Reported service disruptions rail - no longer in use

[petey3801]

Trains are back up and running now.

[ozbob]

https://translink.com.au/service-updates/133671

6.09am Roma Street-Shorncliffe train delayed 15 mins

The 6.09am Roma Street to Shorncliffe train is delayed up to 15 minutes due to an operational issue.

This train is now scheduled to arrive at Shorncliffe station at 7.05am.

[ozbob]

https://translink.com.au/service-updates/133546

Beenleigh and Gold Coast line trains resumed to schedule in both directions

Beenleigh and Gold Coast line trains have resumed to schedule following an earlier overhead power line issue between Altandi and Runcorn stations.

No further delays are expected.

[ozbob]

Trains are back up and running now.

Thanks!   

[ozbob]

Been a few ' operational issues ' again today.  I have been too busy to catch them ..

But here is another .. Midnight ??   

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

https://translink.com.au/service-updates/133776

12.08am Nambour-Central train delayed 15 mins

The 12.08am Nambour to Central train is delayed up to 15 minutes due to an operational issue.

This train is now scheduled to arrive at Central station at 2.13pm.

[ozbob]

Ha!  Corrected ..

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

https://translink.com.au/service-updates/133776

12.08pm Nambour-Central train delayed 15 mins

The 12.08pm Nambour to Central train is delayed up to 15 minutes due to an operational issue.

This train is now scheduled to arrive at Central station at 2.13pm.

[ozbob]

https://translink.com.au/service-updates/133991

4.18am Beenleigh to Central train delayed 10 minutes

The 4.18am Beenleigh to Central train is delayed 10 minutes due to an operational issue.

This train is now due to arrive at Central station at 5.24am.

[ozbob]

https://translink.com.au/service-updates/134021

9.40am Varsity Lakes-Central train delayed 15 mins

The 9.40am Varsity Lakes to Central train has been delayed by up to 15 minutes due to an operational issue.

This train is now due to arrive at Central station at 11.16am.

[Cazza]

"Delays 10 mins, both direction: Murarrie station, boomgate strike
Cleveland line trains travelling in both directions are delayed up to 10 minutes due to a boomgate strike at Murarrie station.
Technicians are en route."
https://translink.com.au/service-updates/134236

[ozbob]

https://translink.com.au/service-updates/134306

10 min delays: Yeerongpilly

Beenleigh and Gold Coast line trains are delayed up to 10 minutes in both directions at Yeerongpilly station due to a track fault.

Airport line trains remain unaffected.

[achiruel]

https://translink.com.au/service-updates/134306

10 min delays: Yeerongpilly

Beenleigh and Gold Coast line trains are delayed up to 10 minutes in both directions at Yeerongpilly station due to a track fault.

Airport line trains remain unaffected.

How is this possible? Is there enough fat in the GC timetable that the outbound service can be delayed 10 minutes and inbound is still one time?

[techblitz]

25 min wait for pax at Beenleigh wanting to head to gold coast. Would  have been great if they could have held the ontime gold coast train for 5 mins to avoid 25mins wait

[petey3801]

https://translink.com.au/service-updates/134306

10 min delays: Yeerongpilly

Beenleigh and Gold Coast line trains are delayed up to 10 minutes in both directions at Yeerongpilly station due to a track fault.

Airport line trains remain unaffected.

How is this possible? Is there enough fat in the GC timetable that the outbound service can be delayed 10 minutes and inbound is still one time?

Airport trains likely using the dual gauge to get around the problems, i'd say.

[300LA]

All train lines appear to be down for the next hour. Apparently a comms issue between Northgate/EJ and the city.

[Cazza]

^ Yep

https://translink.com.au/service-updates/135076

Trains travelling in both directions between Fortitude Valley and Northgate, Ferny Grove and Doomben are suspended due to a communications issue.
Alternative transport is being arranged to transport customers in both directions.
As a result, all train lines are delayed up to 60 minutes in both directions.

Ouch!

[BrizCommuter]

...free travel on Friday?

[Cazza]

...free travel on Friday?

Pffff! Funny joke. It's Queensland Rail we are talking about here.

[Stillwater]

Apparently, trains can't communicate with Central Comms.  Would this have something to do with the latest computer virus originating in the Ukraine?

[InclusionMoves]

Apparently, trains can't communicate with Central Comms.  Would this have something to do with the latest computer virus originating in the Ukraine?

Was first thing I thought of Stillwater. Just got them back running now apparently.

Geoff

[BrizCommuter]

Ctrl-Alt-Del 

[red dragin]

Radio tower of theirs on Mt Cootha lost power according to a statement from Mr Easy.

"Have you tried turning it off and on again"? 

[techblitz]

The flow on effects and cancellations is turning into a nightmare....the network has fallen apart this evening...

After 30 minutes the next train is due anyway so thanks for that update......ofcourse still waiting for that GC train. Its been 25 minutes since announcer said 7-8 minutes.

just one experience from a commuter...

and another who wanted to leave a review *cough cough*

Can't even provide a 1 star review!!
*expletive* *expletive*.

[STB]

The flow on effects and cancellations is turning into a nightmare....the network has fallen apart this evening...

Yours truely got kinda caught up in this this evening.  Had to go to Rothwell for a meeting, missed out the bulk of it as I had already arrived up north by the time the comms failure kicked in, on my way back though there were a few delays at Petrie (got a lift to Petrie), a couple of trains came through in quick succession heading to Caboolture and Kippa Ring, with a platform full of passengers picked up, so I'm assuming they had been waiting a little while there.

I wandered over to Platform 4/5, got an announcement that trains had been indefinitely delayed again (at about 9:40pm), and passengers waiting on Platform 4/5 got up and left complaining under their breath, I stuck around though and heard a klaxon (SMU kind) in the distance, so I knew that train was on its way, and sure enough it turned up at about 9:45pm heading to the City/Ipswich, arrived about 20mins late at Toowong (my destination), the City/Ipswich train became all stations from Northgate in.

In all, for myself at least, it wasn't too bad.

And I'm not sure how people can get upset at QR for a power failure up on the mountain which I assume is more than just one antenna for various things, yes things get screwed up if trains stop in the middle of peak hour, that's pretty much a given in any network in the world - Communications on the other hand, well, I'm not sure how quickly QR can find out exactly what the delay is and how long it will be until they track down the problem and problem solve it to get an idea of how long it'll take to fix it. 

Apparently the last comms failure of that particular type occurred 20 years ago, be interesting to see how it failed.

[ozbob]

oh dear ..

I have been travelling on a 10 minute frequency network and was oblivious to this latest cluster f**** !

[#Metro]

And I'm not sure how people can get upset at QR for a power failure up on the mountain which I assume is more than just one antenna for various things, yes things get screwed up if trains stop in the middle of peak hour, that's pretty much a given in any network in the world - Communications on the other hand, well, I'm not sure how quickly QR can find out exactly what the delay is and how long it will be until they track down the problem and problem solve it to get an idea of how long it'll take to fix it. 

Apparently the last comms failure of that particular type occurred 20 years ago, be interesting to see how it failed.

It's probably something silly like a bird nesting or whatnot. Is it possible to use more than 1 antenna though as backup?

[ozbob]

[Stillwater]

The TV stations didn't go off the air.  They would have a back-up generator.  It would be interesting to know whether the QR comms antenna has a back-up generator.

[HappyTrainGuy]

The TV stations didn't go off the air.  They would have a back-up generator.  It would be interesting to know whether the QR comms antenna has a back-up generator.

Don't be silly. Of course there's a back up power supply. The railway coms network isn't a tv network with dedicated staff and multiple large scale back up redundancies for multiple channels across different frequencies on site. Its basically a mobile phone tower in comparison - but with a bit more oomph. From what I've heard something popped a circuit breaker which needed a manual reset. It was only a 5 minute fix to restore full transmission so it wasn't a serious problem. The biggest delay was the 90 odd minutes it took to get someone up there as the radio facility is unmanned.

Communication to the public could still be difficult as well as the PSO coms (they are the guys who deal between control operations and station operations) operate on the same radio spectrum that trains use but on a different frequency on the digital network. And remember with the inner city you have 1 person making announcements for different stations. You might hear someone talking to you at Brunswick Street but they may not even be at the station.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/880124622603141120

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/TransLinkSEQ/status/880041265806667776

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/880124479841501184

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/LNPQLD/status/879987199441223680

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Fare refunds for commuters after Brisbane train 'chaos'

Rail commuters will have fares refunded after a Queensland Rail meltdown saw them stranded in the city for hours on Wednesday night.

Northern lines were suspended between the city and Toombul, and in some cases further, for about an hour and a quarter during peak hour after the control centre lost contact with between 20 and 25 trains.

Commuters were still suffering lengthy residual delays hours after northern trains resumed about 6.30pm.

The problems also affected southbound passengers, who faced delays of up to an hour.

On Thursday morning, trains were running as normal, according to the Translink website.

The embattled rail provider blamed a loss of power at its Mount Coot-tha radio tower for the widespread issues and promised to investigate.

"We lost communication capability between our control centre and our train crew that drive the trains," Queensland Rail executive general manager for city trains Nick King said.

"When that happens, we have to go into a series of our safety protocols because safety is our prime concern here which means bringing trains to a safe stop at platforms."

Frustrated commuters took to the Queensland Rail Facebook page to complain, saying they were "sick and tired" of the delays.

They also hit out at a lack of communication from QR.

After the problem was resolved on Wednesday night, Translink, the organisation responsible for public transport ticketing in south-east Queensland, promised refunds for affected passengers.

"All SEQ Citytrain customers who travelled after 5pm today, will have their fares and any fixed fares automatically adjusted, in recognition of tonight's network wide rail delays," a spokesman said, in a statement.

"This will apply to all Citytrain travel across the network until last service tonight."

The first step for QR engineers would be to investigate whether the problem could repeat itself, Mr King said.

He apologised profusely for the "chaos", saying the problem had last occurred 20 years ago.

"Our technicians will be working on that tonight to understand whether or not we have the residual issue that could repeat itself," Mr King said.

Opposition transport spokesman Andrew Powell labelled the incident another QR stuff up.

"Everything has gone from being best in the nation to worst in the nation in a matter of years," he told ABC Radio.

[Otto]

I must have been lucky yesterday. Arrived at Roma Street at 4:40 on the Steam from Nambour ex Rocky. Crossed to Plat 5 and got the 4:57 Cleve service. All on time. Lucky I wasn't catching the next 5:20 Cleve service..

[ozbob]

Updated: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/trains-cancelled-at-fortitude-valley-station-due-to-police-incident/news-story/93aa5e7956db7982668e509ad34265bb

QUEENSLAND'S acting Rail Minister Steven Miles concedes the latest transport debacle is not good enough as commuters vent their anger.

Queensland Rail was under fire again last night after an electrical fault shut down the southeast Queensland network, sparking peak-hour chaos and hours of delays.

It is understood a circuit breaker tripped and caused a communications failure which stopped all Queensland Rail services from 5.12pm to 6.30pm, but a lack of information led some commuters to initially fear a security threat.

Speaking at a media conference on the Gold Coast this morning, Dr Miles said last night's glitch was 'very disappointing'.

"Queenslanders have a right to be concerned," he said. "Clearly this isn't good enough. It's not what we want to see."

He said the incident was now the subject of a review, including concerns frustrated commuters were left in the dark for too long without being given explanations or updates on the situation.

"This was a pretty rare fault," he said. ...

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Peak-hour train meltdown came after back-up batteries ran out

Long delays for Brisbane train commuters during Wednesday night's peak hour were caused after a back-up system kicked in, but there was no alert to engineers to fix the problem.

It meant the back-up batteries simply ran out.

Acting Transport Minister Steven Miles said the word "disappointing" or "disappointed" seven times in about six minutes while addressing reporters about the failures.

About 20 to 25 trains lost communication with the Queensland Rail control centre after a loss of power at QR's radio tower site at Mount Coot-tha, leading to lengthy delays.

Dr Miles said QR had apologised and would refund commuters who tapped on after 5pm.

"The fault was identified within roughly an hour and was rectified within about 10 minutes after that but clearly this is very disappointing for anyone who was trying to get home last night," Dr Miles said.

"It was identified and rectified within a reasonable amount of time but obviously with it coming on the back of the series of concerns about Queensland Rail, Queenslanders have a right to be concerned."

QR has been plagued with issues for months, including a driver shortage, cancellations and other problems identified in the Strachan inquiry.

Dr Miles said the fault was difficult to predict or anticipate and a similar situation had not occurred in decades.

"The redundancy [in the system] that kicked in did support the system for a period of time but it appears that there wasn't an alarm system to alert engineers that the redundancy was in place," he said.

"So once the redundancy battery could no longer support the system, once it went flat, effectively, there was no system in place to alert engineers that they needed to get back out there and rectify the original electrical fault."

Dr Miles said he spoke with QR chief executive officer Nick Easy, who assured him the issue that led to the fault would be fixed so it did not happen again.

QR engineers were set to work on the system on Thursday to ensure an alert system was installed.

Dr Miles said the train network was running efficiently with no cancellations on Thursday morning.

"[It] indicates that Queensland Rail is getting better at recovering from situations like this," he said.

"[But] this isn't good enough, this is a very disappointing outcome. It's not what we want to see."

QR will review the meltdown and how information was communicated to the public.

Opposition Transport spokesman Andrew Powell said commuters should not have to put up with the continued QR issues.

"How many investigations does Queensland Rail really need?" Mr Powell asked.

"Commuters want more - they want to know that when they turn up at the station, the train will turn up on time."

[Stillwater]

Why a back-up battery and not a generator?  Most hospitals have a generator wired to kick-in when the power fails?   

So, we have driver shortage FAIL from QR
NGR FAIL
Construction FAIL (Redcliffe Peninsula Line problems)
Track, rolling stock FAIL (numerous cancellations due to track fault, signals problems or train mechanical issues)
Now, Communications FAIL
Sounds like a failure of management at QR.
What next?

[#Metro]

Time for a new operator! 

QUEENSLAND'S acting Rail Minister Steven Miles concedes the latest transport debacle is not good enough as commuters vent their anger.

My interpretation of this statement: "It's not good enough, but we must protect the public monopolist at any and all costs, and so we are going to extend the contract again and again regardless."

QR should be directed to comply with an international quality management system or if there isn't one, make one with the ISO.

He said the incident was now the subject of a review, including concerns frustrated commuters were left in the dark for too long without being given explanations or updates on the situation.

Another review? Queensland needs a Senate.

[STB]

Why a back-up battery and not a generator?  Most hospitals have a generator wired to kick-in when the power fails?   

So, we have driver shortage FAIL from QR
NGR FAIL
Construction FAIL (Redcliffe Peninsula Line problems)
Track, rolling stock FAIL (numerous cancellations due to track fault, signals problems or train mechanical issues)
Now, Communications FAIL
Sounds like a failure of management at QR.
What next?

Okay, driver shortage - Previous Government slicing a lot of driver and driver training positions.
NGR - That's TMR, not QR.
RPL - Again TMR, QR was excluded from the construction work/design etc
Track/Rollingstock fails - What happens when Governments of any side fails to invest in a network, also not terribly unusual compared to other cities - I'm seeing daily delays on the Metro Melbourne website.
Comms fail - Only thing QR needs to work on, difficult though if they don't know what the issue is, and then a timeframe of how long it might take to get the network back up and running again can't really happened until the problem is identified and they've begun troubleshooting it.

What's next?  More blame on the operator when it's more complex than that?

Also, can anyone tell me if management or Government is meant to know any nook and crannie of every tiny operational thing it takes to operate a railway?  Seriously.  Unless you are a foamer or a gunzel, then it's highly unlikely that you will and you won't know until either someone tells you or something like yesterday goes balls up.

And no, a new operator doesn't magically make the issues go away and complexities of running a major railway any easier.

[ozbob]

There are clearly some management issues within Queensland Rail, however the problem is a lot bigger than QR per se.

TMR clearly has not got a clue when it comes to heavy rail.  We really need a proper authority such as the PTA WA with a heavy rail division.  Under which the operator Queensland Rail would sit.  Queensland Rail staff (below rail) would sit within the heavy rail division of PTQ (Public Transport Queensland).  Nothing much will really improve with the present misfit collection of silos, blurred responsibilities, and frank incompetence.