Article: Relief promised on our most crowded rail route

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Relief promised on our most crowded rail route

Relief promised on our most crowded rail route
Daniel Hurst
September 10, 2010 - 6:03AM

Long-suffering commuters on one of south-east Queensland's most overcrowded rail routes have been told they'll get some relief from looming timetable changes.

TransLink's latest Tracker report, released this week, showed peak-hour crowding on the Caboolture line was getting worse but the number of services had not increased in more than a year.

Ten of the 21 morning peak services on this line were deemed to be overloaded in April, May and June, up from six out of 21 at the same time last year.

Nine of the 16 afternoon peak services were overcrowded, up from four out of 16.

Commuter lobby group Rail Back on Track has been calling for frequency upgrades on the Caboolture line.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan's spokesman said yesterday an upcoming overhaul of timetables on the Caboolture and Ipswich lines would help address the capacity problem.

Although the TransLink report revealed no new services were added last financial year, the spokesman said two new peak services were introduced late last month.

"We're looking at a number of options to improve services and stopping patterns," he said.

"Community consultation on the new timetables will take place later this year with the aim to implement the timetable in the first half of 2011."

The spokesman said the number of passengers catching morning peak train services between Caboolture and Virginia stations grew by 1000 to nearly 11,000 in the 2009/10 financial year.

The number of customers leaving afternoon peak train services between these stations rose by about 700 customers to 9800.

In terms of overcrowding, Caboolture line services were the worst performers in the TransLink Tracker quarterly report.

Overloaded services are defined as services in which passengers have to stand when the train is more than 20 minutes from Central station – or more than 20 minutes north or south of Caboolture and Beenleigh stations on the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast lines respectively.

Across all lines, the report showed the number of overcrowded afternoon rail services stood at 19.8 per cent, up from 16.5 per cent in the same quarter last year.

The share of overloaded morning peak services decreased from 26 per cent last year to 24 per cent in the same quarter this year.

Earlier this week, Rail Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow called for improvements on the Ipswich-Caboolture lines, with more frequent express trains and bus feeder services.

"In peak hour, trains departing Ipswich and Caboolture stations every five to 10 minutes are needed," he said.

"In the off-peak and weekends, trains departing Ipswich and Caboolture stations every 15 minutes is needed and achievable."

[#Metro]

Luke wrote in http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=4379.msg33578#msg33578

Hi and thankyou!

I don't think extending Petrie services to Caboolture is the answer because as you said they would be much more crowded from Petrie onwards.  This would also reduce the reliability and on time running of the trains.  I think more services from both terminuses is part of the solution.

There is always someone who is going to miss out, no matter which option is chosen.

Scenario 1: If the services are not extended to Caboolture, then the people at Caboolture, Morayfield, Burpengary, Narangba, and Dakabin, then these people miss out on 5 minute frequency. And then there are the people who don't catch the train and drive because
there is a lack of services- "suppressed/latent trips" if you like.

Scenario 2: If the services are extended, then the people further downstream might miss out on being able to board.
But, these people have more alternatives and options than those at the Caboolture end of the line. So I think Scenario 1 is the
lesser evil/least-worst way of getting better service.

I agree, that ideally more brand new (empty) services would be added.
I would support this 100% also, provided that it were possible.

QR is claiming in the logan thread that between 7.30am-8.30am there is no more space for more services.
Signal upgrade might be handy...

...and I might have to sway a bit more with the metro idea...
Light Rail to take pressure off the buses by increasing the capacity
Metro to take inner city people off the trains... to allow longer distance passengers to get on a train