Reported service disruptions rail - no longer in use

[ozbob]

I have noted a lot of the bloggers had had enough.  The peak performance figures don't tell the full story.  Last night there were disruptions on the Cleveland line as well as Gold Coast.

This mornings issues will probably thrust public transport reliability into the election spot light ... if it isn't already ...

[#Metro]

As you often say Ozbob,

Now is the hour!

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

28th February 2012

Convergent public transport fails

Greetings,

Today's issues with rail highlight the fundamental weakness with our public transport network.  It is a convergent network and not decentralised.   It is a 'house of cards', one 'card' falls and the entire system folds in an escalating chain reaction of failure including the road network.

Another good demonstration today of why Cross River Rail needs immediate action don't you think?

Some commuters have highlighted how useful some rail services from Yeerongpilly to Corinda via Tennyson would have been today.  The stranding of many school children perhaps avoided.

Service reliability of rail and bus is impacting negatively on the community.  Everyone understands that some disruption is inevitable, but of late disruption is becoming commonplace.

The incoming Transport Minister must address system reliability as a high priority and one of the first tasks of the new transport portfolio.

Best wishes
Robert

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

[Cam]

John Fraser of Queensland Posted at 8:32 AM Today

    Expect a media release from "Rail back on Track" who will tell you that everything can be fixed and you can have more services but they are against you paying 15% increases .... "Queensland back on track" is Mr. Newman promising nothing, but "Rail Back on Track" believes in the tooth fairy and the public can have everything they want but shouldn't have to pay for it.

Comment 73 of 92

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/expect-delays-on-trains-today-as-power-cut-kos-trains-in-the-cbd/comments-e6freoof-1226283484655

[Stillwater]

More discussion of the problem from the LNP, but little in the way of policy or detail about how they will address the issues: http://lnp.org.au/news/transport/commuter-chaos-under-labor

[Cam]

A media release mentioning CRR is definately required today.

Melted Posted at 8:47 AM Today

   Help! stuck on a very overcrowded train no air con & we have been stopped between Corinda & Tennyson for 1/2 hour!

Comment 91 of 92

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/expect-delays-on-trains-today-as-power-cut-kos-trains-in-the-cbd/comments-e6freoof-1226283484655

[Derwan]

Finally got to work.  The train arrived 1 hour and 37 minutes late.

[HappyTrainGuy]

I laughed at this person who isn't even on a train

Melted Posted at 8:47 AM Today

   Help! stuck on a very overcrowded train no air con & we have been stopped between Corinda & Tennyson for 1/2 hour!

[Mr X]

Fail   must be on the Fairfield Solution's Beenleigh via Tennyson and Indooroopilly line then?  

Seriously this is such a joke. With the constant track closures every weekend or two, track failures, late services and overcrowding and the 15% fare rises to cap it all off- it makes me wonder why people bother taking trains here?

[#Metro]

More discussion of the problem from the LNP

Hardly a discussion, they don't even know what caused it.

In a decentralised network, oh, I don't know, like Toronto... one line can fail entirely and the other lines are completely unaffected because the lines themselves
are physically separate and do not converge through a common core pice of infrastructure like our busway (cultural centre/CBD) and our train systems (Roma Street/Central/Valley) do.

One can observe a block up of the entire busway system when a bus breaks down on the Captain Cook Bridge or at Cultural Centre.
The entire bus network will then go into meltdown.

One can observe a block up of the entire rail system when power goes out at Central or Fortitude Valley.
The entire train system will then go into meltdown.

It all comes back to the "everything direct to the centre" mentality. The good thing about CRR will be the physical separation of the rail network within the centre. I hope that all Beenleigh and all Gold Coast trains use the new CRR, and any service that does Roma St, South Brisbane, South Bank, Dutton Pk, Fairfield, Yeronga and Yeerongpilly terminates at Yeerongpilly.

[ozbob]

A media release mentioning CRR is definately required today.

Melted Posted at 8:47 AM Today

   Help! stuck on a very overcrowded train no air con & we have been stopped between Corinda & Tennyson for 1/2 hour!

Comment 91 of 92

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/expect-delays-on-trains-today-as-power-cut-kos-trains-in-the-cbd/comments-e6freoof-1226283484655

Email to all outlets has been sent.  See above.  No release as such today.  This gets the message out quickly.

[HappyTrainGuy]

Jim of Hervey Bay Posted at 7:11 AM Today

    I am wondering how an animal can down a power line? Who is responsible for the maintenance of that power line? It would take a very large bat to knock out a power line. Why is there no back up power lines to be used in case the primary line is down?

Comment 18 of 92

Yeah, me too. Then there wouldn't bee a need to find out why the powerline came down, replace any wires, retension all the wires, check to see the wires are at the correct clearence height and so on and so on. I'd just love to see trains use the backup line. I'd also like to see what would happen when the pantograph wraps around the broken wire and just destroys all the overhead equipment 

[Fares_Fair]

The point is what is done to investigate the cause and ensure that alternative plans are made (where possible) to reduce the likelihood of reoccurrence.
Instead there is a wall of silence, does that mean it was another early morning freight train ? Who would know ??

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Mozz]

ABC radio just reporting at 10.15am a couple of loud explosions in the vicinity of Milton Railway station suggesting that it may be associated with the QR workers in sight that look like they are attempting to resolve the current issue.

[ozbob]

erail 10.19am

28 Feb 2012

Disruptions on CBD Line due to power fault. Expect 30 mins delay. Service to resume by 11:30 AM.

[somebody]

9.50am: Now that the trains are at least back on track and headed towards normal timetable service, it's time for politics!
Advertisement: Story continues below

Lobby group Rail Back on Track have seized the opportunity to put their case forward.

They think today is a "good demonstration" of why Cross River Rail needs "immediate action".

Here's some of what they had to say:
Some commuters have highlighted how useful some rail services from Yeerongpilly to Corinda via Tennyson would have been today.  The stranding of many school children perhaps avoided.

Service reliability of rail and bus is impacting negatively on the community.  Everyone understands that some disruption is inevitable, but of late disruption is becoming commonplace.

The incoming Transport Minister must address system reliability as a high priority and one of the first tasks of the new transport portfolio.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-train-network-grinds-to-a-halt-20120228-1tzkj.html#ixzz1ndGQuvvm

Hmmm.

Was mentioning Tennyson smart?

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Brisbane train network grinds to a halt

... 9.50am: Now that the trains are at least back on track and headed towards normal timetable service, it's time for politics!

Lobby group Rail Back on Track have seized the opportunity to put their case forward.

They think today is a "good demonstration" of why Cross River Rail needs "immediate action".

Here's some of what they had to say:
Some commuters have highlighted how useful some rail services from Yeerongpilly to Corinda via Tennyson would have been today.  The stranding of many school children perhaps avoided.

Service reliability of rail and bus is impacting negatively on the community.  Everyone understands that some disruption is inevitable, but of late disruption is becoming commonplace.

The incoming Transport Minister must address system reliability as a high priority and one of the first tasks of the new transport portfolio.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-train-network-grinds-to-a-halt-20120228-1tzkj.html

[ozbob]

Of course it is smart.  It further highlights the lack of decentralisation and redundancy.  There also has been community feedback on this today as well.

[O_128]

I was extremely lucky, QR payed for my cab to Logan this morning, a colleague wasn't so lucky and got to work at 1039 !! 2.5 hours late, I was 5

[ozbob]

erail 11.03am

28 Feb 2012

Disruptions on CBD Line due to power fault. Expect 15 mins delay. Service to resume by 2:00 PM.

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes --> What caused train network shutdown

... Authorities believe a single clamp may be responsible for Brisbane's horrendous commute this morning, unleashing a 25,000-volt power surge that prevented trains entering the CBD and caused subsequent logjams on the city's roads.

As train services begin to return to normal, attention has now turned to how a single power line could bring down such a major part of the transport network.

Thousands of Translink customers were left stranded for hours from 6am after an electrical fault stopped trains from passing through city central train stations.

A "very disappointed" Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said she had asked for a "full explanation" from Queensland Rail.

"Current advice is that a clamp holding an overhead high voltage line may have failed causing the overhead power line to fall and make contact with the rail, sending 25,000 volts through the signals and switching equipment," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"When power was restored some of the damaged components failed."

Ms Palaszczuk said safety was the paramount concern and trains could not run on the impacted lines.

It is believed to be the first time a failure like this has occurred.

Ms Palaszczuk apologised to commuters for this morning's disruptions, which resulted in additional congestion impacting major roads running in and out of the city.

Some commuters experienced delays of up to three hours.

Train services were restored to the affected stations just before 9am, however the residual hold-ups from the morning's chaos meant services were delayed by at least an hour.

Ms Palaszczuk said Queensland Rail had an additional 25 buses operating and Translink had altered the express bus route along Milton Road to have buses stop at Milton train station.

She said she would ask senior Queensland Rail staff to look at what could be done prevent a repeat of this morning's incident.

"I understand that Queensland Rail's maintenance program is considered best practice in asset management and is used successfully by many rail networks around the world," she said.

"Full scale asset maintenance works are scheduled four times a year for each zone on the QR network. Of course, when issues emerge between the major maintenance works, works are undertaken straight away.

"If there is more that can be done to prevent this occurring in the future, I expect it to happen and I'll be making that clear to Queensland Rail."

Robert Dow from lobby group Rail Back on Track said this morning's problems highlighted why the Cross River Rail project was so important.

"What happened this morning was rather unfortunate," Mr Dow said.

"Overall the overhead is generally fairly reliable, particularly through Milton, South Brisbane and through to Bowen Hills.

"There wasn't a lot they could do about what happened.

"But the problem is we have a convergent network and to fix it, they had to stop running the trains through those stations.

"I think it highlights how good Cross River Rail would be in providing that alternate path through the CBD, it would just loop it, would have helped mitigated some of those problems this morning."

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/what-caused-train-network-shutdown-20120228-1tzkj.html

[Fares_Fair]

Premier has announced free train, bus and ferry travel for tomorrow in recompence for todays unprecedented delays

[somebody]

Premier has announced free train, bus and ferry travel for tomorrow in recompence for todays unprecedented delays

Is that a fact or a suggestion?

[Fares_Fair]

Fact, confirmed with transport department.
Premier apologises for what she described as 'unprecedented' delays.

[ozbob]

28 February 2012

PREMIER: NO FARE DAY FOR FRUSTRATED COMMUTERS

Premier Anna Bligh has announced a free day of public transport across the SEQ network from the first services tomorrow.

Ms Bligh said the measure was being taken in response to today's unprecedented disruption across the Translink network in SEQ's QR trains, public and private buses and city cats and ferries.

"What happened today is completely out of the ordinary and the simple fact is that thousands of commuters have not received the service they deserved," said the Premier.

"That is why we are taking this measure and from the first service tomorrow all public transport across SEQ will be free from the first service to the last service.

"After the major disruptions caused by the floods we took a similar measure and it is estimated that this fare free period will cost approximately $1 million.

"Translink customers will simply be advised not to touch on and touch off tomorrow when they get on their public transport."

Ms Bligh said that the advice from Queensland Rail is that a clamp holding an overhead high voltage line may have failed causing the overhead power line to fall and make contact with the rail, sending 25,000 volts through the signals and switching equipment.

When power was restored some of the damaged components failed. The paramount concern is safety and until this issue is rectified trains cannot run on the impacted lines.

[Fares_Fair]

The Premier's big bus was at Yeerongpilly when these events occurred, I suggested to ABC reporter with Premier's bus that it could be used to help the hundreds of pax who had to walk.
It swiftly moved away to Stafford during the chaos.

[SurfRail]

John Fraser of Queensland Posted at 8:32 AM Today
Expect a media release from "Rail back on Track" who will tell you that everything can be fixed and you can have more services but they are against you paying 15% increases .... "Queensland back on track" is Mr. Newman promising nothing, but "Rail Back on Track" believes in the tooth fairy and the public can have everything they want but shouldn't have to pay for it.

Comment 73 of 92

Seriously, what is he on? 

I understand and agree with Bob's decision to ban this cretin, but I am put in mind of the basic urinary principle (better to have him inside the tent going out than vice versa) - although having him inside the tent and directing inside is worse.

[HappyTrainGuy]

John Fraser of Queensland Posted at 8:32 AM Today
Expect a media release from "Rail back on Track" who will tell you that everything can be fixed and you can have more services but they are against you paying 15% increases .... "Queensland back on track" is Mr. Newman promising nothing, but "Rail Back on Track" believes in the tooth fairy and the public can have everything they want but shouldn't have to pay for it.

Comment 73 of 92

Seriously, what is he on? 

I understand and agree with Bob's decision to ban this cretin, but I am put in mind of the basic urinary principle (better to have him inside the tent going out than vice versa) - although having him inside the tent and directing inside is worse.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

28th February 2012

Convergent public transport fails

Greetings,

Today's issues with rail highlight the fundamental weakness with our public transport network.  It is a convergent network and not decentralised.   It is a 'house of cards', one 'card' falls and the entire system folds in an escalating chain reaction of failure including the road network.

Another good demonstration today of why Cross River Rail needs immediate action don't you think?

Some commuters have highlighted how useful some rail services from Yeerongpilly to Corinda via Tennyson would have been today.  The stranding of many school children perhaps avoided.

Service reliability of rail and bus is impacting negatively on the community.  Everyone understands that some disruption is inevitable, but of late disruption is becoming commonplace.

The incoming Transport Minister must address system reliability as a high priority and one of the first tasks of the new transport portfolio.

Best wishes
Robert

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

ABC Radio news have followed up as well ...

Thanks!

[Fares_Fair]

Followed up on this mornings delays ?

[ozbob]

Followed up on this mornings delays ?

Yes but particularly the cross river rail angle as stated  in the email ... and the major parties position on Cross River Rail  -  ALP strong proponent,  LNP - still not entirely clear ...

[Derwan]

Photo of the cause:  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150556229307461&set=a.439269647460.243039.95683517460&type=1&theater

[#Metro]

Wow Courier Mail has something like almost 300 comments / 10 pages of comments.

It all comes down to very simple geometry.
Amazing.

If you have everything run through a single core, an a fault occurs there, then it all goes down.

Super Simple Stuff..

[Fares_Fair]

Followed up on this mornings delays ?

Yes but particularly the cross river rail angle as stated  in the email ... and the major parties position on Cross River Rail  -  ALP strong proponent,  LNP - still not entirely clear ...

ALP may well be a strong proponent, but there is NO money for it until 2014/15 budget surplus.
They expect Commonwealth to take primary responsibility for its cost, according to letter from Hon. Andrew Fraser, Dep. Premier and Hon. Paul Lucas to the Hon. Anthony Albanese, federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport.

Sadly, and IMHO, it's another glossy brochure with no money unless the Commonwealth picks up the tab.

LNP agree, still not clear but looking for cheaper alternative like the Wilber Smith scenario, i.e. bridges in lieu of tunnels.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[mufreight]

From the Brisbanetimes --> What caused train network shutdown

... Authorities believe a single clamp may be responsible for Brisbane's horrendous commute this morning, unleashing a 25,000-volt power surge that prevented trains entering the CBD and caused subsequent logjams on the city's roads.

As train services begin to return to normal, attention has now turned to how a single power line could bring down such a major part of the transport network.

Thousands of Translink customers were left stranded for hours from 6am after an electrical fault stopped trains from passing through city central train stations.

A "very disappointed" Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said she had asked for a "full explanation" from Queensland Rail.

"Current advice is that a clamp holding an overhead high voltage line may have failed causing the overhead power line to fall and make contact with the rail, sending 25,000 volts through the signals and switching equipment," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"When power was restored some of the damaged components failed."

Ms Palaszczuk said safety was the paramount concern and trains could not run on the impacted lines.

It is believed to be the first time a failure like this has occurred.

Ms Palaszczuk apologised to commuters for this morning's disruptions, which resulted in additional congestion impacting major roads running in and out of the city.

Some commuters experienced delays of up to three hours.

Train services were restored to the affected stations just before 9am, however the residual hold-ups from the morning's chaos meant services were delayed by at least an hour.

Ms Palaszczuk said Queensland Rail had an additional 25 buses operating and Translink had altered the express bus route along Milton Road to have buses stop at Milton train station.

She said she would ask senior Queensland Rail staff to look at what could be done prevent a repeat of this morning's incident.

"I understand that Queensland Rail's maintenance program is considered best practice in asset management and is used successfully by many rail networks around the world," she said.

"Full scale asset maintenance works are scheduled four times a year for each zone on the QR network. Of course, when issues emerge between the major maintenance works, works are undertaken straight away.

"If there is more that can be done to prevent this occurring in the future, I expect it to happen and I'll be making that clear to Queensland Rail."

Robert Dow from lobby group Rail Back on Track said this morning's problems highlighted why the Cross River Rail project was so important.

"What happened this morning was rather unfortunate," Mr Dow said.

"Overall the overhead is generally fairly reliable, particularly through Milton, South Brisbane and through to Bowen Hills.

"There wasn't a lot they could do about what happened.

"But the problem is we have a convergent network and to fix it, they had to stop running the trains through those stations.

"I think it highlights how good Cross River Rail would be in providing that alternate path through the CBD, it would just loop it, would have helped mitigated some of those problems this morning."

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/what-caused-train-network-shutdown-20120228-1tzkj.html

This failure comes down to one basic problem, the current government's failure to adequately fund Queensland Rail to maintain the network infrastructure.
The failure this morning was compounded by the lack of provision of redundency as a consequence of the do it on the cheap policy.
It is common practice in other systems that it is possible to isolate each track so that when an equipment failure to a critical peice of infrastructure occours only that one section of that one operating line suffers the failure and operations can continue on other lines even if on a restricted basis.
The signaling failures that occoured after the power was restored were again as a consequence of the Governments do it on the cheap pollicy by failing to adequately have the signaling system imunised from potential high voltage surges that can occour when the overhead grounds to rail.
Lets sheet the blame home where it belongs, the current government, and a pathetic opposition that has allowed this neglect to occour.
As another point why were diesel locos not used to haul trains through the sections affected by the loss of power on the lines adjacent to the line where the overhead failure occoured.
Come on Minister and do not feed us another BS version of the minimum risk policy as while recent works were carried out on the instilation of overhead on Corinda to Darra trains were being operated a full speed on line adjacent to the line on which the overhead was being installed.

[#Metro]

It is not just maintenance.

Even if we assume imperfect maintenance - the location of the failure played a key role.

Had the failure occurred on the Tennyson or Rosewood or Doomben line, no-one would have noticed!
No, the failure occurred in the core section. The location matters immensely. That's the key enabling thing there that allowed cascading failure to occur - the shape and geometry of the network.

Take ANY fault, track fault, mechanical train breakdown, suicide attempt, random lightning stike, flooding - whatever, if it happens in the core section (Roma St/Central/Brunswick St/Bowen Hills) then its going to shut down the entire network.

[somebody]

I reckon zero (c)harm is to blame.  Takes too long to fix the faults. 

I could be completely wrong.

[Stillwater]

Anna Palaszczuk: "I understand that Queensland Rail's maintenance program is considered best practice in asset management and is used successfully by many rail networks around the world."

When you consider you are 'world clarse', a certain arrogance and complacency creeps into what you do.

[O_128]

I reckon zero (c)harm is to blame.  Takes too long to fix the faults. 

I could be completely wrong.

you might be right, the trains were still moving, what was stopping them terminating trains at bowen hills and running a shuttle train back and forth they need a contingency plan, sending everything into the city is a mistake.

When someone is 2.5 hours late to work you know you have a serious problem

[HappyTrainGuy]

I reckon zero (c)harm is to blame.  Takes too long to fix the faults. 

I could be completely wrong.

A bit of a mixed bag because there were two seperate failures masked by the first failure, its location and safeworking procedures. First the overheads/relays/transformers had to be checked/fixed/repaired which took some time. Control might not have known about the signaling problems as the fallen powerline first would have tripped circuits and the hirail vehicles/crews working on the track could have been tripping signals which control might have assumed. Once the okay was given to resume minimal services the signals/points damaged would have established resulting in crews having to fix the additional issue. Another problem could have been QR crew from the south east/south/west travelling to work for their shifts (drivers, guards, track crew, maintainence etc) could also have been caught up in the incident which has follow on impacts.