Random observations around the network ...

[Whippa]

Today at Mango Hill station this morning around 10am.  Only 1 NGR service in the 2 hour period. 

Tad surprised a little bit considering most KR services are generally NGRs since they started running them to Caboolture/Ipswich late last year (the only exceptions on the Springfield/KR lines would be the units rostered to come from Nambour in the morning or those rostered to go to Nambour/Sunshine Coast later in the afternoon (seeing that the Sunshine Coast line aren't operating NGRs yet).

From what I've seen, during weekends the line is saturated with NGRs.
(then decreasing in NGR % of runs)
Weekday mornings
Weekday evenings
Weekday inter-peak

I guess most of the trains doing KR inter-peak runs end up heading up to Nambour at some point in the day

Yeah everything that turns around in revenue service at Springfield from 2:39 to 5:39 ends up at either Caboolture or Nambour and who knows many of those Caboolture runs could end up at Nambour later in the night. This is a real limiting factor.

Also in terms of the afternoon peak timtabling, most Caboolture Nambour peak services are formed from ex Ipswich and Springfield runs while almost all Redcliffe services come out of the Exhibition loop or dead running from Ippy/Springfield. This is probably why they're around alot in the afternoon.

Similarly in the morning, most things start at the terminuses and terminate in the city or stay in the Springfield Kippa Ring corridor allowing high NGR usage.

[JustSomeTrainGuy]

Has the report into the overhead issues at Central station on 7/8 July 2018 been released yet? (caused by the NGR pantograph)

[JustSomeTrainGuy]

IMU122 on Gympielander duties

[ozbob]

IMU122 on Gympielander duties

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1090042486376910848

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1090043780701409280

[SurfRail]

I like how the current layout doesn't even permit cross-platform transfers in the same direction outbound, let alone coming from Ipswich.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1090049717659037696

[burgo]

Rollingstock breakdown at Deagon last Friday afternoon during peak. I was stuck at Banyo heading outbound for approx. 30-40 mins. As we pulled into Deagon, an empty 200 Series was pulling a broken EMU inbound. I assume it would have been towed into the Banyo stabling yard to clear the line. Any one have any more details?

[JustSomeTrainGuy]

Just caught a Springfield bound NGR from Central on Platform 2. The PID's/auto announcements were saying we were at Fortitude Valley at Central, Central at Roma St, etc. They must have skipped a station at some point without adjusting the system

[jesse]

Rollingstock breakdown at Deagon last Friday afternoon during peak. I was stuck at Banyo heading outbound for approx. 30-40 mins. As we pulled into Deagon, an empty 200 Series was pulling a broken EMU inbound. I assume it would have been towed into the Banyo stabling yard to clear the line. Any one have any more details?

Ran them as a 12 car up to Shorncliffe turnback and rancthem back to mayne. 01/28 were the failed units

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1093286633221177344

[STB]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1090049717659037696

You wouldn't need a 6 car set running the shuttle between Gympie North and Nambour, a 3 car would suffice, with the other 3 car set as a spare.

[ozbob]

Yes, that is the plan. The 100 IMUs can also be fitted out with ATP.

[Arnz]

My understanding through sources here and elsewhere on the internet is that the IMU100s will eventually be fitted with ATP in their latest refurb.  The IMU100s are very likely intended to be the "permanent" replacements for the ICEs on the Gympie North, as well as continuing to operate on the network in general.

The Ipswich/Roma Street to Nambour services are likely to be dominated by a combination of IMU160s and the NGRs in the years ahead.

[not_available]

Since when has the 2:16 pm kippa ring -> Roma Street service run through to Ipswich?

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/PatrickWilliams/status/1093656778972254208

https://twitter.com/PatrickWilliams/status/1093657546127138816

[#Metro]

What?! Queensland Rail lost its contract to TransPerth Trains? 

[HappyTrainGuy]

What?! Queensland Rail lost its contract to TransPerth Trains? 

?? QR never maintained the contract. Aurizon did. They have since cancelled it ages ago.

[Cazza]

I think he was making the joke that TransPerth have now taken over the contract and operation of QR

[Otto]

Took a train from Cleveland to South Brisbane @ 4:09pm.
Noticed all the new attendants at each station in their nice new uniforms.
Must be getting close for the NGR's to commence servicing the Cleveland line.

[ozbob]

NGRs commenced last Monday on the Cleveland and Shorncliffe lines Otto. Getting to be very high cost services to deliver...

[ozbob]

Railway maintenance South Brisbane

>>  https://photos.app.goo.gl/97JMkbimHH4RcHsE9

[James]

I typically have a policy of avoiding Railbuses where I can due to their slowness and unreliability, but I didn't get much of a choice in the matter on Saturday night, so off I went.

The journey was a shocker - Toowong to Bowen Hills, a trip which would normally take ~15 mins by rail, took 45-50 minutes. There were several factors which made the trip quite slow, including:
1. Non-DDA accessible buses - meaning passengers wishing to take bikes and prams on board couldn't simply wheel them on, meaning the whole process took a few minutes per stop.
2. Traffic in Fortitude Valley - when there's track closures, they should keep the bus lanes through there open 24/7 so the Railbus network has a hope of keeping to schedule.
3. Security - we were blessed to have someone's "little angels" on board, who had just discovered the F and C words, and used them profusely. This made an already unpleasant 15 minute bus ride into a moving reminder of why one might not use public transport. Well done to the bus driver though, who kicked them off at Fortitude Valley.
4. Timetables - this has already been hashed to death, but I'll say it again - it would be nice if we had proper railbus timetables.

After Saturday night's experience, I will use Uber in the future. Sure, TransLink says "expect delays of up to 60 minutes", but I'm not sure if anybody would see that as acceptable if you were "thinking like a customer"! Heaven knows how long the trip would have taken if I was heading further north.

[techblitz]

coming from Kallangur yesterday the trip time from bowen hills to roma st was 30 mins......arrived roma st just as hourly 110 bus was pulling out of QSBS...seriously thought I was going to easily make it to the CC ontime.......guess not.
I think where I stuffed up is I should have jumped off at Zillmere and caught the 330 inbound....would have easily got to the CC in time.

[Otto]

My wife had planned to meet with a friend at Kallangur for an outing on Sunday. She will only drive locally in the Redlands area, so her plan was to take the train from Cleveland.
As we had just arrived back in Brisbane from holidays last Thursday, I checked the trackwork calendar and saw it was a big trackwork event.
I simply said, "Cancel your weekend cause it's no longer viable due to trackwork".
Yesterday was my first day back at work on late shift so I could not take her.
So, she has rescheduled to a weekend in March. 

[techblitz]

I simply said, "Cancel your weekend cause it's no longer viable due to trackwork".

wise move otto...

https://www.facebook.com/TransLinkQLD/posts/3048668048492573

Remove my posts all you like, rail bus at murrarie arrived at 7:43am, train departed as the first group made the platform. At 8:15am the following railbus arrived and thanks to a few customers who had already waited on the train for 30 minutes stopping the doors from closing the next group didn't meet the same fate and we travelled together!

[STB]

I typically have a policy of avoiding Railbuses where I can due to their slowness and unreliability, but I didn't get much of a choice in the matter on Saturday night, so off I went.

The journey was a shocker - Toowong to Bowen Hills, a trip which would normally take ~15 mins by rail, took 45-50 minutes. There were several factors which made the trip quite slow, including:
1. Non-DDA accessible buses - meaning passengers wishing to take bikes and prams on board couldn't simply wheel them on, meaning the whole process took a few minutes per stop.
2. Traffic in Fortitude Valley - when there's track closures, they should keep the bus lanes through there open 24/7 so the Railbus network has a hope of keeping to schedule.
3. Security - we were blessed to have someone's "little angels" on board, who had just discovered the F and C words, and used them profusely. This made an already unpleasant 15 minute bus ride into a moving reminder of why one might not use public transport. Well done to the bus driver though, who kicked them off at Fortitude Valley.
4. Timetables - this has already been hashed to death, but I'll say it again - it would be nice if we had proper railbus timetables.

After Saturday night's experience, I will use Uber in the future. Sure, TransLink says "expect delays of up to 60 minutes", but I'm not sure if anybody would see that as acceptable if you were "thinking like a customer"! Heaven knows how long the trip would have taken if I was heading further north.

How come you didn't just catch one of the Coro Drive buses to the city and transfer there to either another BT bus or one of the rail replacements?

[James]

How come you didn't just catch one of the Coro Drive buses to the city and transfer there to either another BT bus or one of the rail replacements?

Literally what I did, the problem wasn't Toowong - Roma St, it was Roma St - Bowen Hills. The bus options to Bowen Hills are pretty shocking, and the congestion through the Valley meant the CityGlider and Route 306 (the best bus for my journey) were caught in the same crud.

[HappyTrainGuy]

My wife had planned to meet with a friend at Kallangur for an outing on Sunday. She will only drive locally in the Redlands area, so her plan was to take the train from Cleveland.
As we had just arrived back in Brisbane from holidays last Thursday, I checked the trackwork calendar and saw it was a big trackwork event.
I simply said, "Cancel your weekend cause it's no longer viable due to trackwork".
Yesterday was my first day back at work on late shift so I could not take her.
So, she has rescheduled to a weekend in March.

Either first week of April/last week of March there's a closure Roma street-rockhampton.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1095782186672766976

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1095799257120927744

[achiruel]

SMU202 sitting stationary on the dual gauge near Salisbury for no apparent reason.

[achiruel]

0500 ex Fortitude Valley to Beenleigh service this morning operated by 291/164. Is an SMU260/IMU260 hybrid a normal thing that I've not noticed, or is this a bit odd?

[SurfRail]

^ It's common.  It stretches the toilet allocation out.

[achiruel]

Also we ran wrong road from Beenleigh to Ormeau (changed at Beenleigh to NGR708).  Anyone know what that's all about?

[techblitz]

interesting happenings at Goodna this morning.....

https://twitter.com/TransLinkSEQ/status/1100143414098751488

[ozbob]

 Rail grinder..

[HappyTrainGuy]

Rail grinder..

That or another b grade movie involving a train going too fast

[ozbob]

 

This a pic I took of the rail grinder at Redbank last week ..

[Bretto1082]

It had been a good trip only 2 fires and now we are getti g called the train that could not slow down thanks htg. Mmy31 should be heading back north and mmy 30 will be here mid to end March to do turnouts from Sherwood to redbank