4 Jul 2022: Transperth versus Translink (SEQ) ...

[ozbob]

Transperth versus Translink (SEQ): RAIL Back On Track reveals extent of poor train service in Greater Brisbane

4th July 2022

RAIL Back On Track has conducted an analysis comparing stations in the greater suburban areas of Greater Brisbane and Perth. Specifically, we looked at stations where frequent train service all day was provided, based on four trains per hour, or roughly a train every 15 minutes or better. We release the results of our analysis of the Transperth and Translink SEQ suburban train networks, including the raw data ( spreadsheet > https://backontrack.org/docs/metro15/TranslinkvsTransperthTrains2022.ods )

Our analysis is unequivocal. Perth provides frequent train service to more train stations on a Sunday than what is provided to Greater Brisbane on a weekday. On the absolute number of train stations, or the percentage of train stations with frequent service, Perth comes out on top, and by a large margin.

Less than half of the train stations examined in Greater Brisbane have frequent train service on a weekday (43%, 53 train stations). In Perth, this is 100% (70 train stations). On weekends in Greater Brisbane, service is halved approximately again (23%, 28 stations), whereas in Perth high frequency is maintained on both Saturday and Sunday. The Doomben line doesn't even have rail services on Sundays.

We believe this extraordinary lack of train service in Greater Brisbane will become a QLD State Election issue in 2024. Large increases in transport investment have simply not resulted in the provision of improved basic all-day frequent train service for Brisbane (1). Perth has a lower population than Greater Brisbane, a very low urban density, and is highly car dependent.

Transperth understands that in a low density environment, trains must be fast and frequent, and that connecting buses must be used to collect passengers within the railway catchment because walk-up patronage will be insufficient to support frequent all-day train service (2). The application of these network design principles appear to have been lost on the Queensland Government, at least in Brisbane (3).

It is also not helped by Brisbane's bus operator BCC - Transport for Brisbane being averse or unable to shorten bus routes to terminate at or properly service key train stations such as Coopers Plains, Enoggera, Indooroopilly, Morningside, and Toowong. In some cases a proper bus interchange is not there, in other cases key bus routes fail to enter the train station precinct and yield its passengers to the train. If not by bus, how else are passengers supposed to get to Brisbane train stations - move house?

RAIL Back On Track calls on all political parties and candidates who intend to contest the Queensland 2024 State Election to adopt our Train Upgrade Zones (TUZ) policy (4). To win government, it is necessary to win seats in Greater Brisbane and there is a train station with all-day low service frequency in almost every one.





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


References:

1. Note - Cross River Rail. This situation is unlikely to change even after the opening of Cross River Rail. Cross River Rail is mainly about expanding peak hour train capacity on the wider network. As such, it has no bearing on the number of frequency of trains provided in the off-peak, where services are well within network capacity.

2. Application of a Commuter Railway to Low Density https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-12/2009_infrastructure_colloquium_peter_martinovich.pdf A rail catchment can be defined as a 5-10 minute bus trip from the train station.

3. Exception - Gold Coast. The success of the Gold Coast Light Rail is due in part to the supporting bus network, which was restructured to feed passengers to Light Rail stations. This has resulted in a large increase in overall public transport use on the Gold Coast, despite the fact that the Light Rail service is not significantly more frequent than the bus corridor that it replaced.

4. SEQ: Train Upgrade Zones: Adopt Transperth Service Frequencies Across Greater Brisbane https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=14672.0

Note: For the purposes of this analysis, we excluded stations outside of Greater Brisbane such as those on the Gold Coast Line, Rosewood Line and north of Caboolture. Special-event train stations such as Exhibition and Showgrounds stations were also excluded. We examined the interpeak period to represent all day service.

5. The Transit Ridership Recipe https://humantransit.org/basics/the-transit-ridership-recipe

[ozbob]

Discussion --> https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?msg=260249

[Jonno]

https://twitter.com/railmag/status/1674019412343439361?

[#Metro]

On the money Jonno. More service = less waiting.

Less waiting = narrows the journey gap with cars.

On another note, almost a year after the Perth comparison was done... services are even better on the TransPerth network today with the opening of the Perth Airport line.