Joint Statement: New trains and new services for early birds

[ozbob]

Joint Statement:

Premier
The Honourable Anna Bligh

Minister for Transport, Trade, Employment and Industrial Relations
The Honourable John Mickel
30/09/2008

New trains and new services for early birds

Premier Bligh has announced new early-bird train services for the busy Ipswich and Caboolture lines while inspecting one of the first new trains for the Brisbane region.

Ms Bligh inspected one of four new suburban trains at Roma Street station as the State Government's new train roll out gathers speed.

Ms Bligh and Minister for Transport John Mickel said the daily inbound services would be added to both the Ipswich and Caboolture lines in mid-October this year.

The early bird services will leave both Caboolture and Ipswich around 5.30am and arrive at Brisbane Central station before 6.30am.

"These services will add more capacity on these two busy lines and this new train is part of a $585 million roll out of 44 three carriage trains and associated stabling yards work," said the Premier.

"Since February we've added 57 extra carriages to the fleet and by early 2009 we will have added another 24.

"We all need to change our behaviour to bust congestion and that's why I want services like this to give people the opportunity to change their own routines.

"Using these services commuters have the opportunity to come to work early and leave early missing the morning and evening peak times. If they are a success we will look at similar services on other lines."

The new trains travel at a top speed of 130 km per hour with seating for 242 people and standing room for over 500 people.

The $585 million rolling stock order for 44 trains included a stage one delivery of 16 interurban trains to operate on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast lines. The last of these trains was delivered in March.

The new suburban train Ms Bligh inspected today is part of the stage two delivery of 14 trains to the urban network by mid 2009.

"Over the next 10 months one of these congestion busting trains, which are being built in Maryborough, will be delivered, on average, once a month," she said.

"Today's new services are just the tip of the iceberg and we will be announcing more new services in the new year."

By mid 2010 a further 14 three carriage trains will have been delivered to complete the entire 44 train order.

Minister Mickel said construction workers and people heading to the gym before work would benefit from the new services.

"Extra rolling-stock and infrastructure improvements due to come online in the new year will ensure more benefits and more timetable changes," he said.

Mr Mickel said public transport patronage had soared almost 40 per cent over the past four years.

"Patronage for 2007/08 is estimated to be 61.7 million. This is an increase of 6.6% from 2006/07," he said.

"Delivery of these new trains shows how the Queensland Government is planning for the future by meeting demand for passenger rail transport across South East Queensland as customer patronage continues to grow."

For further information about public transport services, please visit www.translink.com.au or call 13 12 30, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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[O_128]

well its about time!
Platform 3 was closed at roma street today with I think SMU263 being parked there.
Why no early bird services for ferny,cleveland and beenleigh lines?

[O_128]

Sorry Im a little confused why get a earlier train if there is no incentive to?

[ozbob]

The spin is that this will be a pilot.  The reality is there is not enough trains yet.  There is a maintenance back log as the system has been operating at 98% at peak ( a few ICE in reserve essentially).  February 2009 will see significant improvements.

See here for some photographs from Roma St today -->  http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=1359.0

We have been pushing for incentive fares and will continue to do so.  At least though there is some movement, and promises of more to come.

I would also like to see the actual timetables before getting too excited.  The obvious best times are about half hour later, but there may be network issues until they make the broader changes.

Cheers
Bob

[O_128]

As good as it is that QLD is getting new suburban stock they are already outdated compared to other cities.Why not implemnet the auot driver feature that london uses on one its lines. ANd also at central and busy stations the gates used in singapore that open in unison with the trian doors shoul dbe implemented

[brad C]

The spin is that this will be a pilot.  The reality is there is not enough trains yet.  There is a maintenance back log as the system has been operating at 98% at peak ( a few ICE in reserve essentially).  February 2008 will see significant improvements.

One would hope that this is February 2009 (When's the election again??)
If these services commence in mid october, I would imagine some form of timetable change commensurate with the recommissioning of platforms 1 and 2  at Fortitude Valley.
It will be interesting to see the running times from Caboolture as there is an express service from Nambour at about 0535 which will require headway.
Why so early when it is the services between 6 and 7 that require some relief and have been the subject of countless requests from the RBOT Team. I regularly catch the 05.42 ex caboolture and loads wax and wane around the industrial suburbs but there is certainly no avid discomfort which would require relief.
And what about the services between 1800 and 1900 for those unfortunate jocks who also want to avoid the evening peak only to stand up for 30 minutes as there are only 30 minute services post 1800 on the Caboolture line.

Sounds like a quickly orchestrated media opportunity to divert attention from yesterday's Galaxy Poll.

Brad C 

[ozbob]

Thanks Brad, fixed the typo. 

Yes, bit earlier than we would have preferred but might be the start of bigger things ..

Cheers
Bob

[Mozz]

"The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step."
Lao Tzu

It would of course been better for these new services to have started 2 years ago when first promised or 5 years ago when they were first needed but in the interests of putting a positive spin on today's release - see the above quote

[ozbob]

Media Release 30 September 2008

SEQ:  Early-bird Citytrain services welcome, but incentive fares also needed

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport commuters has welcomed the announcement today by Premier Bligh and Minister Mickel of the additional early-bird services on the Caboolture and Ipswich lines, with promises of more to come.

Although exact timetables are not yet publicly available, it would seem that these services will be leaving Ipswich and Caboolture at around 5.30am.  This may help but to get people to travel earlier and hence ease congestion, but consideration should be given to an incentive fare structure for early-bird travel to actively drive change and help achieve certainty of the desired congestion-busting outcome.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

?Melbourne has had free early-bird rail travel for some time.  There is growing pressure to also extend this to the buses and trams in Melbourne.  Clearly it has been successful.  Brisbane would benefit if a discount incentive fare was introduced for early-bird travel.  The go card provides the means of doing this and could be made line specific to match the pilot early-bird services on the Ipswich and Caboolture lines as a trial.?

?I regularly travel on the Ipswich line and the peak early loading occurs on trains leaving Ipswich after 6am.  RAIL Back On Track members report a similar situation from Caboolture.  Therefore, to get people to move incentive fares should be introduced.  At the same time an off peak fare structure on the go card would also complement attempts to spread the peak loads.  This would then be a true congestion-busting measure. The go card provides an easy means for introducing incentive and off peak fares, and this would also encourage further uptake of the go card.?

?Rail commuters are grateful for the new trains that are being progressively rolled out. A Queensland product, they are first class.?

?Our suggestions are given in a constructive positive spirit to turn a good move into an even better move.?

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[stephenk]

As good as it is that QLD is getting new suburban stock they are already outdated compared to other cities.Why not implemnet the auot driver feature that london uses on one its lines.

ATO would improve capacity, but as the core section is not yet quite full to capacity (and there are not enough trains to run to capacity anyway) then it is not required just yet. It would only be required on the core section, a bit like SACEM on Paris RER A. Installing ATO on the core section and all trains would not be a cheap solution.

ANd also at central and busy stations the gates used in singapore that open in unison with the trian doors shoul dbe implemented

Slight problem, different stocks have differing door locations making platform edge doors impractical. It would probably require all trains to be fitted with ATO so that the train can stop accurately enough.