Fix the bottleneck - a campaign for the future ...

[ozbob]

PDF for printing, click --> here!  PDF 420 KB

[ozbob]

The case why --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6647.0

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

15 November 2011

Fix the bottleneck - a campaign for the future ...

Greetings

For your information ...

Fix the bottleneck - a campaign for the future ...

--> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=7079.0

Regards
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

[Gazza]

FF, how soon can you get a PDF together.... I imagine you already had one in preparation for your minesterial meeting? All it would need added is the letterhead and a public friendly introduction page.


And graphs.

[#Metro]

I love our new 'mode neutral' corporate logo.   

[Fares_Fair]

FF, how soon can you get a PDF together.... I imagine you already had one in preparation for your minesterial meeting? All it would need added is the letterhead and a public friendly introduction page.


And graphs.

Not sure what is required of me here Gazza,
I have my Ministerial meeting one but the PDF is just over 1 Mb, and too big to upload here.
Can I email it to you directly?
I can work on an introductory page now (attached for comment).

Actually I should make the opening statement more generic, not just to the long-haul commuter ?

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Fares_Fair]

Edit: DRAFT ONLY for comment

The Sunshine Coast Case
Rail duplication Beerburrum to Nambour

By:    (name removed), Member Rail Back on Track

Fix the bottleneck campaign

Hello and welcome.

This campaign is dedicated to the longest haul commuters (travellers?) in the Queensland Rail network,
the Sunshine Coaster.

As a Sunshine Coaster you have a population of over 330,000 behind you, and you travel on one of the weakest links in the Queensland Rail network.

This campaign is dedicated to saving lives and easing congestion by moving freight off the highways and back onto rail.

Our aim is address the inequality perpetrated against the Sunshine Coast rail commuter and lobby for action.

44% of our daily services between Nambour & Caboolture are buses.
26 of them daily!
These buses take up to 1 & 1/2 hours to travel 54km, the train takes about 1 hour.

The reason?
There is not enough room on the single line track for the long distance passenger trains, the freight rail services and our city rail passenger trains. This section of the north coast rail line is unique in the nation for the number and types of services that utilise it.

On 14 April 2009, a mere 24 days after the State election was held, all work stopped on the duplication at Beerburrum, leaving an infrastructure bottleneck that achieved nothing for faster times of travel or extra capacity on our rail line.

In a press release on 29 August, 2005, The Hon. Paul Lucas MP, then Transport Minister described the section of track from Caboolture to Nambour Landsborough as "one of the weakest links in the QR network."

Our services to Brisbane now take longer than ever before under a new timetable implemented on June 6, and revised on July 11 when a new 5:28pm service was introduced after a public outcry over massive overcrowding.

Thankfully that situation was resolved, yet still our trains are crowded with no spare seats available from the city, to accommodate growth in patronage - this is a critical concern.

From all of the government studies and reports I have read, the only answer to our woes is for the rail line to be duplicated from Beerburrum to Nambour.

This would allow for more freight trains and more passenger services, it would allow for our former express services to return and would allow for faster journeys to the city and beyond.
Gympie North trains being the only services to retain the old 20 station express pattern.

Together we can work for change to improve our future, our region and our lives.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Gazza]

You can chuck it on Scribd, which is like Youtube for PDFs.

The poster is the hook that puts the issue in simple terms, but a factual document behind making the case is always a good thing to have available.

[Fares_Fair]

Report PDF here ...

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/72735039?access_key=key-i7u5kfubwnnee663pjz

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[O_128]

Love it, get everyone to put one up!

[Gazza]

Would it be a safer option to change the wording to remove reference to "24 Days after the election"?
I'm thinking it is best to be as apolitical as possible...Make it 'all about the trains' rather than speculating on why they decided to stop work. This keeps the campaign 100% appealing to everybody on both sides of the fence.

I wonder if the decision to split the project was more stupidity on the part of planners rather than anything sinister anyway.....Kind of how they do stuff like almost build the Springfield/Kippa line as single track. Or not electrifying to Darra on the 4th track
....Or forgetting to plan build CRR before 2016, you know, minor mistakes like that.

Anyway, another way to phrase it could be "On XXXX date, Stage 1 one of the duplication was finished, with no further works since.
Whilst the project did deliver upgraded stations to Elimbah and Beerburrum, the issue is that only 15km of the 55km route from Caboolture to Nambour was duplicated, which, in operation terms has not resulted in an increase in rail frequency. Instead it has simply shifted the bottleneck north."

Also, is it worth mentioning that CAMCOS can't happen without further duplication. This gets ALL of the coast onside.

[Fares_Fair]

Ok. Will revise.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Fares_Fair]

How's this version?
Take 2.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Fares_Fair]

EDIT: Modified for grammar and commas added.

The Sunshine Coast Case
Rail duplication Beerburrum to Nambour

Fix the bottleneck campaign

Hello and welcome.

This campaign is dedicated to the longest haul commuter in the Queensland Rail network, the Sunshine Coaster.

As a Sunshine Coaster you have a population of over 330,000 behind you, and you travel on one of the weakest links in the Queensland Rail network.
It is a single line, narrow gauge, severely congested railway track between the 3rd fastest growth region in Queensland, and Brisbane.

This campaign is dedicated to saving lives, easing congestion and improving services by moving freight off the highways and back onto rail.
Our aim is address the inequality perpetrated against the Sunshine Coast rail commuter and lobby for immediate action.

44% of our daily 'train' services between Nambour & Caboolture are actually buses.
There is 26 of them every day!
These buses take up to 1 & 1/2 hours to travel the just 54km, the train takes about 1 hour.

The reason for the buses?
There is not enough room on the single line track for the long distance passenger trains, the freight rail services and our city rail passenger trains. This section of the north coast rail line is unique in the nation for the number and types of services that utilise it.

On 14 April 2009, stage 1 of the duplication finished at Beerburrum, it was supposed to be completed to Landsborough by mid-2012, instead it left an infrastructure bottleneck that achieved nothing for faster times of travel or extra capacity on the rail line. Only 13.7km of the 55km route from Caboolture to Nambour was duplicated and it simply shifted the bottleneck north.

In a press release on 29 August, 2005, The Hon. Paul Lucas MP, then Transport Minister described the section of track from Caboolture to Nambour as "one of the weakest links in the QR network."

Our services to Brisbane now take longer than ever before under a new timetable implemented on June 6, and revised on July 11 when a new 5:28pm service was introduced after a public outcry over massive overcrowding.

Thankfully that situation was resolved, yet still our trains are crowded with no spare seats available from the city, to accommodate growth in patronage - this is a critical concern.

From all of the government The Government's own studies and reports I have read, the answer is for the rail line to be duplicated from Beerburrum to Nambour.
CAMCOS, the rail proposal for the Sunshine Coast from Caloundra to Maroochydore cannot happen until the line is duplicated, at a minimum to Beerwah, its' junction point.

Duplication would allow for more freight trains and more passenger services, it would allow for the former express services to return and would allow faster travel to Brisbane.

In 1986, when the line was electrified, a trip from Caboolture to Brisbane took 42 minutes.
Today that same trip takes 62 minutes.

Together we can work for change to improve our future, our region and our lives.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[somebody]

I'd be inclined to add, after "Our services to Brisbane now take longer than ever before"
something like "in spite of the $xxx million dollar Caboolture Beerburrum duplication and realignment works"
and perhaps something about "frequency wasn't appreciably increased either." - perhaps double check that though.

[Fares_Fair]

I'd be inclined to add, after "Our services to Brisbane now take longer than ever before"
something like "in spite of the $xxx million dollar Caboolture Beerburrum duplication and realignment works"
and perhaps something about "frequency wasn't appreciably increased either." - perhaps double check that though.

Cost was $298m.
There was no increase in frequency or any decrease in journey times despite promises that it would result in faster journeys. Timetables bear testament to that point.
Ministerial briefing note states (received under RTI) : The benefits of increased capacity will not be fully realised until the next stage (Beerburrum to Landsborough) duplication is undertaken.

I may need to fix the 'all the government reports I have read' bit, will it bear my name ? if not then should revise.

[somebody]

Technically, I believe it is a faster trip between Caboolture and Beerburrum, it's just that this is more than cancelled out by the slower trip between Northgate and Central.

[Fares_Fair]

LATEST DRAFT

The Sunshine Coast Case
Rail duplication Beerburrum to Nambour

Fix the bottleneck campaign

Hello and welcome.

This campaign is dedicated to the longest haul commuter in the Queensland Rail network, the Sunshine Coaster.

As a Sunshine Coaster you have a population of over 330,000 behind you, and you travel on one of the weakest links in the Queensland Rail network.
It is a single line, narrow gauge, severely congested railway track between the 3rd fastest growth region in Queensland, and Brisbane.

EDIT: 12:36pm Version 6 available below.
This campaign is dedicated to saving lives by moving freight off the highways and back onto rail, easing rail congestion and improving passenger services.
Our aim is to address the inequality perpetrated against the Sunshine Coast rail commuter and lobby for immediate action.

44% of our daily 'train' services between Nambour & Caboolture are actually buses.
There is 26 of them every day!
These buses take up to 1 & 1/2 hours to travel just 54km, the train takes about 1 hour.

The reason for the buses?
There is not enough room on the single line track for the long distance passenger trains, the freight rail services and our city rail passenger trains. This section of the north coast rail line is unique in the nation for the number and types of services that use it.

On 14 April 2009, stage 1 of the duplication finished at Beerburrum, it was supposed to be completed to Landsborough by mid-2012, instead it left an infrastructure bottleneck that achieved nothing for faster times of travel or extra capacity on the rail line. Only 13.7km of the 54km route from Caboolture to Nambour was duplicated and it simply shifted the bottleneck north.

In a press release on 29 August, 2005, The Hon. Paul Lucas MP, then Transport Minister described the section of track from Caboolture to Nambour Landsborough as "one of the weakest links in the Queensland rail network."
He went on to say "It is a single winding track, forcing all trains to slow and severely restricting the capacity of rail services."

Our services to Brisbane now take longer than ever before, this in spite of the $298 million Caboolture to Beerburrum duplication and realignment works.
Our peak hour trains are crowded with no spare seats available from the city, to accommodate growth in patronage - this is a major concern.

In 2007, a Government study called for the rail line to be duplicated from Landsborough to Nambour, and warned of adverse socio-economic effects should the North Coast Line (NCL) between Landsborough and Nambour not be upgraded.
CAMCOS, the rail proposal for the Sunshine Coast from Caloundra to Maroochydore cannot happen until the line is duplicated, at a minimum to Beerwah, its' proposed junction point.

Duplication would allow for more freight trains and more passenger services, it would allow for the former express services to return and would allow faster travel to Brisbane.

In 1986, when the line was electrified, a trip from Caboolture to Brisbane took 42 minutes.
Today that same trip takes 62 minutes.

Together we can work for change to improve our future, our region and our lives.



PDF no. 6 attached.
I'm happy with it. I would like someone unfamiliar with the rail network to critique this and ask questions or see if it makes sense to them.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

EDIT: Correction in bold, Landsborough, extra quoted sentence added.

[Fares_Fair]

Hello Gazza,

Thank you for correcting the typo too.  

Could you please revise my logo so that the text at the bottom is more legible please, either remove the hatching or make it paler and replace the text with Duplicate the Sunshine Coast Line to make it slightly shorter and therefore larger.
Thank you.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Fares_Fair]

PDF Revision No. 7 attached.
Quote corrected, and extended.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

I'm happy with it. I would like someone unfamiliar with the rail network to critique this and ask questions or see if it makes sense to them.

[somebody]

Should it be mentioned that the lack of seats is in violation of the "20 minute standing limit" rule?

[Fares_Fair]

For trial purposes, I have printed out the poster at:
A4 size (210 x 297)
A3 size (297 x 420)
and
A0 size (1189 x 841) ... wallpaper anyone?

I tested the printing of the poster.
The rail picture may need to be enhanced as it is not as clear as it may need to be and would degrade with multiple copies of copies.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Fares_Fair]

Should it be mentioned that the lack of seats is in violation of the "20 minute standing limit" rule?

We could Simon, but it would drown it in too much detail IMHO.
That applies to peak services only so I do not want to mislead anyone if they get on a non-peak train with spare seats available.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Gazza]

Just purely my opinion too, but sometimes I find using hysterics, with terms like 'saving lives' a bit of a turn off sometimes too.
The exact same phrases are used by people pushing for road upgrades and freeways.
Near me, they are building new a bus depot at Sherwood, and people were opposed to it, saying bus movements would endanger schoolchildren at the state school down the road.

In other words, nearly everything seems to be about 'saving lives' these days to the point where it's a cliché and a generalisation, or just a cheap tactic to appeal to peoples emotional side.
Not saying this project won't save some lives as a result, but I think the basic argument about it improving transport outcomes, and the facts we have to back it up, is strong enough in itself, so keeping the focus on that says that we have enough belief in ourselves to argue on that alone.
Having saving lives as an opening remarking might be overbearing.

[Fares_Fair]

Point noted.... back to the drawing board.

Is this better?

This campaign is dedicated to improving passenger services, moving freight off the highway and onto rail and easing congestion on the railway and roads. Our aim is to address the inequality perpetrated against the Sunshine Coast rail commuter and lobby for immediate action.

Modified PDF version 8 attached.

[Stillwater]

The pedant in me...

Para 7 - comma after Minister
Para 9 - Eliminate para break before CAMCOS
Para 9 - take out apostrophy from its (its')
Para 10 - full stop after 'services'.  New sentence starting with the words 'It would...'

Otherwise 

[Fares_Fair]

On it!
Sorted.

The pedant in me...

Para 7 - comma after Minister
Para 9 - Eliminate para break before CAMCOS
Para 9 - take out apostrophy from its (its')
Para 10 - full stop after 'services'.  New sentence starting with the words 'It would...'

Otherwise  

I thought (its') was correct as it shows possession for the sentence subject, viz. the rail proposal, but corrected it anyway.

Version 9 attached below.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Gazza]

Looking good...All that would really need to be done to the other PDF is to remove references to "The purpose of this meeting is... etc"

My ideas on how to sharpen up the intro, reference lines and proposed rewordings.

PS re Stillwaters comment, its is the possessive already , hence not needing an apostrophe.

Anyway.....

This campaign is dedicated to the longest haul commuter in the Queensland Rail network, the Sunshine Coaster.

This campaign is dedicated to the people of the Sunshine Coast. (Simple, powerful, uniting)

It is a single line, narrow gauge, severely congested railway track between the 3rd fastest growth region in Queensland, and Brisbane.

This single line, narrow gauge, severely congested railway forms the link between the 3rd fastest growth region in Queensland, and Brisbane.
Sunshine coasters are the longest haul commuters in the QR network. (Shifted line about commuters down here, seemed to match the topic of this paragraph better)

Our aim is to address the inequality perpetrated against the Sunshine Coast rail commuter and lobby for immediate action.

Our aim is to address the inequality  and  infrastructure deficits perpetrated against the Sunshine Coast, and to lobby for immediate action.
Current planning documents don't forsee a completion of the duplication for up to 20 years. We cannot 'make do' for that long.(Effects everyone, even non commuters)

On 14 April 2009, stage 1 of the duplication finished at Beerburrum, it was supposed to be completed to Landsborough by mid-2012, instead it left an infrastructure bottleneck that achieved nothing for faster times of travel or extra capacity on the rail line. Only 13.7km of the 54km route from Caboolture to Nambour was duplicated and it simply shifted the bottleneck north.

On 14 April 2009, stage 1 of the duplication was completed as far Beerburrum. It was intended to be completed to Landsborough by mid-2012.
But since only 13.7km of the 54km route from Caboolture to Nambour was duplicated, it simply shifted the bottleneck north, and virtually nothing was achieved in terms of passenger travel time reductions or capacity increases. The single track sections are still too long.

Our peak hour trains are crowded with no spare seats available from the city, to accommodate growth in patronage - this is a major concern.

Our peak hour trains are already crowded, with no spare seats available from the city. How will extra services to support patronage growth be accommodated?

[Gazza]

A0 size (1189 x 841) ... wallpaper anyone?

I tested the printing of the poster.
The rail picture may need to be enhanced as it is not as clear as it may need to be and would degrade with multiple copies of copies.

Ooooh! Pics?

There's not a lot that can be done about the resolution of the aerial image, because that's the nature of them. Maybe I could email nearmaps and ask if a high res version is available (They have free use of images for community purposes)?

[Fares_Fair]

Take 10

The Sunshine Coast Case
Rail duplication Beerburrum to Nambour

Fix the bottleneck campaign

Hello and welcome.

This campaign is dedicated to the people of the Sunshine Coast.

As a Sunshine Coaster you have a population of over 330,000 behind you, and you travel on one of the weakest links in the Queensland Rail network.
This single line, narrow gauge, severely congested railway is the link between the 3rd fastest growth region in Queensland, and Brisbane.

This campaign is dedicated to improving passenger services, moving freight off the highway and onto rail and easing congestion on the railway and roads. Our aim is to address the inequality and infrastructure deficits perpetrated against the Sunshine Coast, and to lobby for immediate action.
Current planning documents don't foresee a completion of the duplication for up to 20 years. We cannot 'make do' for that long.

44% of our daily 'train' services between Nambour & Caboolture are actually buses.
There is 26 of them every day!
These buses take up to 1 & 1/2 hours to travel just 54km, the train takes about 1 hour.

The reason for the buses?
There is not enough room on the single line track for the long distance passenger trains, the freight rail services and our city rail passenger trains. This section of the north coast rail line is unique in the nation for the number and types of services that use it.

On 14 April 2009, stage 1 of the duplication finished at Beerburrum, it was supposed to be completed to Landsborough by mid-2012, instead it left an infrastructure bottleneck that achieved nothing for faster times of travel or extra capacity on the rail line. Only 13.7km of the 54km route from Caboolture to Nambour was duplicated and it simply shifted the bottleneck north.

In a press release on 29 August, 2005, The Hon. Paul Lucas MP, then Transport Minister, described the section of track from Caboolture to Landsborough as "one of the weakest links in the QR network." He went on to say "It is a single winding track, forcing all trains to slow and severely restricting the capacity of rail services."

Our services to Brisbane now take longer than ever before, this in spite of the $298 million Caboolture to Beerburrum duplication and realignment works.
Our peak hour trains are already crowded, with no spare seats available from the city. How will extra services to support patronage growth be accommodated?

In 2007, a Government study called for the rail line to be duplicated from Landsborough to Nambour, and warned of adverse socio-economic effects should the North Coast Line (NCL) between Landsborough and Nambour not be upgraded. CAMCOS, the rail proposal for the Sunshine Coast from Caloundra to Maroochydore cannot happen until the line is duplicated, at a minimum to Beerwah, its proposed junction point.

Duplication would allow for more freight trains and more passenger services. It would allow for the former express services to return and would allow faster travel to Brisbane.

In 1986, when the line was electrified, a trip from Caboolture to Brisbane took 42 minutes.
Today that same trip takes 62 minutes.

Together we can work for change to improve our future, our region and our lives.


EDIT: removed the longest haul commuter line as space exceeded 1 page.

[Fares_Fair]

A0 size (1189 x 841) ... wallpaper anyone?

I tested the printing of the poster.
The rail picture may need to be enhanced as it is not as clear as it may need to be and would degrade with multiple copies of copies.

Ooooh! Pics?

There's not a lot that can be done about the resolution of the aerial image, because that's the nature of them. Maybe I could email nearmaps and ask if a high res version is available (They have free use of images for community purposes)?

Sorry no pics... yet.
A higher resolution picture would be good if we can get one.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Fares_Fair]

Looking good...All that would really need to be done to the other PDF is to remove references to "The purpose of this meeting is... etc"

My ideas on how to sharpen up the intro, reference lines and proposed rewordings.

PS re Stillwaters comment, its is the possessive already , hence not needing an apostrophe.

Anyway.....

Just start at point 1 do you mean, with nothing in front of it?

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Gazza]

EDIT: removed the longest haul commuter line as space exceeded 1 page.

Brotip: Make your margins slightly wider on that page, or adjust the text size by typing in something like down from 11 ro 10.5 or 10.6 (As high as you can go before spilling over to the next stage)...The minuscule reduction in size is nearly impossible to spot with the naked eye.

Oldest trick in the book for getting around page limits imposed by pesky uni lecturers, am i right Bob  

Just start at point 1 do you mean, with nothing in front of it?

I guess, since the intro you've just written substitutes it pretty nicely?

Don't forget to chuck this at the top of the first page too:
http://imageshack.us/f/805/rbotletterhead2.jpg/

[Golliwog]

44% of our daily 'train' services between Nambour & Caboolture are actually buses.
There is are 26 of them (by them do you mean services all up, or rail bus services?) every day!
These buses take up to 1 & 1/2 hours to travel just 54km, the train takes about 1 hour.

[Stillwater]

Just take out some awkward breaks.

Take 10A

The Sunshine Coast Case
Rail duplication Beerburrum to Nambour

Fix the bottleneck campaign

Hello and welcome.

This campaign is dedicated to the people of the Sunshine Coast.

As a Sunshine Coaster you have a population of over 330,000 behind you, and you travel on one of the weakest links in the Queensland Rail network.  This single line, narrow gauge, severely congested railway is the link between the 3rd fastest growth region in Queensland, and Brisbane.

This campaign is dedicated to improving passenger services, moving freight off the highway and onto rail and easing congestion on the railway and roads. Our aim is to address the inequality and infrastructure deficits perpetrated against the Sunshine Coast, and to lobby for immediate action.  Current planning documents don't foresee a completion of the duplication for up to 20 years. We cannot 'make do' for that long.

44% of our daily 'train' services between Nambour & Caboolture are actually buses.
There is 26 of them every day!
These buses take up to 1 & 1/2 hours to travel just 54km, the train takes about 1 hour.

The reason for the buses?  There is not enough room on the single line track for the long distance passenger trains, the freight rail services and our city rail passenger trains. This section of the north coast rail line is unique in the nation for the number and types of services that use it.

On 14 April 2009, stage 1 of the duplication finished at Beerburrum, it was supposed to be completed to Landsborough by mid-2012, instead it left an infrastructure bottleneck that achieved nothing for faster times of travel or extra capacity on the rail line. Only 13.7km of the 54km route from Caboolture to Nambour was duplicated and it simply shifted the bottleneck north.

In a press release on 29 August, 2005, The Hon. Paul Lucas MP, then Transport Minister, described the section of track from Caboolture to Landsborough as "one of the weakest links in the QR network." He went on to say "It is a single winding track, forcing all trains to slow and severely restricting the capacity of rail services."

Our services to Brisbane now take longer than ever before, this in spite of the $298 million Caboolture to Beerburrum duplication and realignment works.
Our peak hour trains are already crowded, with no spare seats available from the city. How will extra services to support patronage growth be accommodated?

In 2007, a Government study called for the rail line to be duplicated from Landsborough to Nambour, and warned of adverse socio-economic effects should the North Coast Line (NCL) between Landsborough and Nambour not be upgraded. CAMCOS, the rail proposal for the Sunshine Coast from Caloundra to Maroochydore cannot happen until the line is duplicated, at a minimum to Beerwah, its proposed junction point.

Duplication would allow for more freight trains and more passenger services. It would allow for the former express services to return and would allow faster travel to Brisbane.

In 1986, when the line was electrified, a trip from Caboolture to Brisbane took 42 minutes.  Today that same trip takes 62 minutes.

Together we can work for change to improve our future, our region and our lives.

[Fares_Fair]

Margins adjusted to allow extra line re: long haul commuters to be included.
Typographical error for plural, viz. 'are' in lieu of 'is'. Thank you Golli.

Full report to be uploaded to scribd.
Too large to upload here.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/72783623

Regards,
Fares_Fair.  

[Fares_Fair]

Just take out some awkward breaks.

Take 10A

The Sunshine Coast Case
Rail duplication Beerburrum to Nambour

Fix the bottleneck campaign

Hello and welcome.

This campaign is dedicated to the people of the Sunshine Coast.

As a Sunshine Coaster you have a population of over 330,000 behind you, and you travel on one of the weakest links in the Queensland Rail network.  This single line, narrow gauge, severely congested railway is the link between the 3rd fastest growth region in Queensland, and Brisbane.

This campaign is dedicated to improving passenger services, moving freight off the highway and onto rail and easing congestion on the railway and roads. Our aim is to address the inequality and infrastructure deficits perpetrated against the Sunshine Coast, and to lobby for immediate action.  Current planning documents don't foresee a completion of the duplication for up to 20 years. We cannot 'make do' for that long.

44% of our daily 'train' services between Nambour & Caboolture are actually buses.
There is 26 of them every day!
These buses take up to 1 & 1/2 hours to travel just 54km, the train takes about 1 hour.

The reason for the buses?  There is not enough room on the single line track for the long distance passenger trains, the freight rail services and our city rail passenger trains. This section of the north coast rail line is unique in the nation for the number and types of services that use it.

On 14 April 2009, stage 1 of the duplication finished at Beerburrum, it was supposed to be completed to Landsborough by mid-2012, instead it left an infrastructure bottleneck that achieved nothing for faster times of travel or extra capacity on the rail line. Only 13.7km of the 54km route from Caboolture to Nambour was duplicated and it simply shifted the bottleneck north.

In a press release on 29 August, 2005, The Hon. Paul Lucas MP, then Transport Minister, described the section of track from Caboolture to Landsborough as "one of the weakest links in the QR network." He went on to say "It is a single winding track, forcing all trains to slow and severely restricting the capacity of rail services."

Our services to Brisbane now take longer than ever before, this in spite of the $298 million Caboolture to Beerburrum duplication and realignment works.
Our peak hour trains are already crowded, with no spare seats available from the city. How will extra services to support patronage growth be accommodated?

In 2007, a Government study called for the rail line to be duplicated from Landsborough to Nambour, and warned of adverse socio-economic effects should the North Coast Line (NCL) between Landsborough and Nambour not be upgraded. CAMCOS, the rail proposal for the Sunshine Coast from Caloundra to Maroochydore cannot happen until the line is duplicated, at a minimum to Beerwah, its proposed junction point.

Duplication would allow for more freight trains and more passenger services. It would allow for the former express services to return and would allow faster travel to Brisbane.

In 1986, when the line was electrified, a trip from Caboolture to Brisbane took 42 minutes.  Today that same trip takes 62 minutes.

Together we can work for change to improve our future, our region and our lives.

Hello SW,

Done.
The line I have highlighted naturally falls onto the second line because of the margin settings of the page and the space between the end of the sentence and the word Today.
Thank you for the corrections.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Fares_Fair]

Live interview on 90.3 ABC Coast FM this morning, with Annie Gaffney at 8:35am regarding the 'Fix the bottleneck' campaign.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Gazza]

Woah, this has happened all pretty quickly hasn't it.  Awesome.
How long ago was the interview organized? Did they come to us?

Report is looking good. We could now insert the introduction to the beginning of this report, and voila, we have the final doc.
Was gonna ask, but I noticed a copyright symbol after "The Sunshine Coast Case".
Would (CC – BY) be a better licence? .  (CC-BY) means Creative Commons Attribution. That just means anybody can freely circulate the doc (Which is what we want), so long as they attribute/credit back to the original source.
Copyright technically suggests only we can circulate it.

[ozbob]

Woah, this has happened all pretty quickly hasn't it.  Awesome.
How long ago was the interview organized? Did they come to us?

Report is looking good. We could now insert the introduction to the beginning of this report, and voila, we have the final doc.
Was gonna ask, but I noticed a copyright symbol after "The Sunshine Coast Case".
Would (CC – BY) be a better licence? .  (CC-BY) means Creative Commons Attribution. That just means anybody can freely circulate the doc (Which is what we want), so long as they attribute/credit back to the original source.
Copyright technically suggests only we can circulate it.

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