Weekend i would presume the same except having bowen hills starters/terminators to fill in the extras.

Airport, Doomben, and Bowen Hills starters will be through routed. All FG trains will be culled at Roma St during the games. Shorncliffe services will route to Cleveland.

[Arnz]

If I recall correctly, there are up to 7 NGRs in service atm, I'm assuming they'll be aiming of up to 9 or 10.

I'm tipping the SMU/IMU hybrids may be more common on the Ipswich-Nambour corridor come Commonwealth games (due to timetabling + toilet requirements), with 6-car SMU260s on some Nambour-Ipswich runs where toilet units are not available due to the timetabled based on the 130km/h running of the 160/260s between Caboolture and Beerburrum/Glasshouse and Landsborough.

ICEs are pretty much restricted to Gympie North only on the Summer Timetable, as all Peak hr-Nambour runs on the (S.H.I.T) originate ex-Ipswich (with the occasional Springfield starter).

All the IMU100/120s I'd be tipping will all be on the GC runs, in addition to the NGRs, 6-car IMU160s, and the occasional 6-car SMU260 and SMU/IMU hybrid.

Whenever a slower older SMU or the occasional EMU heads north of Caboolture after a major disruption, it's generally up to 5 minutes late (usually eating into turn-back time).  Heading south isn't a problem due to timetabled crossings on the single track.  Hence i'm tipping there would be more 260 sightings than the normal SMU/IMU hybrids that head north of Caboolture.

[Gazza]

Am i evil for imagining a world where the commgames Beenleigh timetable is the permanent one...

10 min headway and an average stop spacing of 4km.

Very Perth, except I think Kuraby should be on the pattern, and it should be Yerongpilly instead of Yeronga.

[aldonius]

4km stop spacing is a bit nasty for a non-express service in a continuously settled area. 2km spacing is where it's at in terms of walk distance radii.

Of course, if you aren't aiming for most of your patronage to be walkup...

[Gazza]

Yeah, that's kinda the choice Perth made. Wide stop spacing with the view that most passengers take buses or park in huge car parks.
All academic of course...But I reckon it would get more patronage

[BrizCommuter]

GC2018 - Spinning Out of Control!
https://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2018/02/spinning-out-of-control.html

[ozbob]

GC2018 - Spinning Out of Control!
https://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2018/02/spinning-out-of-control.html

Sent to all outlets & ...

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/960549775262167040

[ozbob]

ABC News --> Commonwealth Games transport plan sparks service reduction concerns

The Queensland Government has defended its Commonwealth Games transport plan, after criticism that train commuters would suffer under service reductions.

The Government said yesterday to get 1 million spectators to the Gold Coast during the Commonwealth Games in April, some of Brisbane's busiest commuter train lines would be replaced with buses.
Commuter Poula Zychora waits for a train at Beenleigh train station, south of Brisbane on February 4, 2018.
Photo: Poula Zychora is worried people will drive rather than catching a replacement bus. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)

The Commonwealth Games transport plan also includes speed limit changes to the M1/M3.

Beenleigh line commuters said they were concerned about what the service reductions would mean for regular south-east Queensland residents relying on public transport during April.

Commuter Zachary Harrower said there would be a lot of people who would not be going to the Commonwealth Games that took the Beenleigh line to get home.

"Sometimes the buses don't have the same routes that the train does — it's just a bit of a stitch-up, if I'm being honest," Mr Harrower said.

Fellow Beenleigh commuter Poula Zychora said she was worried people would opt to drive rather than catch a replacement bus, creating additional congestion.

Treasurer Jackie Trad said it was important people understood the pressure that would be on the network throughout the Games.

"The Brisbane to Gold Coast line will need to increase its capacity by more than 600 per cent in order to meet the transport demands of getting people down to the Gold Coast," Ms Trad said.

"There has been a lot of work that has gone into appropriately modelling what would be the right level of service on all of the other train lines, in order to make sure we have the increased capacity on the Gold Coast line.

"In every other jurisdiction [with] a major event of this international size and scale, there have been changes to regular public transport timetables, because there has been a recognition that the additional transport tasks needed to get people to events ... have required the reallocating of infrastructure and services."

Ms Trad said she accepted some commuters would be inconvenienced, but that was why the timetable was released two months prior to the Games.

"That is a significant amount of time for people to check their timetable, to make arrangements, to ensure that there is as little disruption to their daily lives during the Commonwealth Games," she said.

When trains will run on your line

Airport: Weekday peak every 15-30 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every 30 minutes.

Beenleigh: On some days, buses will replace trains at most stations. Service frequency will change regularly. Check Translink website.

Caboolture: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Cleveland: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Doomben: Weekdays every 30 minutes, Saturday hourly services, no Sunday services.

Ferny Grove: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Gold Coast: 24-hour services during the Games. Train frequencies will change regularly. Check Translink website.

Ipswich: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Rosewood: Weekday peak every 30 minutes, off-peak every hour, weekends every hour.

Redcliffe: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Shorncliffe: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Springfield: Weekday peak every 15 minutes, off-peak every 30 minutes, weekends every hour.

Sunshine Coast: Weekday peak every 30 minutes, off-peak every 90 minutes, weekends every two hours.

Source: Translink

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/960559696804438016

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/960559876576391168

[ozbob]

Letter to the Editor Queensland Times 6th February 2018 page 15

Fun and games on rail expected

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/960610207545024512

[ozbob]

' mechanical issues ' are still happening with  regularity ..

The low frequency rail services, particularly at weekends / public holidays will be smashed.  Folks will be waiting hours I am afraid.

A funny anecdote from the local shops.

Shop proprietor: " I heard that Camilla Parker Bowles is not coming to the games."

" She must have heard about the public transport! " suggested a customer!   

[brissypete]

QR staff were handing out leaflets about games changes at Fairfield this morning, surprisingly they didn't have police escort

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

[not_available]

With all this talk about the M1, the (essentially) reduced timetable for everything north of Beenleigh, I'm curious to see how the M1 north of Brisbane river will fare. Whether nobody's mentioned it because a) there really is nothing to worry about, b) The games are at the Gold Coast, no-one on the north side will be commuting south for any reason, or c) they're deliberately avoiding questions, is anyone's guess.
It just seems to me the only focus is people getting to GC from Brisbane CBD/Airport, and no real mention of people coming from the north, west, or east.

[tazzer9]

Why wasn't Kuraby included in the GC line stops?  Altandi-woodridge is a fair distance and having a stop at kuraby makes a heap of sense for alot of reasons.  Trains are already slowing down for the curve/points.  Good interchange for beenleigh road offering alot of road and possibility of bus connections.   I wouldn't have the trains stop at runcorn or fruitgrove due to the speed they run through at.  Its a fully accessible station.

[tazzer9]

A few ranty things.  The 6 trains per hour to the gold coast is done in the stupidest way of having a clockface 4tph airport-varsity lakes.  Then having clockface 2tph Doomben to Varsity lakes.   So they have gaps of 15 minutes between some services.   This arrangement will cause congestion in brisbane due to having smaller slots for either cleveland-shorncliffe or ferny grove line services. 
The weekends will see kippa ring trains stop at albion and woolwooin but not caboolture trains

[ozbob]

Why wasn't Kuraby included in the GC line stops?  Altandi-woodridge is a fair distance and having a stop at kuraby makes a heap of sense for alot of reasons.  Trains are already slowing down for the curve/points.  Good interchange for beenleigh road offering alot of road and possibility of bus connections.   I wouldn't have the trains stop at runcorn or fruitgrove due to the speed they run through at.  Its a fully accessible station.

Agree I think better would have been Yeerongpilly (NOT Yeronga), and including Kuraby.

[Stillwater]

A lot of the focus seems to be on having shiny new trains running frequently Airport-Gold Coast.  After all, why would people elsewhere, other than along that axis, will want to get to the Games?  It is quite likely that a number of international and domestic visitors have booked accommodation on the Sunshine Coast for the Games.  Faced with 90 and 120 min. delays for trains, they will be taking to the M1 to get to and from the Gold Coast.  Or they will drive to Brisbane and clog car parks around stations served by limited-stop, but frequent, trains.

This sort of thing happens with big events -- governments putting up huge billboards to hide shanty towns between their international airport and the Games venues, or making homelessness 'illegal' and bussing the unfortunates out of the city, to fends for themselves in the woods during the duration of the Games.

[ozbob]

There will be much ' waiting on a train ' on the Sunny Coast Line. 

They can put this on continuous loop and dance the hours away. Do you think the temp platforms will stand up to it?

[techblitz]

governments putting up huge billboards to hide shanty towns between their international airport and the Games venues

they are going to get a great look at woodridge station and its lovely and diverse users

From an 'advertising suburban brisbane to the world point of view'....yerongpilly would have been a good station to highlight some more T.O.D after park rd/city....oh well...

[Mr X]

Someone here raised a good point which has had me thinking- why is there no Cwth games connection between the SE busway and the Gold Coast line? Are we really expecting all the people from SE busway routes to go via South Bank..? 

[tazzer9]

The 111 and 160 at the minimum should be extended to loganlea station.  But that would mean a BCC bus venturing outside the BCC area and we can't have that. 

[techblitz]

best and most direct option would have been crossways imo...so as to avoid the m1......garden city to altandi....132 represent! 

[Mr X]

^^ Maybe have a loop going Griffith -> Garden City -> 8MP -> Altandi and back  :conf

[Cazza]

Yeah as I said the 555 could work well (extending from the Hyperdome to Beenleigh Station). The only thing is that the traffic on the M1 could be a nightmare and going through the back streets won't be ideal.

The next best option is probably something similar to a Route 132 as Techblitz suggested, acting as a shuttle service. It would be beneficial to start a 8MP Station, run up the SE Busway, take the Garden City Depot exit, stop in the bus interchange then run express via Route 132 to Altandi Station (maybe stopping at Macgregor PnR and Sunnybank?).

[SurfRail]

The better question is why the busway isn't better connected to the railway already!

Mind you it's not like it's that hard to get a 130/140 to Altandi, is it?  If you are further south, you already have the 555 and various options from the Hyperdome (553, 560, 562, 565, 566 in peak).

[Cazza]

The better question is why the busway isn't better connected to the railway already!

Mind you it's not like it's that hard to get a 130/140 to Altandi, is it?  If you are further south, you already have the 555 and various options from the Hyperdome (553, 560, 562, 565, 566 in peak).

The 130/140 don't come from the huge bus interchange at Garden City or the even bigger PnR at 8MP. Extending the 555 to Beenleigh Station  has been raised here over the years and I think it is a great idea, especially for such a big event like the Com Games. It's more of a convenience factor and to deter people from this south-eastern corner (e.g. Holland Park, Carindale etc.) from driving.

[achiruel]

150 connects Garden City to Fruitgrove at decent frequency. Unfortunately Games trains aren't stopping there.

[SurfRail]

Do we have a meaningful answer as to why Yeronga (non-DDA compliant, less convenient bus access) and not Yeerongpilly (not featuring these problems)?  Seems like a pretty big slap in the face given the NGR saga.

[ozbob]

Do we have a meaningful answer as to why Yeronga (non-DDA compliant, less convenient bus access) and not Yeerongpilly (not featuring these problems)?  Seems like a pretty big slap in the face given the NGR saga.

The question has been asked directly by me.  Waiting for a response.  I will give them another day.

Meanwhile ...

Sent to all outlets:

7th February 2018

Not enough reliable trains?

Good Morning,

Apparently only 8 NGR trains will be in service for the Commonwealth Games.  A long way short of the suggested 18 required to run the Commonwealth Games rail services.

Queensland Times --> Only eight NGRs at Games

Quote

ONLY eight of Queensland's trouble-plagued New Generation Rollingstock trains will be in service by the start of the Commonwealth Games, despite a report claiming at least 18 were needed.

The transport plan for the April event on the Gold Coast was released this week. Queensland Rail's southeast network significantly altered to make up for the demand.

Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said eight of the NGR locomotives would be ready, short of the 15 his predecessor Jackie Trad last year hoped to have on the track.

The maintenance depot for the NGR trains is at Wulkuraka and the trains are stored at Redbank.

A state government- commissioned report by German rail operator Deutsche Bahn, released in July 2017, found at least 18 of the NGR trains would be needed ahead of the Games.

When asked why only eight would be ready, Mr Bailey said the Government had been left to "clean up the mess" made by the previous LNP government when it signed the contract for the imported trains.

Queensland Rail chief executive Nick Easy said yesterday eight NGR trains would be needed to service the Commonwealth Games timetable.

Only a portion of the 75 trains have arrived in Queensland after a raft of safety concerns were identified, including line-of-sight issues and disability access.

Mr Easy previously said some trains had to be modified in Australia because they were built before the problems came to light, while the others would be fixed during construction.

He said on Monday that each new train underwent a rigorous testing process before it was allowed to join the fleet.

We have real concerns for the reliability of the rail timetable, particularly when low frequency services are in place on all lines other than Gold Coast.  Yesterday again, multiple service cancellations and alterations due to ' mechanical issues ' ( https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=1862.msg204461#msg204461 ).  When you have one hour service frequency and a service is cancelled this can mean  await up to 2 hours, on the Sunshine Coast with 2 hour service frequency this could mean a wait up to 4 hours!  Hardly acceptable is it?

Does Queensland Rail have plans to have trains on standby or will passengers be forced to wait hours for the next service ( which itself could be cancelled should the dreaded ' mechanical issue ' strike again! ).

The NGR train botch is having enormous repercussions sadly. The NGR project needs a Commission of Inquiry so that this mega-blunder is never repeated.

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
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