Queensland Rail: Phillip Strachan report recommends action to fix train issues

Queensland Rail needs to boost its staff numbers to end a reliance on overtime and open recruitment for drivers and guards to people from outside the organisation, a report into Brisbane's train failures has revealed.

But despite work being done behind the scenes, Queensland Rail only expects to recover full timetabled services by late 2018, "which is not likely to meet public expectations", the report reads.

Commissioner Phillip Strachan handed down his report into Queensland Rail's issues on Monday, following multiple cancellations after the opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula Line in October, pointing out it was not a single event or issue that caused the fiasco, rather several that compounded over time.

Mr Strachan has also recommended a Rail Review Office be established to monitor, independently audit and report on QR's recovery plan and how it implements the agreed recommendations.

Phillip Strachan's Commission of Inquiry report into issues at Queensland Rail has been released.Credit: Robert Shakespeare

There was also "no clear accountability deep in the organisation" for train crew forecasting, Mr Strachan said, and numerous communication failures.

Middle management did not escalate issues around a need for more train drivers, and a senior manager for train service delivery believed they had accountability for short and medium term forecasting, but not longer term.

Another employee was inexperienced and new to their role and did not have the confidence to "raise the red flag to take appropriate action", Mr Strachan said.

The chief executive officer, Helen Gluer, was not appropriately informed of emerging issues, relied on risk-management processes that were not properly applied and did not actively investigate whether adequate measures were being taken, the report says.

The board was also not appropriately informed about the risk and therefore did not report this to the government or public.

QR preferred to operate with undersupply of crew

While there was a 9 per cent increase in services, there were no training intakes from February 2014 to February 2015.

There was also a 7 per cent drop in train crew productivity due to more restrictive crewing rules agreed between unions and QR's management.

The supply of qualified drivers declined by 4 per cent over the same period, reaching 471 drivers in December 2016, due to QR preferring to operate with a 5-10 per cent undersupply of crew, driven by a practice of providing overtime opportunities and restrictions on the ability to recruit externally.

Training times for new crew also increased, with eight students taking about 13 months to be trained in 2012, increasing to 22 months for a class intake of six students that began in 2013.

The latest two classes have 18 and 20 students enrolled.

To compile the report, the commission reviewed more than 7900 documents, conducted 102 interviews and received written statements from eight people.

Strachan recommends COO role be scrapped

Mr Strachan made 36 recommendations, including that negotiations with unions address the restrictive rules regarding continuous working time, meal breaks and rostering processes.

He said the chief operating officer's role should be scrapped and replaced with an executive general manager responsible for passenger rail in south-east Queensland, and an executive general manager responsible for travel and tourism.

Organisational layers should be minimised - with a maximum of five layers from the chief executive officer to frontline operations - to improve information flows and allow issues to be escalated.

Mr Strachan also recommended that communications to the government needed to be overhauled to simplify and streamline matters reported and proactively report potential issues with enough time for action.

The government has frequently complained in recent months of not being told about issues until it was too late.

QR should also maintain a surplus of crew so operations could be conducted without the systemic reliance on overtime, the report recommended.

Recommendations could take up to two years

Mr Strachan said it could take up to two years for several of the recommendations to be implemented.

He also criticised the way the public was informed about issues with services, saying people often only found out about cancellations after the fact.

The report was handed to the government on January 31, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk discussing it with Mr Strachan on February 3, and a response formulated at the weekend.

The inquiry was sparked following the cancellation of more than 100 services in October after the opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula Line due to a shortage of train drivers.

About two-thirds of services were also cancelled on Christmas Day and about 50 train services cancelled on September 30.

The debacle has already resulted in the resignations of chief executive officer Helen Gluer, chairman Michael Klug and chief operating officer Kevin Wright, with the head of train service delivery also being stood down.

The public airing of reports by Indec and GIRO confirmed some in QR knew about the driver shortage and issues with the timetable long before the opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula Line.

Mr Strachan was appointed in October to investigate QR train crewing practices and the failed implementation of the new timetable.

He was tasked to look at QR scheduling, rostering, training, recruitment, arrangements in place to support the new timetable for the Redcliffe Peninsula Line and when deficits in train crew were known and what action was taken.

It was upgraded to a Commission of Inquiry in November after Mr Strachan told Ms Palaszczuk he had not received documents he had requested from the QR board.

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said commuters would not have confidence in the rail system unless Ms Palaszczuk sacked Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe.

Mr Nicholls said the LNP had co-operated with Mr Strachan's inquiry, releasing documents from their time in government as requested.

"We've received no notification since those interviews," he said.