Commonwealth Games rail fail: Services slashed to meet needs
QUEENSLAND Rail’s chief executive denies there are plans to close a north Brisbane train line to meet demand during next year’s Commonwealth Games but says the timetable is yet to be finalised.
QLD Politics
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD Politics. Followed categories will be added to My News.
QUEENSLAND Rail’s chief executive denies there are plans to close a north Brisbane train line to meet demand during next year’s Commonwealth Games but says the timetable is yet to be finalised.
Nick Easy repeatedly said on Sunday there were “no plans” to close any line, though he would not categorically rule it out.
“There are no plans to close services on the Shorncliffe line,” he said. “However, there will be an adjustment in services given this is a large, international-scale event where there’ll be a significant increase in demand on the Gold Coast.”
Mr Easy said commuters across southeast Queensland would still have access to QR services, but there would be changes to the regular timetable. “We haven’t set the final timetable, that will be released well ahead of the Commonwealth Games,” he said.
“What you’ll see is buses playing a very important role, as will the trains, which will provide services.” QR will also endeavour to put more of its trouble-plagued New Generation Rollingstock trains in service ahead of April’s major sporting event.
OVERNIGHT
QUEENSLAND Rail will be forced to close an entire line and slash services across the southeast to plug more than 600 gaps in rail services to the Gold Coast during the Commonwealth Games.
Options to fix holes in its proposed Games timetable, which involves services running every 10 minutes, are understood to include shutting down the Shorncliffe line during the April event to free-up trains and crew, according to internal QR sources.
QR also plans to use buses and taxis to substitute some rail services, raising questions about whether it would force commuters on to already congested Gold Coast roads during the event.
And in a further rail fail, the Gold Coast’s light rail stage two opens today with no heavy rail connection due to scheduled track maintenance.
The plan to divert services to the Gold Coast followed QR identifying more than 600 scheduled services that could not be delivered due to a lack of resources, QR sources revealed.
It comes more than a year after a critical shortage of train drivers forced the rail network into meltdown and triggered the shift to a heavily stripped-back timetable.
Exacerbating the Games headache is a major delay in rolling out new trains under the State Government’s troubled $4.4 billion New Generation Rollingstock program.
The program is over 18 months late, with just three of 75 NGR trains so far running.
As revealed in August, a secret appraisal of QR by German Rail Operator found 18 NGR trains were needed to service the Games.
It found the trains would not be ready “due to the current blockages” and high risk of “juvenile failures”.
The appraisal also warned of “a high risk of delays due to failures” on existing trains due for retirement but kept in service to meet the extra demand during the Games.
Deutche Bahn also reported at the time that “a number of interviewees identified the risk that not enough train crew would be available to meet the proposed timetable.”
It preceded revelations in The Sunday Mail last month that train crew would be offered a “Games incentive payment aimed at maximising attendances,” according to QR internal documents.
QR chief executive officer Nick Easy did not respond to questions about whether services would be cancelled on other parts of the rail network, but said the Games transport model was being finalised and would be made public “well before” the April event.
He said QR was continuing to train and hire extra train drivers in the lead-up.
It has trained 41 drivers since the October 2016 Rail Fail and hired 129 trainee drivers.
But Rail Back on Track transport advocate Robert Dow believed travelling by rail during the Games would be “a nightmare” and QR would “strip the other lines” to service the event.
“The other lines are going to have reduced services, very poor connections,” he said.
“We’ll only have a minor incident on the Gold Coast line and everything stops.
“I think the real problem is (a shortage of) train crew.”
He also criticised the late public release of the Games timetable.
$135m health bungle: Minister’s apology to affected businesses
Health Minister Steven Miles has apologised to businesses that have suffered delays because of the new Queensland Health payment system.
Hundreds of staff underpaid at Queensland utility
A Queensland Government-owned utility corporation has underpaid hundreds of its senior staff for more than a decade in a bungle that could have ripped off up to a quarter of its workforce.