Councillor Dan Stewart weighs in on Gympie’s slow train services

OPINION: Gympie councillor Dan Stewart says a future high speed train may not be the best fix, but there are some simple ways to speed up Gympie’s train services right now

Councillor Dan Stewart says a touted high speed rail connection between Gympie and the south might not be the most viable option, but other fixes for the region’s oft-criticised train service do exist.

Opinion piece by Councillor Dan Stewart

Train travel in Europe is a story of contrasts. In one day I travelled on a train over the Bernina Pass, ambling at about 30 km/hour. The slow speed was more than made up for by the novelty (for a Queenslander) of travelling through a snow shower, the mountain scenery, and the lush green grass.

Then onto an Italian regional express train, typical speed over 120 km/hr. Then onto a high-speed train. The ride was so smooth I wondered when we were going to get up speed. The speed was 300 km/hr, leaving the traffic on the parallel motorway far behind.

Back to Gympie and even the tilt train takes over two and half hours to get the 160km to Brisbane. For a couple of years I caught the city train once or twice a week, a good chance to catch up on reading.

What can be done? Maybe build a high speed rail line (at least 250 km/hr). However, these are only viable if they serve cities with populations in the millions, and intermediate stops for places with populations down to say 100,000. Even then, the large cities need to be within several hundred kilometres of each other. That rules out Queensland, even Brisbane to Sydney is not likely to be viable.

Mr Stewart says European train services have several key difference with those in Australia, which affects their viability.

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Maybe duplicate the line north of Beerburrum. The current proposal to upgrade the line from Beerburrum to Nambour has duplication of the line stop at Landsborough. From there an intercity high frequency line would be built to Maroochydore.

The current evidence is that the railway north of Landsborough does not and would not carry enough passengers and freight to justify the cost of building a second line.

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The Cross River Rail will help alleviate congestion which is affecting the Gympie region’s services, Mr Stewart says. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

What could be done to improve our train services?

There are two things I think would make our train journeys faster. As odd as it sounds the first involves spending a lot of money in Brisbane.

The first thing is to build more rail lines through Brisbane where railway lines are congested. This is why the new tunnel under the river, Cross River Rail, is needed. It will most help people on the coasts and places like Logan, not Brisbane itself! There also needs to be additional lines from Caboolture into the city so express trains such as the Tilt train and the Gympie city train do not get held up by suburban trains.

One of the frustrating things about our trains is travelling at 120 km/hr over Deep Creek and through Tandur, but having to slow down to 40 km/hr at Woondum and Cooran because the track has so many sharp curves.

So the second action that will improve our train service is straightening of the railway between Gympie and Nambour. This would benefit freight trains as well as passenger trains.

But maybe there are other things our government could better spend the large amounts of money required, perhaps into the billions of dollars. I would love a better train service to Brisbane, but at what cost?

Originally published as Councillor Dan Stewart weighs in on Gympie’s slow train services