Reported service disruptions rail - no longer in use

[STB]

Pantograph fault pulled down the wires?  Some were also saying that a train derailed at Bowen Hills pulling the overheads down with it.

[bcasey]

These issues on the trains this morning definitely had a flow-on effect to the busses today. The 325 I caught this morning was about 10 mins late, and was at crush occupancy by the time we got to the Thomas Street stop. At the next stop, beside Newmarket Station, there was several dozen passengers waiting there. Unfortunately since we were already full, we couldn't let any of them on. The bus was still full by the time I got off at Roma Street.

This is one small weakness in our RBOT network, there is no backup buses that service the stop next to Newmarket Station, so if a similar issue occurs on the rail network, the rail passengers at this station would have a fairly long walk to one of the stops on Enoggera Road, or backup rail-busses would need to be sent (which I imagine was the case this morning). Would it possible for a cross-connector service to go in via alderson street and stop at the inbound stop next to the station, then go onto newmarket road, or alternatively go along Erneton street or Wickham street, stop at the stop across the road from the station, cross the rail tracks, then travel north along Winston Road, and then east along one of the streets there?

[red dragin]

Another issue highlighted every time there is a power issue at Bowen Hills, is that FG trains terminate all the way out at Michtelton. Most other lines can terminate much closer to the CBD.

Is there no OH sector break between Bowen Hills & Michelton?

[techblitz]

This is one small weakness in our RBOT network, there is no backup buses that service the stop next to Newmarket Station, so if a similar issue occurs on the rail network, the rail passengers at this station would have a fairly long walk to one of the stops on Enoggera Road, or backup rail-busses would need to be sent (which I imagine was the case this morning).

LDT el al dont plan networks around rail breakdowns due to thier minimal occurence of happening......feel free to correct me if im wrong


time for a wide ranging enquiry into QR maintenance.....staff productivity(eg: how much they are actually achieiving with the weekend/weeknight shutdowns.).....staff allocation and the condition of the overheads/gates/signalling components....

[HappyTrainGuy]

Another issue highlighted every time there is a power issue at Bowen Hills, is that FG trains terminate all the way out at Michtelton. Most other lines can terminate much closer to the CBD.

Is there no OH sector break between Bowen Hills & Michelton?

No crossovers. Unless they get a crew and manually operate the crossover outside Bowen Hills. Even if they did do that there's no guarantee that the cable tension is at the right tension.

[ozbob]

Twitter

ABC News Queensland ‏@abcnews_qld

Commuters face lengthy waits as services into Brisbane delayed by fallen power line http://ab.co/1BNyOZ5  #Qld

[pandmaster]

At Park Road station. Cancellation of 12:17 Beenleigh service announced as the doors on the 12:12 GC train were about to close (maybe some people could have used it as an alternative). Cancellation of 12:14 Northgate train announced after 12:12 Ferny Grove left! 12:15 Cannon Hill and 12:32 Coopers Plains also cancelled. 12:30 Cleveland 10 minutes late. As usual, no warning to passengers transferring from buses.

Another reason BaT is desperately needed to provide an alternative through the City.

[#Metro]

LDT el al dont plan networks around rail breakdowns due to thier minimal occurence of happening......feel free to correct me if im wrong

A single train at peak hour holds up to 1000 passengers. BT buses generally hold 65 - 85 pax. This means 1 train = 11 to 15 buses.

During peak hour, two effects come into play
1. Almost all BT buses are already in use, and
2. Buses generally have high load (not on SEB as we know of the air issues there!)

EVEN IF there were a shadow system (and QR does appear to have some contingency), there is no way you are going to be able to call up the numbers of buses required from the BT Network to take the rail load. The numbers just don't work.

During peak hour, such a bus network will already have existing pax on it, so the effective capacity will be much lower. If we assume the bus is already 80% full of bus pax that means the effective capacity to take rail pax as well is around 3 seats - 17 seats. Its better than nothing but you are still going to have mind-blowing delays no matter which way you look at it.

Number crunching:

1. Train breaks down (1000 pax)
2. Pax overflows into parallel bus network
3. Buses have people already sitting on it, assume 17 seats available, assume maximum sized BT bus of 85 seats
4. To find out how many passes this requires, 1000 divided by 17 = 58 passes, roundup to 60.

So, a bus a minute for a whole hour. For one train.

Does this mean that nothing can be done? Not exactly.

Buses
QR does appear to contract buses for rail replacement. You could have a pre-organised dedicated emergency bus network ( I think Perth and Melbourne have this, I think the code is 900 series in Perth: In Melbourne there are rail replacement bus stop). QR would have to buy hi capacity vehicles, maybe a bit like dubai. These buses have ALL seats ripped out and are almost indistinguishable from a metro train when one stands inside.

(Bus appears at 2 min into the video)

Trains
Diesel haul trains that could couple to electric trains and pull/push them.


There is always more to be done, but one cannot choose all options.

[ozbob]

Twitter

TransLink SEQ ‏@TransLinkSEQ

go card adjustments will be carried out for customers affected by this morning's train delays. Adjustments will be processed within 24hrs.

[James]

LDT el al dont plan networks around rail breakdowns due to thier minimal occurence of happening......feel free to correct me if im wrong

time for a wide ranging enquiry into QR maintenance.....staff productivity(eg: how much they are actually achieiving with the weekend/weeknight shutdowns.).....staff allocation and the condition of the overheads/gates/signalling components....

If you design a network around a once-a-year-type meltdown (it has been a while since we've had something like this happen) you are never going to get an efficient network, not to mention it is ridiculous to do so. QR should just have replacement buses on standby - QR has generally done a bad job with respect to replacement buses due to unexpected delays.

[ozbob]

Difficult to rustle up sufficient buses during a peak, the buses are out on tasks generally.  Fact of life.

[techblitz]

word around that a possum was the cause.....
the 2 cancelled springfield to bowen hills trains due to operational issues are also somewhat of a concern....

[bcasey]

Yeah, the focus should probably be on how to prevent an incident that affected the network to this magnitude from happening again. The main problem is that the Rail Network is not resilient enough to deal with issues that happen in a lot of places where there are bottlenecks, particularly in the core. Its not really a network as such, more a number of branching lines that come together in the city.

[Cam]

2.44pm Beenleigh service from South Bank cancelled   

[ozbob]

ABC News --> Brisbane train delays: Possum on power line blamed for morning peak-hour disruptions

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Brisbane train delays: Possum blamed for disruption

... Queensland Rail has been testing methods to keep wildlife away from overhead lines for about a year now, she said.

Along with keeping vegetation to a minimum around tracks, the company has been installing two different types of prevention directly onto power lines.

The simplest method is a pipe, which gets fitted around power lines and makes it hard for animals to walk along.

"They simply rotate if an the animal lands on the cylinder and that tips the animal away from the high voltage wires without any harm," Mrs Masci said.

A second "wildlife shield" option emits a small electrical charge to frighten animals away from overhead wires.

Mrs Masci said the solutions were rolled out on a case-by-case basis to areas where there had been previous issues or animal crossings were likely.

She said neither of the systems were in place at Bowen Hills but both solutions would be installed on Tuesday once the power lines were fixed.

Mrs Masci apologised to passengers affected by the delays.

"Wherever possible in these situations we just do our best to get the network back up and running as quickly as possible so that we can get people on their way to their destinations again," she said.

"We're just really grateful to people for their patience as we do work to rectify these incidents." ...

[ozbob]

Twitter

Katherine Feeney ‏@katherinefeeney 4h4 hours ago Brisbane, Queensland

Opposition addresses train delays #qldpol

Opposition addresses train delays #qldpol pic.twitter.com/59EO94vB2T

— Katherine Feeney (@katherinefeeney) March 17, 2015

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Wonder where Scotty is?  Last tweet 4 March ...

[HappyTrainGuy]

QR does appear to contract buses for rail replacement. You could have a pre-organised dedicated emergency bus network. QR would have to buy hi capacity vehicles....

Diesel haul trains that could couple to electric trains and pull/push them.

LOAD THE FOAM CANNONS!!!! AND FIRE!!!

[#Metro]

LOAD THE FOAM CANNONS!!!! AND FIRE!!!

Discussing mere descriptions of possibilities does not imply endorsement. Which is why I wrote could rather than should.

Techblitz appears to be proposing that BT buses run parallel / duplicate trains 'just in case'.

The numbers show that such a proposal is impractical.

[Stillwater]

LNP:  It was a Labor possum

[HappyTrainGuy]

You're the one who appears to be proposing that BT buses run parallel / duplicate trains 'just in case'.

Sure am! Hahaha. If anything you should know by now that I'm one of the first ones here that wants to go to town on cutting up the BT bus network across the northside both in terms of route design and frequency/running hours. I'm also one of the few that wants to attack the buz network standard and some of the buz routes itself. Quite frankly I want a network that if there are delays to a key corridor then simply transfer to another one. I think it was the Sunshine dewirement. I brought up issues that people had during that. Instead of farting around and complaining that there are too many people at the train station and boo hoo this and that then simply catch a train to Sandgate and then continue north via Redcliffe. Provide rail buses Sandgate to Strathpine. Provide a second alternative such as Deagon to Strathpine. Utilise the Sandgate-Strathpine links. Shuffle over to the Gympie Road corridor and make your way north via chermside using their strathpine links. If we had the Brisbane north loop and you used Virginia-Strathpine you could have caught the train to boondall and transferred. You could have caught the bus to Aspley and transfered. You could have caught the bus to Chermside and transferred. Keep people moving and get them to many other locations rather than having them all bunch up in one small area making it longer for the rail buses to get too. With that in place you could then have 'emergency' services such as boosting the northside loop frequency. Many of the routes in the Translink review reflected that it would have been possible (they had key corridors and many of the city routes became transfer to transfer routes ie S209 or something Chermside Interchange to Strathpine Interchange via Carseldine and Zillmere Railway Stations). Take the translink review for Brisbane's northside. So many city routes cut. So many duplication of routes cut. So many east/west routes introduced. I loved it. Screw the westerners and southerners for wrecking it for the northside with their bus stop cosies but I thought it was bloody great. You should also know I'm one of the few people that will tell people to toughen up when it comes to these sorts of delays.

[#Metro]

Apologies, I should have specified I was responding to Techblitz comment in the second part of my answer. Adjustment made. 

[HappyTrainGuy]

 

[techblitz]

LOAD THE FOAM CANNONS!!!! AND FIRE!!!

Discussing mere descriptions of possibilities does not imply endorsement. Which is why I wrote could rather than should.

Techblitz appears to be proposing that BT buses run parallel / duplicate trains 'just in case'.

The numbers show that such a proposal is impractical.

put on your reading glasses LDT
i was stating to bcasey that you yourself dont plan networks around rail backup plans.....so apparently that means i support running parralel network wide?

[pandmaster]

LNP:  It was a Labor possum

Gold!

[ozbob]

" point failure "  ...   

==============

http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/40521/details

Trains suspended: Petrie-Lawnton

Last updated: 6.26am Thursday 19 March 2015

Caboolture and Sunshine Coast line trains are suspended in both directions between Petrie and Lawnton stations due to point failure at Petrie. Customers can expect delays of up to 15 minutes.

[ozbob]

^

http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/40521/details

Trains resumed: Petrie-Lawnton

Last updated: 6.43am Thursday 19 March 2015

Caboolture and Sunshine Coast line trains have been resumed in both directions between Petrie and Lawnton stations due to an earlier points failure at Petrie. Customers can expect residual delays of up to 20 minutes.

[ozbob]

http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/40566/details

10 minutes delays due to track fault at Ebbw Vale

Last updated: 9.06am Thursday 19 March 2015

Ipswich line trains are delayed up to 10 minutes inbound due to a track fault at Ebbw Vale.

==============



Track fault or telemetry failure?

[dancingmongoose]

http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/40631/details

The 3.13pm Nambour to Ipswich train is delayed 19 minutes due to an operational issue. This train is now due to arrive at Ipswich station at 6.13pm.

Affected services

Trains
Minor status updateCaboolture Line
Minor status updateIpswich/Rosewood Line
Minor status updateSunshine Coast Line

[ozbob]

http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/40776/details

Springfield and Ipswich line trains suspended Sherwood to Milton

Last updated: 3.01pm Friday 20 March 2015

Springfield and Ipswich line trains are suspended in both directions between Sherwood and Milton stations due to a bridge strike at Auchenflower station. Customers can expect delays of up to 20 minutes.

[ozbob]

http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/40776/details

Springfield and Ipswich line trains suspended Sherwood to Milton

Last updated: 3.01pm Friday 20 March 2015

Springfield and Ipswich line trains are suspended in both directions between Sherwood and Milton stations due to a bridge strike at Auchenflower station. Customers can expect delays of up to 20 minutes.

^

[pandmaster]

I drove under this the other day. I have never seen anything like it:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-27.44364,153.168946,3a,75y,235.58h,87.59t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sP3_Pr23lO1iFl95GU6T8KA!2e0

Perhaps some bridges should be lowered so it is obvious when a truck will not fit. 

[ozbob]

http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/40926/details

CBD trains suspended in both directions

Last updated: 2.55pm Saturday 21 March 2015

All trains in both directions are suspended between Roma Street and Bowen Hill station due to extreme weather. Customers can expect delays of up to 30 minutes. Beenleigh, Cleveland and Gold Coast line trains travelling southbound are also delayed up to 30 minutes due to points failure at South Brisbane station.

[STB]

I've heard reports that there is flooding at Fortitude Valley.  There is also a points failure at South Brisbane.

[brissypete]

Seems that something needs to be done to improve drainage at Fort Valley.

[ozbob]

All lines back up now, some Gold Coasters via Sherwood ( & Tennyson  ) ...

[James]

I've heard reports that there is flooding at Fortitude Valley.  There is also a points failure at South Brisbane.

Wouldn't surprise me, the rain in the city was simply torrential. James had parked outdoors in the inner city during the storm, needless to say I no longer need to wash my car!

[red dragin]

I've heard reports that there is flooding at Fortitude Valley.  There is also a points failure at South Brisbane.

Water was almost up to the rail head at South Brisbane whilst I was there - and that was draining away quickly.

[#Metro]

Seems that something needs to be done to improve drainage at Fort Valley.

http://shop.coles.com.au/wcsstore/Coles-CAS/images/9/3/7/9371850.jpg

[hU0N]

Hahahaha