Major disruptions due to storms - Tuesday 13/10/09

[Derwan]

Major disruptions this afternoon due to the storms:

From http://www.translink.com.au/alert.php?id=169

TransLink advises that train commuters can expect some delays during the afternoon peak period due to damage caused by this afternoon?s storm.

Roma St station was affected and two lines were closed for about 20 minutes. All lines are now operating but further delays can be expected until the service backlog clears.

Delays can be expected on the Cleveland line due to broken boom gates at Cavendish Rd, Coorparoo.

Trains were lined up on Up Main between Bowen Hills and Eagle Junction.  Suburbans must have been closed.

I arrived at Central around 4:45.  They had closed the gates from the subway to platforms 5 and 6 - and were just reopening them.

BUT - no eRail updates!

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Storms hit rail services

Storms hit rail services
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Anna Caldwell, Robyn Ironside, Peter Taggart, Peter Morley and Brian Williams

October 13, 2009 05:17pm

LATEST: A LIGHTNING strike from this afternoon's hail storms has caused rolling delays for peak hour rail commuters and traffic lights are out at several road intersections.

TransLink advised that rail commuters should expect delays after two tracks at Roma Street station were closed for 20 minutes following a lightning strike.

All lines are now operating, but further delays can be expected until the service backlog clears.

As well, delays are expected on the Cleveland line because of broken boom gates at Cavendish Rd, Cooparoo.

Police have also advised motorists that a number of lights are out at intersections in Mt Gravatt, Eight Mile Plains, Wishart, Slacks Creek, Woolloongabba and Rochedale.

The commuter delays follow storms which lashed the southeast this afternoon, dumping hail and bringing strong winds.

Hail was reported in Brisbane's northern suburbs about 3.15pm. Reader Bill McKeever reported hail at Mt Glorious, north-west of Brisbane, at 2:50 pm. "It fell for about 20 seconds along with really severe wind gusts. ''

There was also hail reported at Ferny Grove, Kedron, Enoggera, and, on Brisbane's bayside,  small hail fell at Lota and Manly.

Hail the size of five cent pieces fell at Mt Gravatt East.

An Energex Australia spokesman said about 6700 homes and businesses across the south-east were without electricity.

The spokesman said strong winds had brought down power lines, cutting electricity to 3161 locations on Russell Island and the surrounding Southern Bay Islands.
(Story continues below)


Julie Schwarz, a receptionist at Lake Somerset Holiday Park in Kilcoy, said at 3pm: "It hasn't quite started yet. The sky has just started rumbling now. We havent seen any rain or hail yet, though"

"At the moment, I'm just trying to gather together as much information about the storm as I can, so I can notify our guests. Luckily, there aren't many people staying at the park at the moment".

"One minute it was beautiful blue skies...now the sky looks kind of weird. It's certainly very black heading towards Esk".

Gary Atkins of the Visitor Information Centre in Esk said at 3:15pm: "We only had a very light shower here about half an hour ago. We didn't see much rain at all"

Earlier today, Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Brett Harrison said the fast moving storms the region received overnight did not deliver much rain,.

"We got between two and five millimetres over Brisbane, mainly in the northern suburbs, but there were more substantial falls out west," Mr Harrison said.

The highest fall recorded was 17mm west of Wivenhoe Dam, while Warwick picked up 14mm, he said.
Residents in towns across Queensland's southwest awoke to mostly clear skies this morning, before the dust started moving in at around 7am.

Farmers were delaying harvests and truck drivers were taking extra precautions in St George this morning, with the red dust cutting visibility down to about 1km.

Michael Hogan, a tourist officer in Cunnamulla, said compared to yesterday's ?shocking? dust storm, today?s didn?t seem so bad.

?It?s still pretty hazy. But yesterday?s storm was constant,? Mr Hogan said.

?Hopefully we will get a little bit of a break when the rain comes this afternoon ? but then the mud will set in, from all the settled dust.?

Roma businesses reported floors covered in a layer of fine red dust, with the town reporting ?very hazy? conditions.

"It was a line of storms but there wasn't a great deal of height to them and they moved through pretty quickly weakening towards the coast," Mr Harrison said.

"Today's storms should be pretty similar although we could see a bit more rain than what we saw overnight."

He said the storms would develop in the west from early afternoon and reach the coast by mid to late afternoon.

"They will be a bit more isolated rather than being in a definite line like we saw last night."

The rain could be followed by more dust.

Visibility was down to 500m at Quilpie and Thargomindah in the state's far southwest yesterday and dust was arriving in the western parts of the Maranoa and Warrego.

Forecaster David Grant said haze was expected in Brisbane but it was unclear yet just how far the dust might travel.

A dry change will follow tonight creating a high fire danger tomorrow.

"There's possibly a chance of a new (fire) warning with very windy conditions and very warm temps," Mr Harrison said.

Overnight Brisbane's temperature sank no lower than 18 degrees.

A top of 32 is expected today, 33 in Ipswich.

Drought out west has not stopped Inglewood grazier Peter Nankervis from fattening his stock thanks to a machine that produces 500kg of fodder a day.

The fodder is fed to lambs and cattle slaughtered in his abattoir and sold through a butcher shop he runs with daughter Linda, a qualified butcher and meat inspector.

While Mr Nankervis has innovation to thank for saving his stock, others are watching the sky for drought-breaking rains.

For Mr Nankervis, the sprout-producing machine has been a saviour, for without it the Inglewood enterprise that now employs eight permanent staff would never have got off the ground.

Each day trays are seeded with barley that enter a controlled environment which, after five days, produces the 20cm long sprouts that are fed out on the sixth day.

There is argument among graziers as to whether grain or grass-fed meat is best.

But with his "hybrid" fodder Mr Nankervis thinks he has the best of both worlds.

"The stock get both grain and grass that leads to beef and lamb with a distinctive colour and natural flavour," he said yesterday.

"The continuous production line allows us to consistently and economically finish stock year-round for the butcher shop. The sprouts allow us to supply quality meat, regardless of seasonal conditions ? something that had been impossible to achieve because of drought."

More than 35 per cent of the state is in drought, with some shire declarations dating back seven years and, in parts of the Toowoomba Regional Council, to October 2000.

Dimantina, Barcoo, Quilpie, Bulloo, Paroo, Murweh and Goondiwindi are within a drought belt that stretches from the southeast west to the border with the Northern Territory.

A tongue also goes north from Dalby to include Banana and Rockhampton, taking the total of drought-declared Queensland to around 60 million hectares, or nine times the size of Tasmania.

The weather bureau yesterday issued an extreme fire warning for the Channel Country, central west, Maranoa and Warrego districts, with humidity down to 10 per cent and south to southwest winds to 55km/h.

Meanwhile, Deputy Premier Paul Lucas yesterday announced the Hinze Dam upgrade had reached a major milestone, with work begun on raising the dam wall.

Raising the wall by 15m would almost double its storage capacity.

The project is expected to be completed next December and will raise dam storage from 161,000ML to 309,700ML.

[ozbob]

I have just finished a late lecture at QUT.  Heading off to Roma St now  ...   

[ozbob]

I have received about 6 erail updates.

Update:  received another 8 so total of 14.  

Including the dreaded 'CBD line disruptions'.  That is not a good one to receive  

[stephenk]

The mains were closed through Roma Street. There were no trains Northbound on the suburbans for approx 25mins until just after 4:30pm. There may have been other network issues too, as the delayed Ferny Grove train was overtaken by a few other services at Central. As mentioned in the other thread, I was delayed 41mins. Not amused.

[david]

Delays for me totalled around 40 minutes as well. I was at Roma St and watched helplessly as 3 Ipswich-bound trains passed through Roma St, at complete capacity. I managed to squeeze onto the delayed 5:06pm Ipswich (which departed at 5:22pm), which remained at a 5 until Indooroopilly and a 4 by Darra. The decision was made to make this normally express service to an all-stations service, which wasn't taken well by the people in the carriage that I was in.

[stephenk]

Delays for me totalled around 40 minutes as well. I was at Roma St and watched helplessly as 3 Ipswich-bound trains passed through Roma St, at complete capacity. I managed to squeeze onto the delayed 5:06pm Ipswich (which departed at 5:22pm), which remained at a 5 until Indooroopilly and a 4 by Darra. The decision was made to make this normally express service to an all-stations service, which wasn't taken well by the people in the carriage that I was in.

When the system has gone pair shaped, it makes sense to run all trains all stations.

[ozbob]

Presently at Roma St, the 6.23 Ippy is on a time roll, presently showing due 6.34pm.  Signal fault Eagle Junction, north side bar FG chaotic.  Long distance trains stuck in Mayne Yard, big crowd on platform 10.

[david]

When the system has gone pair shaped, it makes sense to run all trains all stations.

There was no opposition from me. The train would've only had been crawling behind the other three whilst "expressing".

[ozbob]

SOTO has just arrived at ten.  Signal fault at Eagle Junction has just been cleared.  The 6.23 pm Ippy is due 6.38, and so is the 6.38  

[ozbob]

6.23 just left 6.39  DS5,  should be another in  a minute ....

[ozbob]

6.38 now due 6.41pm, will we be lucky?  

No EMU33/50  just ran through on 8.  Showing 6.43 for the next Ippy ....

[ozbob]

The 6.38 is on a time roll,  no attempt to explain to the pax on 8.  Many couldn't board the late 6.23,  not cool for them, me, well all in a days commute! 

[ozbob]

The 6.38 has now been scratched at the barrier.  No attempt to communicate.  Next service now appears to  be the 7.06,  train now running through (presumably was the 6.38).  How about telling the punters folks?  0/10!

smu224 just pulled into 7, presumably was the train from Cooroy.

Few punters cranky  on 8,  not letting them know is poor form.

SOTO  just departing ...

[ozbob]

Two empties  now 7 and 8, waiting for Shorncliffe from Milton to clear (SMU275/263).  Not looking good for 7.06 Ippy flyer ...

[ozbob]

Westlander is arriving at 10 (2501D at the sharp end). Platforms 7 and 8 clear, we might be lucky yet for 7.06, no clock is rolling.  Again  no communication to pax.  7.06 now showing 7.09, now 7.11, now 7.12.

Must say, rather sad effort this ....

clock back to 7.10, no back to 7.11 ....

[ozbob]

Now onboard EMU88, departed 7.12.

[ozbob]

Just received an erail alert that the 7.56 Ipswich service from Bowen Hills cancelled due to a train fault ...  odd when there are plenty of trains around ...  (Later ed.  Further alert that the 9.11pm Roma St service from Ipswich cancelled due to crew illness - this is the return trip for the cancelled 7.56 earlier, so that would explain it.)

It does help if people are informed as to what is going on.  A couple of quick announcements tonight on platform 8 advising that the train due at 6.38 is cancelled and the next scheduled service will be at 7.06 and so forth would de-mystify events for the passengers. When the clocks are rolling it becomes very confusing and people rightly start to get agitated.

Adverse weather events happens, and I think people understand that disruptions are unavoidable sometimes, but it is no great effort to let them know what is going on.  

[stephenk]

Adverse weather events happens, and I think people understand that disruptions are unavoidable sometimes, but it is no great effort to let them know what is going on. 

I agree. At Fortitude Valley this afternoon, the staff announced that services from P3/4 were moved to P1/2 due to lightning strike at Roma Street, but no announcements about why there no services running through P2 for 25mins (despite their being a train at Central P3 - and thus the PIDs showing the next train as being 1 minute away). The guards announcements were OK though.

It would also help if the PIDs can have cancelled trains removed, or displayed as cancelled. Cancelled services just seem to sit on the board getting later and later until they eventually disappear, even when the train has been cancelled over 30 mins earlier.

[justanotheruser]

When I found out there were delays I called my wife to let her know. She was not surprised as signals go down every time there is a thunderstorm it seems. She had a look on live updates and there was no mention of delays. Wondering what happened there?