Sunshine Coast timetable announced in State Parliament

[Fares_Fair]

NEWSFLASH
From Queenslands Parliament House.

Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk MP announced
that the timetable to go up on website later today !!!

Confirmed via Andrew Powell MP's office, who have a live feed from the Parliament.

Regards,
Fares _Fair.

[ozbob]

Yes,  the announcement has been made today in Parliament by the Minister for Transport for the timetables for the 6 June 2011.  Sunshine Coast, Richlands, Ipswich, Caboolture, Rosewood.

[ozbob]

Transport and Multicultural Affairs
The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk
05/04/2011

More seats and more frequent trains under new timetables

More than 150,000 weekly seats will be added to the Ipswich and Caboolture train lines from June 6, 2011 in the biggest change to South-East Queensland train timetables in almost 15 years.

Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said the timetable had been finalised after incorporating feedback from extensive community consultation, which saw 10 information sessions, 300,000 flyers handed out to commuters, 2000 pieces of feedback reviewed.

The Bligh Government is investing $26 million in the historic timetable upgrade.

"With patronage on Queensland Rail services growing by about five per cent in the six months to December 30, the time is right to undertake a major re-cast of the timetables on two of our busiest train lines," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"This is an exciting and historic change made possible by the recently completed upgrade between Corinda and Darra, the expansion to the new Richlands stations and the 46 new rollingstock sets we have added to the network over the past three years.

"Some of the feedback we've received has been exceptional. We've listened carefully to what people have been telling us and have been able to make more than 20 major changes to the draft timetable."

The keys changes to the draft timetable as a result of the customer feedback include:

    * Four additional services between Rosewood and Ipswich to better connect with school start and finishing times;
    * An additional morning peak service from Petrie stopping all stations to meet passenger demand;
    * An additional early-bird service to Caboolture for those starting work early;
    * Changes to morning peak services from the Sunshine Coast to better align with work start times; and
    * Change to afternoon service to the Sunshine Coast to better align with work finish times.

"The new timetable will deliver more capacity, a simpler timetable based on two stopping patterns on each line and more reliability," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"In an historic step the TransLink network has aturn-up-and-go train network between Darra and the CBD, and four trains an hour between Northgate the CBD in off-peak and on weekends.

Other key changes to the existing timetable include:

·Services departing/arriving between six or 12 minute intervals at suburban stations during busiest peak times.

·Ipswich line trains stopping all stations Ipswich to Darra and express between Darra and the CBD, via Indooroopilly and Milton during the busiest peak times.

·Richland line trains stopping all stations between Darra and the CBD.

·Caboolture line trains stopping all station Caboolture to Petrie and express between Petrie and Northgate stations during the busiest peak times.

·Petrie trains stopping all stations to the CBD.

"Of the new additional weekly seats, 40,000 have been added to the morning and afternoon peak, which means customers will no longer need to rely as heavily on timetables as train times will arrive at regular intervals with fewer stopping patterns," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"I encourage all customers to become familiar with the changes before June 6.

"I want to thank all the customers, interested groups, local members and councillors who provided input into this process."

"Between now and June, TransLink will be working with all bus operators to change their timetables to continue to ensure we have a fully integrated bus and train network."

For timetable and information visit www.translink.com.au or call 13 12 30.

Media Contact: Minister Palaszczuk's office 3237 1111

[Stillwater]

Likely to be reinstatement of a 5.20pm-ish service to Nambour and additional evening service at 8.30pm-ish (8.34pm?) between the 7.04pm and 9.34pm services.  A 6.14am service from Nambour Monday to Friday would get passengers to Central after 8am and a 6.40am service from Nambour would have people scrambling to get to their office desks by 8.30am.  Timetable also likely to confirm a replacement for the Cooroylander -- Central-Gympie North-Central, 9.37am-12.39pm/1.20pm-4.17pm.  Some small wins on what was proposed back in November.

[Arnz]

My guesses controversial 5pm departure moved back to 5:17pmish or so (45 min gap shifted back to 4:30 to 5:17).  However the 5:17pmish will still stop all-stations to Northgate, but run express Northgate to Caboolture.  A Petrie service would most likely cover the slack.

As for morning departure, my guesses is that the 6amish departures moved back slightly (5:55am and 6:20ish) to get people to their desks by 8am and 8:30am.  Trains will run express Caboolture to Northgate with Petrie all-stoppers (and Caboolture starter expresses) covering the slack.  Another guess, the "9 stations skipped" service being reduced from 2 services to 1 service each way (5amish Morning service and the 4:30pm afternoon service)

Stopping all stations Northgate to Bowen Hills still will be required for all trains except Gympie North due to sectorisation, as much as I and many of us on both the Caboolture and Sunshine Coast don't like that idea.

[Fares_Fair]

I received this feed-back on Wednesday morning regarding the Sunshine Coast timetable,
from a CBD to Landsborough regular commuter.

This was in response to my post on RBoT found here: then scroll to top of post.
http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=5742.msg52157#new

Hi ______ , very well said - it conveys how we all feel about it all - it's a debacle.

I would like to ask the question though regarding her announcement in parliament yesterday, and I quote

"These improvements will add more than wait for this, 150,000 weekly train seats, more reliability and more frequency to the Caboolture, Ipswich, Rosewood and north coast lines on the TransLink network".

Can the Minister really believe that if the train is full at Landsborough, Glasshouse or Beerwah that there will be any available seats left for all the other stops that we now have to make - standing room only from Caboolture to the city - how disgruntled will people be about that?

Reliability cannot be guaranteed on any of the lines, Caboolture/Sunshine Coast in particular have experienced considerable delays due to the age of the trains, signal failures, bomb threats and the list goes on.  Some Nambour people have not arrived home in the evening until gone 10pm - can the minister advise how this fits in with work/life balance which is at the core of every workplace today?  And what compensation does she intend to give to those persons affected by this?  A carton of water doesn't go a long way for a train full of people!!!!!

As an advocate for better Sunshine Coast commuter services, this encompasses the typical view of many on our line.
It is fuelled by 15% fare hikes and this, the 'best they can do' timetable.
Yes, there are improvements and it is the single biggest change to timetabling in 15 years.
It was needed.

I do applaud the fact that the changes have added extra services to many other lines, in particular in the Transport Ministers' own electorate of Inala which receives 15 min. frequency, seven days a week - but very few for ours.
So what if we are the third largest growth region in the State of Queensland, and projected to be so until 2031.

Yes, there will be winners and losers - but no losers come close to the scale of the Sunshine Coast commuter.
It places me in an ambivalent position seeing the success of the changes elsewhere and the severe lack of real improvement to the Sunshine Coast.

I do not know what will be the impact of the minimal extra services to overcrowding on our line.
I won't comment on that until the timetable and it's effects are implemented on June 6.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Stillwater]

Don't be ambivalent now, FF, not with a state election around the corner.  Certainly don't be ambivalent when you can get even.  With the Sunshine Coast seats all relatively safe in LNP MPs hands, Coast commuters have the option of picking a marginal ALP seat (not important which one) and offering to lick stamps, produce electronic newsletters or hand out how-to-vote cards for non-ALP candidates, especially those with a strong stated commitment to PT solutions.  A bit of push polling of PT issues in selected marginal seats wouldn't go astray either.  This next election, counting will go down to the wire, so even strong votes for independents will make a difference.  Electoral survival is the language all politicians take note of when the poll cycle comes around. 

[Stillwater]

Strange things happen when politicians feel they are under pressure:  http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/bligh-backflips-on-water-reforms-20110407-1d522.html

[#Metro]

I am so sure that an election will be coming sooner rather than later. The current government appears to be running on borrowed time.