Rollingstock: The Next Generation

[SurfRail]

Created as a bit of a place-holder for our next train order, whenever that eventuates.

Barring anything dramatic, we can assume the fleet will look like this at some point in the next 1-2 years:
- All EMUs and ICEs retired
- 7 x 6 car Adtranz IMUs running in 2 x 3 (10 x IMU100s, 4 x IMU120s)
- 20 x 6 car Adtranz SMUs running in 2 x 3 (approx 10 x 200s, 30 x SMU220s) - I understand at least 2 x SMU200s of the original 12 are retired or parted out for spares, if not more, and the rest are basically obsolecent anyway
- 32 x 6 car Bombardier sets running in 2 x 3 (28 x IMU160s, 32 x SMU260s)
- 75 x 6 car NGR sets (which will mid-way through their upgrades at Maryborough)

That yields 134 x 6 car train equivalents, a handful of which would continue to operate as 3 car trains on the Rosewood line.  Of these, 82 would have 2 toilets aboard (IMU100s, IMU120s and NGRs) and if all the 160s run with a 260 you get another 28 trains each with one toilet aboard - total of 110 out of 134 (leaving 24 of 134 comprising various types of SMU).  The oldest 20 trains in the fleet would be purely for suburban running without the amenities or max speed needed for longer distances.  The Cross River Rail sector would be operated likely 100% with NGRs, with some NGRs continuing to operate on the other sectors.  Additional stabling is going to be delivered at Clapham and North Mayne in connection with CRR.

My suggestion would be that we need an order for something like 50 x 6 car trains.  That will cover the replacement of everything built before the Bombardier sets (27 x 6 car trains), allow room for further system expansion and be focused on the 2 existing sectors which transit through Central - ie these new trains would operate to

- Ipswich (and Rosewood in peak)
- Springfield Central (and beyond to Ripley etc)
- Salisbury (and beyond to Flagstone etc)
- Cleveland
- Doomben
- Airport
- Shorncliffe
- Ferny Grove

These trains would feature:
- No toilets
- More doors
- More longtitudinal seating

Optimised platforms would be needed in places to eliminate or minimise curvature (which should happen anyway, this would just be a good driver for it).

Featuring more than 2 doors per carriage face will make them incompatible with CRR's platform screen doors but I do not see that as an issue.  The CRR routes (Sunshine Coast, Caboolture, Kippa-Ring, Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines) will eventually be operated with 9-car trains anyway, and the system would be sufficiently sectorised by this point that they would not make any appearance on those lines in regular service.

If deliveries start in say 2023-2024 there could be 1 x 6 car train per month for 5 years to 2028-2029.  By 2029 this would mean a fleet of 125 x fixed 6 car consists and 32 x 6 car consists comprised of 2 x 3 car sets for a total of 157 x 6 car trains (942 carriages).  The IMU160s and SMU260s, all delivered from 2007-2012, would all be between about 17-22 years old and procurement of their replacement and future fleet expansion would likely not be needed for at least another 5 years or so. 

Following this point you would be planning up to 225 carriages to extend the NGRs to 9 car trains, and acquire trains to replace the IMU160s and SMU260s and grow the fleet further.  That might involve a few 3 car sets as part of the mix, or they could just bite the bullet and lengthen the Rosewood line platforms so the entire system can take 6 car trains.  Eudlo and Traveston are the only other stations with length issues and by that time you would hope the NCL will have been upgraded to resolve Eudlo, while Traveston probably doesn't need to be kept open (Cooran is 5km away and Traveston is virtually inaccessible other than by motoring anyway).

[OzGamer]

If they plan to build the next set of trains in Maryborough, surely the idea would be to have a continuous build process? This could mean instead of one train a month for five years and then stop, you just build one train every six weeks perpetually into the future.