Cross River Rail Project

[ozbob]

Cross River Rail - an alternate vision by David Bannister

" In the first two articles in this series, we have examined how Cross River Rail has changed over time (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cross-river-rail-retrospective-david-bannister/), and how those changes have impacted the operations and capacity that would be delivered by the project (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cross-river-rail-operational-reflections-david-bannister/). In this final piece, we shift from a retrospective view of what has happened, to a positive and proactive vision of what the best form of the project would look like, and how it would allow the rail network to develop over time. Although not required, reading the first two articles is recommended for context.  ..."

Read on here >> >> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cross-river-rail-alternate-vision-david-bannister?articleId=6547589344130146304

This is well worth reading.

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1141892711160537088

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> More than $500m spent buying land for Cross River Rail

More than half a billion dollars have been forked out to buy properties and compensate business owners for the disruption caused by the Cross River Rail.

Demolition work is ongoing for the project, which involves a 10.2 kilometre rail line from Dutton Park to Bowen Hills, with tunnelling to start in 2020.

Over two years, the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority planned to spend $534 million to compensate business owners and buy properties needed for the project, including the GoPrint site, the South Brisbane Dental Hospital and the nine-storey Landcentre Building.

The fund was also used to buy Albert Street properties, the Brisbane Transit Centre and Hotel Jen at Roma Street.

The Brisbane Transit Centre will be progressively demolished from late 2019 to make way for a new underground station, although the Roma Street bus and train stations will remain open during the five-year construction period.

Hotel Jen stopped trading on December 15.

Earlier this year, Brisbane Times reported that family-run businesses operating on month-by-month leases at the Brisbane Transit Centre were asking for millions of dollars in compensation.

The delivery authority spent $2 million more than its budget of $51 million in 2017-18, because of some compensation payments being approved earlier than expected to ease the transition for affected businesses.

The delivery authority had so far spent $410 million on buying land this year and expected to spend its full budget of $481 million by June.

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said the delivery authority would continue to engage with residents and business owners affected by the construction of Cross River Rail.

"This has included face-to-face engagement with property and business owners affected by land acquisition," she said.

Meanwhile, $1.24 million has been spent on Cross River Rail advertising since July 2017.

That includes $224,920 for billboards, $192,251 on newspaper ads and $173,781 for television advertisements.

The advertising costs included a multimedia campaign designed to promote awareness of the Cross River Rail website to support the launch of the expressions of interest and procurement process.

LNP leader Deb Frecklington said the advertising money should have been better spent.

"This is yet another example of Palaszczuk Labor government waste and Labor would be better off ensuring this project is delivered on time and on budget, rather than just spinning the benefits," she said.

But Ms Trad said the delivery authority was required to consult and engage with the community under rules required for priority development areas.

She said a project of this size and scale would have a lot of impact during construction and the delivery authority was committed to working with the affected communities to mitigate the impact and ensure the best possible outcomes.

Ms Trad pointed out that the former LNP government spent $11.2 million to advertise its Strong Choices campaign on social media over two years.

"This was only part of the $70 million the former LNP government wasted on their failed Strong Choices campaign," she said.

"In contrast, Cross River Rail was fully funded in the 2017-18 budget and is currently under delivery, necessitating broader community engagement on the project."

Ms Trad said the Cross River Rail advertising spend had come in under budget.

[verbatim9]

Notice of Works

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

22nd June 2019

Cross River Rail - Half baked projects, have long term consequences ...

Good Morning,

Cross River Rail has a long and confused history.  Each iteration of the project has meant changes and variations to the base plan.

Mr David Bannister, Director at Minerva Transport, who has worked on various iterations of the project, has published three articles reviewing the history of the Cross River Rail projects, rail operations and potential opportunities.  The articles are a good referenced review.

Mr Bannister writes ( Third article >  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cross-river-rail-alternate-vision-david-bannister )

" In the first two articles in this series, we have examined how Cross River Rail has changed over time (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cross-river-rail-retrospective-david-bannister/), and how those changes have impacted the operations and capacity that would be delivered by the project (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cross-river-rail-operational-reflections-david-bannister/). In this final piece, we shift from a retrospective view of what has happened, to a positive and proactive vision of what the best form of the project would look like, and how it would allow the rail network to develop over time. Although not required, reading the first two articles is recommended for context.

To determine what the project should look like, we must define objectives. From the pre-feasibility days of the Inner City Rail Capacity Study, the primary purpose of the project was to expand capacity through the city for trains from the north and south of the network. The project should also improve the service offering for users of the network. Finally, any new infrastructure should fit into a meaningful long term strategy for the region. Meeting these three objectives will ensure that the project is viable and represents a good use of public funds.

As it stands, The Current doesn't achieve the second and third objectives, and could scarcely be considered meeting the first. Fundamentally, it is not fit for purpose. ..."

These articles are well worth reading.

Some of our members have previously raised some concerns with the Cross River Rail project, and with the latest project changes.

Half baked projects, have long term consequences ...

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

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1142095019513282561

[ozbob]

Facebook ...

[ozbob]

Letter to the Editor Sunshine Coast Daily 24th June 2019 page 13

Look at rail plan's history

[kram0]

Some very valid points for discussion, especially in relation to planning for Trouts as well as the airport line flyover. I have said all along services from Brisbane Airport need to continue running to the Gold Coast for obvious reason and as David pointed out, this will be even more relevant in the future once the line is  extended to Coolangatta (hopefully by 2030). 

Bob, do you know if the right people from within Government have read this report?

[ozbob]

We have done our best to make sure they know about it.

'You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink'

[SurfRail]

I'm honestly not as concerned about Airport to Gold Coast routing as some of the other implications (eg whether they have properly thought out where trains will be stabled and turn back).  I suspect at least some of the issues would go away if they ran more counterpeak trains,

I'm also not sold on there being a perpetual freight corridor through the inner Beenleigh and Cleveland lines when it really should be sent elsewhere as part of a broader push to get all freight off the metropolitan passenger network south of the river except for whatever comes from the north.

[verbatim9]

Some very valid points for discussion, especially in relation to planning for Trouts as well as the airport line flyover. I have said all along services from Brisbane Airport need to continue running to the Gold Coast for obvious reason and as David pointed out, this will be even more relevant in the future once the line is  extended to Coolangatta (hopefully by 2030). 

Bob, do you know if the right people from within Government have read this report?

Brisbane Airport wants a dedicated spur line not a through line to elsewhere. This because they want to introduce baggage check in for flights at Roma Street and Central as done in other countries. I won't be surprised if dedicated rolling stock will be used in the future just for the Airport line. It's a good idea just to run shuttles along a spur line for reliability purposes as well.

Once CRR is open there should be more available platform space at Roma street for a Airport branch line as planned.

[SurfRail]

Some very valid points for discussion, especially in relation to planning for Trouts as well as the airport line flyover. I have said all along services from Brisbane Airport need to continue running to the Gold Coast for obvious reason and as David pointed out, this will be even more relevant in the future once the line is  extended to Coolangatta (hopefully by 2030). 

Bob, do you know if the right people from within Government have read this report?

Brisbane Airport wants a dedicated spur line not a through line to elsewhere. This because they want to introduce baggage check in for flights at Roma Street and Central as done in other countries. I won't be surprised if dedicated rolling stock will be used in the future just for the Airport line. It's a good idea just to run shuttles along a spur line for reliability purposes as well.

Once CRR is open there should be more available platform space at Roma street for a Airport branch line as planned.

If BAC want a better rail service maybe they can pay for it.  There is going to be plenty of capacity on the suburban lines through the city post-CRR, the limiting factor will be the non-duplicated track outbound from the airport junction.  They could have bought it for all of $100m last time it was offered for sale.

The Canada Line has check-in facilities along the route, it's just a bag tag and boarding pass issuing kiosk the same as those you'd find in the terminal but just located on the platform or a concourse.  I didn't observe anybody use them while I was hovering around observing things, despite some people very clearly headed to the airport.  Given that all the major airlines are moving to a system where most passengers will be handling their own baggage onto the bag drop conveyor (even internationally), it's not a particularly important issue anymore I would have thought.

[kram0]

I tend to agree that more emphasis is getting put on the passenger not the airline so I agree this is not a big deal.

I still believe a flyover is the best operational approach to keep trains from the airport going to Albert Street and onto the Gold Coast, with no track conflicts. It would also be irresponsible if they do not allow for a potential Trouts Rd operation.

[HappyTrainGuy]

Some very valid points for discussion, especially in relation to planning for Trouts as well as the airport line flyover. I have said all along services from Brisbane Airport need to continue running to the Gold Coast for obvious reason and as David pointed out, this will be even more relevant in the future once the line is  extended to Coolangatta (hopefully by 2030). 

Bob, do you know if the right people from within Government have read this report?

Don't see it happening when 9 car services are planned for Gold Coast-Sunshine Coast.

[verbatim9]

New Coach terminal coming along. (CRR Project) Won't be long until it will open for operations. September I suspect?

[verbatim9]

New EIS leads to Boggo Road Interchange downgrade

Brisbane Development------------>https://brisbanedevelopment.com/new-crr-alignment-leads-to-boggo-road-downgrade/

[achiruel]

I'm not surprised the Qld Government is doing something below par.

What does surprise me is that Park Rd/Boggo Rd is set to become the second-busiest interchange. I would've thought it'd be third after Roma St and South Brisbane?

[SurfRail]

As I understand it there are serious impediments to doing anything better in terms of placement.

The only way to fix that is probably to build a southern concourse and entrance to the busway platforms

[nathandavid88]

^^ Something mentioned over on Skyscrapercity was that developments with deep basements were allowed during the Newman Government, which have now precluded CRR from following the alignment required to have the originally-proposed station location. Is that similar to your understanding?

[SurfRail]

Vaguely.  I recall being told it had to do with threading around the other tunnels and to facilitate the new placement of the Gabba station site.  Can't vouch for accuracy though.

(I do read SSC but only as a lurker these days.)

[aldonius]

build a southern concourse and entrance to the busway platforms

Yes please. (It would help substantially in terms of UQ-bound queuing.)

[kram0]

No turning back' on Cross River Rail with Pulse contract signed

THE contract to build the Palaszczuk Government's signature $5.4 billion Cross River Rail has been signed with Treasurer Jackie Trad declaring there is no turning back.

The Courier-Mail can reveal the construction contract between the State and the Pulse consortium for the almost $3 billion public-private partnership to build the project's rail tunnel and new stations was signed on Sunday.

Financial close will be reached when banks open on Monday.

Ms Trad said the move meant the project was now guaranteed.

"Once the contracts are signed and financial close is achieved there is no turning back," Ms Trad said.

"Cross River Rail will be built and it will benefit every single heavy rail commuter throughout southeast Queensland."

How Cross River Rail will change your commute

First look at revamped train stations

How much private sector will pay for Cross River Rail

Taxpayers foot $1.24m bill for rail project ads

Ms Trad said the construction timetable remained on track with the Go-Print site at Woolloongabba to become a staging area for the tunnel boring machines and roadheaders before a new underground station and high-rise apartments are built.

"It now means we can move to the (Roma Street) Transit Centre site. We can start demolition on that site very soon, before the end of the year. Then construction, actual groundbreaking construction, will occur next year.

"This project will create 7700 jobs during construction, and we expect to see those jobs starting in the next couple of months."


An artist's impression of the Cross River Rail station at Woolloongabba.
The State has pledged to ensure trains are running on the underground line by 2024.

The PPP to build the 5.9km tunnel and four new underground stations at Boggo Rd, Woolloongabba, Albert St and Roma St is estimated to be worth about $2.7 billion.

The Pulse consortium, including CIMIC Group companies, Pacific Partnerships, CPB Contractors, and UGL with international partners DIF, BAM, and Ghella Investments & Partnerships, won the bid in April.

"We will finance, design, construct and maintain the new tunnels and rail stations, in partnership with the State Government, to deliver world class rail assets and services for South East Queensland," CIMIC Group Chief Executive Office Michael Wright said.


The new Roma Street Station as part of Cross River Rail.
The Government will make availability payments to the consortium under the PPP arrangement.

Ms Trad's Budget last month revealed for the first time that the private sector was expected to chip in $1.479 billion to the project, while the State Government will continue to fund its $5.409 billion share.

The 10.2km rail line from Dutton Park to Bowen Hills, which will also include upgrades to the Dutton Park and Exhibition stations, is expected to provide an extra 18,000 seats into Brisbane during the morning peak and save commuters up to 15 minutes off their journey.

[Stillwater]

And how much of the total dollar amount is state government money, versus money from the private sector?

[aldonius]

Stillwater - second last para of kram0's post.

Ms Trad's Budget last month revealed for the first time that the private sector was expected to chip in $1.479 billion to the project, while the State Government will continue to fund its $5.409 billion share.

[kram0]

And how much of the total dollar amount is state government money, versus money from the private sector?

Ms Trad's Budget last month revealed for the first time that the private sector was expected to chip in $1.479 billion to the project, while the State Government will continue to fund its $5.409 billion share.

Approx $7b plus costs associated with the station upgrades south of Dutton Park to Salisbury and European Train Control $685m (approx). I suspect when completed in 2024, we will be looking at a cost of close to $8.5b.

[verbatim9]

It's good that the contracts are signed and construction is on its way.

[ozbob]

 

[MTPCo]

Sent to all outlets:

22nd June 2019

Cross River Rail - Half baked projects, have long term consequences ...

Good Morning,

Cross River Rail has a long and confused history.  Each iteration of the project has meant changes and variations to the base plan.

Mr David Bannister, Director at Minerva Transport, who has worked on various iterations of the project, has published three articles reviewing the history of the Cross River Rail projects, rail operations and potential opportunities.  The articles are a good referenced review.

Mr Bannister writes ( Third article >  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cross-river-rail-alternate-vision-david-bannister )

Hi Robert et al,

My humble thanks for your interest in and support of my analysis. I'm happy to answer any questions or take feedback where appropriate (and my apologies in advance if it takes a while for me to respond).

Please also note that I take my obligations very seriously, so while I am more than happy to contribute to discussion about improving public transport outcomes and rail operations in general, I cannot and will not comment on information that is not in the public domain or own work.

Cheers,
DB

[BrizCommuter]

BrizCommuter: Cross River Rail - Happening but Flawed 
https://brizcommuter.blogspot.com/2019/07/cross-river-fail-happening-but-flawed.html

[ozbob]

BrizCommuter: Cross River Rail - Happening but Flawed 
https://brizcommuter.blogspot.com/2019/07/cross-river-fail-happening-but-flawed.html

Thanks, to all outlets and ..

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1151152391376392193

[ozbob]

https://brizcommuter.blogspot.com/2019/07/cross-river-fail-happening-but-flawed.html

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Cross River Fail - Happening but Flawed

Contracts have been signed and work is finally underway on Brisbane's Cross River Rail. There have recently been some changes to the design of CRR, mainly concerning track alignment and precise station locations. Sadly with each iteration of CRR, whilst costs generally decrease, the benefits also decrease. Whilst there is no question that CRR is required, considerable enhancements need to be made to the plans to maximise the benefits of spending more than $5m on rail tunnels and stations. There have also been some interesting articles by David Bannister, Director of Minerva Transport Planning Company which echos what BrizCommuter has been discussing for many years. BrizCommuter agrees with most of the points in these excellent articles, and also raises a few other  flaws with Cross River Rail that need rectification. These have been listed in approximate order of severity:

* Lack of 4th track between Dutton Park (CRR portal) and Salisbury - the revised plans have added a 3rd platform for stations in this section, but to optimise track capacity in both the peak and off-peak directions (remembering that there is nowhere to turn back tracks from South to North in the tunnel), there needs to be 4 tracks to allow CRR services to not conflict with local services to/from Salisbury (and eventually Beaudesert).

* Lack of 4th track in the Altandi area - the current track layout only allows Gold Coast Line services to overtake Beenleigh Line services in one direction, allowing approx. 8tph on each line. In the opposite direction, trains cannot overtake. Thus it is not possible to run a 4tph (every 15 minute) off-peak or counter peak service on the Gold Coast and Beenleigh Lines. This lack of 4th overtaking track is the reason why Beenleigh Line services had to be axed during the 2018 Commonwealth Games. To open CRR, and still be limited to 30 minute off-peak services on the Gold Coast Line would look very bad.

* Northside capacity constraints - services on both the existing 'Mains' tracks and CRR will both have to share a track pair between Mayne and Northgate (4 tracks merging into 2). This is highly sub-optimal, and severely limits the capacity of CRR. Just to add to the pain, there appears to be a non-grade separated junction at Mayne which will cause major operational headaches. Grade separation would help, but ultimately there needs to be either 2 more tracks between Mayne and Northgate, and an extra track between Northgate and Petrie, or the Trouts Road Line (see below) needs to be built between Roma Street and Strathpine. BrizCommuter doubts that the proposed 28tph peak direction service is even reliably achievable.

* Lack of tunnel stubs to allow for Trouts Road Line/North Western Transportation Corridor - to optimise capacity to/from the North, there needs to be extra tracks between Brisbane and Petrie. The most optimal solution for this is constructing the Trouts Road Line, which would massively increase train capacity on the Caboolture, Sunshine Coast, and Redcliffe Lines, speed up journey times, and also add stations to many Northern suburbs which are severely lacking in frequency public transport.  Unfortunately, the current CRR plans are so short sighted that these tunnel stubs have been neglected. To add the tunnel stubs would require the closure of the entire CRR tunnel for months.

* Enhanced train turnback facilities at Salisbury, Kippa-Ring, Kuraby, and Beenleigh - in order to allow for the proposed post-CRR train services for 2026, there needs to be improved track layouts and enhanced turnback facilities (i.e. extra platforms or sidings, and track switches) at Salisbury, Kippa-Ring, Kuraby, and Beenleigh. Manly will also need to be on this list if the Cleveland Line is not fully duplicated.
Duplication of Cleveland Line - to achieve the proposed 10tph post-CRR train services on the Cleveland Line, there needs to be a full duplication of the Cleveland Line, and possibly even partial triplication.

* Removal of busier/more dangerous Level Crossings - the proposed capacity enhancements will increase the closure time at many level crossings. Thus more effort and funding is required to replace level crossings with bridges.

* More trains and drivers - more than 40 new trains and sufficient train crew will be required to operate the additional train services for CRR, as well as optimising services on the existing train network.

BrizCommuter also has concerns over the disruptive closure of Roma Street busway station whilst it is relocated underground. At least the long term gain may be worth it. On the good side, at least the most recent plans have more optimal track layouts through Mayne sidings (aside from lack of grade separation).


Capacity constraints for CRR

The current plans for Cross River Rail severely limits the maximum track capacity through Brisbane's CBD, journey times, and operational efficiency. With 6 tracks through Brisbane, there should be 72tph per direction in the peaks. The current design of CRR allows for only 54tph to/from the South, and 50tph to/from the North. This makes for a poor business case. To rectify this situation, SE Queensland's rail network will require considerably more infrastructure and associated funding.

[HappyTrainGuy]

This is where QR's intention of running 9 car trains for over a decade now comes into play as a stop gap for lack of spending on proper needed infrastructure and rollingstock from the state where pollies kept floating the 7 car train and bat/crr ideas. But it also doesn't help when outside bean counters find ways to make projects cheaper by removing future options for infrastructure to save a few bucks in the short term ie Petrie gold plating, trouts road and crr. The best example of this is a Trouts road corridor makes the entire Strathpine-Albion corridor infrastructure works redundant. There is no way of getting anymore tracks through Eagle Junction-Northgate anyway. Would require appt building removals around Nundah and Tooombul, new overpass on buckland road and the closure of Sandgate Road at toombul to remove the overpass/change the gradient of the road into and out of the tunnel/rebuild the overpass (that alone would be enough to fund a giant chunk of railway line on Trouts road). If the mains are running on an express pattern there wouldn't be any issues. The issue is actually Northgate-Petrie with trains hunting down the all stoppers. Even without trouts road post CRR a quad Strathpine-Petrie with a triple Strathpine-Northgate would be fine with peak expresses using the middle road. A quad Strathpine-Petrie is easy and has already been planned out with one of the last major hurdles being relocating Strathpine station off the curve (somewhat currently in progress).

[ozbob]

Services 2036 ..



From

State Infrastructure Plan

https://www.dsdmip.qld.gov.au/infrastructure/state-infrastructure-plan.html

Part B: Program - 2019 update (PDF 11 MB)  Page 43

Reported cost:

Cross River Rail $M 6,725.804 (Total est) ● ●

849.032  (exp to June19) 1,479.707 (19/20) 1,539.463 (20/21) 2,419.731 (21/22 to 22/23) 437.871 (beyond)  Page 103

[timh]

Forgive me if maybe my expectations are too high, but those goals seem pretty lacklustre for 2036.

Gold coast trains every 5 minutes sounds great. But there's stuff there that is really concerning. Why still separate the frequency of Manly starters and Cleveland starters? Where is the Doomben line? Where is the Gympie line?? Are there no plans of improvements there??

[ozbob]

Forgive me if maybe my expectations are too high, but those goals seem pretty lacklustre for 2036.

Gold coast trains every 5 minutes sounds great. But there's stuff there that is really concerning. Why still separate the frequency of Manly starters and Cleveland starters? Where is the Doomben line? Where is the Gympie line?? Are there no plans of improvements there??

Yo.  It stood out to me as a token table to prop up the Cross River Rail section of the document ..

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1153428167677235200

[Cazza]

Ferny Grove Line too...

[SteelPan]

Any plans to put an underground pedestrian walkway between the new inner-CBD CRR Station and the now under construction Queens Wharf project [along the lines of the new[ish] Wynyard to Barangaroo walkway in Sydney].

A seamless below ground, inner city Rail/Ferry/Multi-Billion dollar leisure/entertainment complex pedestrian link.

[achiruel]

Regarding the future timetabling post-CRR, I'm wondering how they're managing to get a train every 6 minutes from Loganlea and a train from the GC every 5 minutes. That's a total of 22tph, before even factoring in Kuraby starters via South Brisbane. Where is all this magical extra track capacity coming from? Are GC trains going to stop between Beenleigh and Loganlea now?

I think realistically with track constraints between Kuraby and Beenleigh, and assuming GC stopping pattern includes Kuraby (I think it will need to, if all-stoppers terminate there, to prevent people needing to change twice for Runcorn & Fruitgrove), the best that could be done is 6tph Gold Coast and 6tph Beenleigh. Unless Loganlea terminators become a thing, in which case I reckon an extra platform at Loganlea will be required.

[timh]

It seems unrealistic certainly. If they wanted to do it properly they should quad track to Kuraby at least, and at least tri track to Beenleigh. That would actually allow for turn up and go frequency the entire length of the line from Varsity-Roma Street.

[ozbob]

CONSTRUCTION #JOBS! Our major contractors are now mobilising and getting ready to commence construction on Cross River Rail's tunnels and stations. Tag a mate who would like to know or click here to find out more and register your interest: https://t.co/RfZe4zahCQ pic.twitter.com/k7u8xasezU

— CrossRiverRail (@CrossRiverRail) July 29, 2019