Ministerial Statement: New services to ease squeeze on Caboolture line

[ozbob]

Minister for Transport
The Honourable Rachel Nolan
05/08/2010

New services to ease squeeze on Caboolture line

There will be room for another 7500 commuters on the Caboolture train line every week thanks to additional services to begin later this month.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan said extra services will run in the morning and afternoon peaks from Monday, August 23.

"These new services will mean up to 3100 cars a week are taken off major roads, including the Bruce Highway, Gateway Motorway and Gympie Road, each morning," Ms Nolan said.

"This is great news for the environment and great news for passengers who will have a more comfortable commute.

"The Caboolture line is the busiest on the network - more than 50,000 people board at stations from Caboolture to Virginia every week, with 17,500 boarding between Caboolture and Petrie alone.

"We want to encourage even more people to use public transport and that's why we're improving services."

Ms Nolan said the new morning and afternoon peak services on the Caboolture line would make the journey a lot more comfortable for an additional 3750 passengers heading to and from work each week.

"The new morning service will depart Caboolture train station at 6.32am, stop all stations to Petrie, and then run express to Northgate, stopping all stations from Northgate to the city," she said.

"The extra afternoon peak service will depart Central at 3.48pm, stopping all stations, arriving at Petrie train station at 4.30pm.

"This service will also help ease congestion for passengers on the 4.06pm Caboolture train, which regularly carries a large number of people."

Ms Nolan said an additional Route 649 RailBus would also be trialled over the next three months for passengers heading north of Caboolture on the Sunshine Coast line.

"The new service connects with the Caboolture line train, which departs Central at 8.07pm," she said.

"Passengers will arrive at Caboolture station by train at 9.09pm and transfer to the bus which departs at 9.17pm, stopping all stations from Caboolture to Landsborough, then express to Nambour station, arriving at 10.27pm.

"Last financial year the State Government added another 301,000 seats to the public transport network in South East Queensland and this is another example of our commitment to improving services"

For more information on public transport, visit www.translink.com.au or phone the Call Centre on 13 12 30.

==============================================================

[#Metro]

Very welcome, but the Ipswich-Caboolture line can be converted into Brisbane's first metro line with services every 15 minutes off peak and below 10 minutes in peak.

Thanks for the services. Can we have 10 more please?     

[somebody]

You'd think the Transport Minister could get it right on which line is the busiest in Brisbane.
IPS-Milton: 15323
Virginia-Cab: 11073
Northgate-Albion: 5408

Caboolture needs to count just about all the Northgate-Albion pax to beat Ipswich.

[Barbar]

Quote: "Ms Nolan said an additional Route 649 RailBus would also be trialled over the next three months for passengers heading north of Caboolture on the Sunshine Coast line.".....yet another QR cop out for its sunny coast customers ..yet another journey to bear on the 649 ride from hell substitute service 

[ClintonL94]

Took note of the new timetable for the caboolture line - a new template for the timetable too: http://download.translink.com.au/timetables/100823_caboolture.pdf

Clinton.

[mufreight]

You'd think the Transport Minister could get it right on which line is the busiest in Brisbane.
IPS-Milton: 15323
Virginia-Cab: 11073
Northgate-Albion: 5408

Caboolture needs to count just about all the Northgate-Albion pax to beat Ipswich.

One would definitely be open to being accused of having great (read unattainable) expectations for this Minister to get anything right, too much spin, so that she can use the I am a dizzy Minister excuse, again and spin around again and again.

[Fares_Fair]

I'm tired of the lack of services to/from the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane.

The neglect shown by this state government / TransLink / Queensland Transport for the people of the Sunshine Coast is astounding.
All they can provide in the way of improved services for sunny coasters is a rail bus, when we desperately need real train services. The rail bus is slow in comparison and a deterrent to all but the very desperate.

It further highlights the lack of forward planning for the Sunshine Coast region that they cannot or will not fund another train service, nor make it possible to provide more services, by duplicating the line from Beerburrum to Nambour before 2026. Even this deadline seems to have disappeared from the Transport planners schedules!

Who will step in and do what needs to be done?
It seems clear to me that we need a change in government to improve services.
Hopefully the state opposition will commit to what is required.

Regards,
Fares_Fair

[ozbob]

Yes, more rail services on the Sunshine Coast line are needed Fares_Fair.

http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=4229.0

Media Release 10 August 2010

SEQ:  Sunshine Coast line is not shining

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport commuters has again called for an increase in train frequency and upgrades on the Sunshine Coast line.

The most important factor to encourage public transport use is that services must be frequent, bottom line. A recent statement by the Minister for Tourism and Fair Trading campaign aiming to entice more Aussies to the Sunshine Coast highlights the disconnect between various Government departments (1).  The appalling rail timetable for the Sunshine Coast acts as a major disincentive for tourists to visit and complicates the daily life of Citizens in the Sunshine Coast with such poor public transport support (2).

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"A number of urgent improvements to the Sunshine Coast line are needed to boost service quality and patronage on this line. RAIL Back On Track strongly supports the Beerburrum-Landsborough duplication, and CAMCOS (Caloundra and Maroochydore Corridor Options Study) railway line to Maroochydore and beyond. Immediate actions are needed though."

"An increase in train frequency is required as morning peak hour trains can be very crowded, even the weekend service from Gympie North on a Sunday afternoon is well patronised and usually overloaded by Nambour. A regular and reliable clock-face timetable with hourly or at bare minimum a service every two hours is needed, as is the filling of major service gaps in the timetable. Few people are willing to wait more than an hour for a train to get home."

"The crowded early morning peak services should be upgraded from current short-train 3 car  to 6 car trains, or more trains put on so that more people can catch a service that isn't crowded. More train stabling at stations on the Sunshine Coast line should also be considered as a priority."

"The integration between bus and rail needs an urgent review in conjunction with the rail service increases.  Long waits for connecting buses are also anti-public transport."

"Gympie North should have a service frequency upgrade, and at least two extra daily services between Gympie North and Brisbane should be established."

"All trains north of Caboolture should be toilet equipped Interurban Multiple Unit or Inter Capital Express trains.  Commuters are increasingly  locked out of toilets at stations and often the trains are older units that do not have toilets. This is not acceptable, hapless commuters sitting with legs crossed for hours."

"It is interesting to note that Melbourne is actively upgrading its regional and country rail services, and is recording dramatic increases in passenger growth as a direct result of this. For example, VLine services to Geelong are so busy that VLine has now taken the unusual step of publishing the morning timetable on its website with passenger loadings, so that passengers can avoid overcrowded trains, with 4 services in the morning and 4 in the afternoon peaks being over 80% full (3).

"What commuters and tourists want is very simple:

1. More trains, more often, and
2. A regular, reliable buses that will take them to their local station in time to catch the train."

"The public transport arrangements to and from the Sunshine Coast are a long way from 'world class', they are in fact barely fourth class.  It is time that urgent direct action was taken to fix this appalling situation."

References:

1.  http://statements.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx?id=71006

2.  http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=4183.msg31509#msg31509

3.  http://www.vline.com.au/community/home/howbusy.html

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[#Metro]

There is an engineering report available, I don't have the time to look through it now: http://www.arup.com.au/clrs/index.php

The local politicians, the opposition transport spokeswoman, local businesses, the Sunshine Coast Council, tourist operators, everyone has to get together and pressure the QLD Government to duplicate the line proper, build CAMCOS and put more services on. Kippa-Ring residents have agitated for rail, their actions are paying off.

Trains running at intervals more than 30 minutes are just a joke.