Shadow Minister Statement: QR National Drivers refused Citytrain transfers

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Tim Nicholls MP
Shadow Minister for Transport and Traffic Management
Shadow Minister for Trade
Shadow Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations   
Member for Clayfield            

QR National Drivers refused Citytrain transfers

17 December 2007

While Queensland Rail continues to blame the cancellation of services on a shortage of train drivers, experienced traincrew are being refused transfers to the City Train network, instead left to transport freight along regional lines.

Shadow Minister for Transport Tim Nicholls said trained, experience drivers were being forced to wait up to three years to get a transfer from regional Queensland depots.

?QR is currently fast tracking the training of approximately 24 new drivers for the City Train network.  Meanwhile experienced, QR National drivers are being refused transfers to City Train depots, because under current regulations they must have at least three years experience before being eligible for a transfer,? he said.

?QR?s Stephen Cantwell says the City Train network has experienced 10 years of passenger growth in just two years.  Yet rather than look at the quickest and most obvious solutions to solve the shortage in services by transferring qualified drivers, QR insists on sticking to a bureaucratic formula of waiting up to three years before transferring qualified drivers.

?To train new drivers can take up to 18 months.  That doesn?t even include the time spent processing applicants.  I?ve been told it can take up to 18 months to select applicants as they must first pass an aptitude test, group assessment and a medical assessment.?

Mr Nicholls said the lengthy timeframe for driver transfers meant QR was losing trained drivers who had been left disheartened by the prospect of being stuck at a regional depot, away from their families for three years.

?One driver told me that of the six drivers he had completed his training with, only three drivers remained.  The other three were forced to make the decision to leave after realising they would be stuck out west for at least another couple of years,? he said.

?These drivers are leaving their family and life behind in the belief that after they complete their training they?ll be able to transfer back to a city depot.  Instead they?re left to drive freight out west, while listening to media reports of driver shortages back home on the Brisbane commuter network.

?Queensland commuters have been given excuse after excuse for why they?re left waiting for a train that?s either too full or doesn?t show.  QR needs to start looking at serious measures to solve our driver shortage ? I suggest they start by looking at our regional stations.?