Article: Rail revival answer to traffic problems

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Rail revival answer to traffic problems

Rail revival answer to traffic problems
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Merv Bartlett

July 08, 2009 12:00am

IT STICKS in my craw that we taxpayers have been paying some bloke ("Is traffic expert just a passenger?", The Courier-Mail, June 29) to tell us how to run a better transport system when it is clear said bloke, George Hazel, is not worth the money.

This newspaper carries many items about our railway system and the transportation of people generally but, as usual, no one is coming up with viable answers.

I've made up, marshalled, composed and shunted more trains in both the Queensland and New South Welsh systems than I've had hot dinners (I retired, in 1992, as stationmaster at the Acacia Ridge interstate terminal). I'd worked as a railwayman since leaving Neerkol Orphanage to become a lad porter at Rockhampton. At 16, stationed at Yalleroi, I went to toil at such diverse places as Townsville and Rockhampton as relieving stationmaster. This covered places like Mt Isa, Julia Creek, Clermont, Capella and Barcaldine, to name a few.

After 40 years in a managerial capacity, I reckon - despite, of late, having five coronary bypasses and a valve inserted in the ticker - I could do a better job than George Hazel.

And this is where I'd start.

I'd beg, steal or borrow a half-dozen or so New South Wales passenger coaches on a semi-permanent basis from over the border - they're both Labor governments so they should co-operate - and start a morning and evening shuttle service from down near the border to Roma St on the mostly unused state-of-the-art, standard-gauge line. It is hardly used, except for a couple of long-distance heavy haulage trains (in both directions) and the daily XPT passenger service from Sydney.

At present it makes no sense that one of the most efficient systems of human land transport is left sitting there almost idle, while, right alongside it, parallel to it, every damn day of the week, is the cluttered-up bumper-to-bumper Mt Lindesay Highway which morphs into Beaudesert Rd.

Right beside this accident-waiting-to-happen is a railway line which is barely used, which actually runs right into the guts of Brisbane.

The knockers will say the line is the property of New South Wales. Well that's not the truth at all, under the original Queen Victoria-era engineered agreement between the states. And even if that was a valid argument, surely this is Australia's territory, whether it be in Queensland or in New South Wales.

Think about it: Six cars hauled by a locomotive stationed and stabled overnight near the border. It might leave about 6am and run backwards and forwards on that beautifully maintained track for a couple of hours in the early part of the working day, and again backwards and forwards toward the evening.

The only requirements for operation would be a few low-level platforms, the installation of a couple of loop lines, some alterations of existing signage, and bob's your uncle. It's an alternative for those poor buggers who drive from down near Beaudesert, all along the Mt Lindesay Highway.

Those from Logan, Browns Plains, Calamvale, Algester etc could walk to the station, or park close by, and then sit back, in superior, standard-gauge railway comfort, and travel to the middle of the CBD with a minimum of fuss.

As I've said, I'm a very old man with a dicky ticker, but give me a government cheque book and a relatively free hand to engage a couple of retired railway staff and I promise the overworked Mt Lindesay Highway could take a breather.

And the once-frustrated drivers who choose to live south of Brisbane could read the paper on their way to the city.

Merv Bartlett is a retired Queensland Rail stationmaster who now lives at Pallara.

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