Cross River Rail welcomes first train in landmark trip

The Cross River Rail’s CBD tunnels have welcomed their first train this week, with a two-day, three-kilometre “proof of concept” trip from the city’s north to Roma Street Station.

While future journeys have been promised to be much faster – with trains expected to travel at 80km/h and take just 77 seconds between Roma Street and the as-yet-unnamed Albert Street station – the trial trip was to test that the trains could be powered safely.

Cross River Rail Delivery Authority chief executive Graeme Newton congratulated the hard work of crews responsible for the construction, installation, and now testing, of the network.

Queensland Rail’s head of south-east Queensland, Neil Backer, added to the praise, saying: “There is a bright future for rail in this great state.”

Newton said the delivery authority would now run “thousands of tests” before commuters could access the new lines, primarily focusing on faster speeds.

“While the massive feats of engineering we saw during Cross River Rail’s construction phase were impressive, the methodical and rigorous period of testing and commissioning we’re now entering into will be just as crucial to the project’s success,” he said.

“These tests will start with validating individual systems and gradually expand to test multiple systems at the same time, before full capacity timetable testing prior to opening to the public.”

This week’s initial test from the Mayne Yard train stabling facility, in the city’s north, to Roma Street Station was made possible by 4.5 kilometres of rigid overhead conductor bars installed in the North Brisbane rail lines, which were energised between September 13 and 15 for the two-day journey.

The Cross River Rail’s tunnels require a total of 11.8 kilometres of conductor bars, which will be installed as the project progresses.

The delivery authority had no current plans or timeline for tests running under the Brisbane River portion of the tunnels.

Workers at Roma Street welcome the first train through Brisbane’s Cross River Rail twin tunnel underground system.Credit: Cross River Rail Delivery Authority

Department of Transport and Main Roads director-general Sally Stannard said the trial voyage was “a significant milestone” for the project and the state’s infrastructure “rail revolution”.

“Rail is the backbone of the south-east Queensland public transport network, and Cross River Rail will unlock a bottleneck by providing a second Brisbane River rail crossing in the CBD,” she said.

“[Current rail] projects will help us ensure we have a world-class train network as we deliver on our ultimate goal of providing Queenslanders with a single, integrated, reliable and efficient public transport network.”

The Cross River Rail twin tunnels – which run from Dutton Park to the northern entrance near the Mayne Park stabling facility and reach maximum depths of 50 metres – would be Brisbane’s first true underground train tunnels.

Existing CBD trains have run through cut-and-cover tunnels, which are formed when the tracks are built over with infrastructure, rather than tunnelled into the earth.

Once the network becomes functional, 46,000 commuters are predicted to pass through Roma Street Station each working day.

Get alerts on significant breaking news as happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.