I agree - when it was first announced that stage 1 was only as far as Beerwah it was pretty clear that the intention is to support the line to Caloundra and the main line north would drop way down in priority. There’s a pretty good chance there will be few if any Brisbane bound trains even running north of Beerwah in the future. It might become like the Rosewood shuttle with a few peak hour through trains but mostly a change at Beerwah.
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Yes, cutting back the duplication from Landsborough back to Beerwah sort of sends a signal.
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So, anyone want to guess what frequency Beerwah-Nambour is likely to see post-DSCL? Will it still be 90 minutes off-peak, or will it be cut to 120? What about peak? It should be at least every 30 IMO.
Will trains to Gympie North remain as through services? Will there be any improvements to the frequency north of Nambour, even as shuttles? Maybe every third train should continue to GN?
Rosewood will see more love if line gets to Toowoomba frequently…
But the Beerwah-Gympie north should be a good enough shuttle with more frequently i guess. So far times to gympie arent good for me to use a day trip without making me stay tge nught 
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Detailed designs revealed for Beerburrum to Nambour Stage 1
I found the discussion on the heritage find with the uncovered section of corduroy road referred to in the article (https://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/projects/beerburrum-to-nambour-rail-upgrade-stage-1/cultural-heritage) also quite interesting and a little evocative.
The township of Beerburrum had some shaky early days when it was opened up as an allotment for returned servicemen from the First World War. My Great Grandfather, Hugh Simpson settled there in 1919 and opened the general store in town, rather than become a farmer. The land around Beerburrum was not as good for farming as the surrounding areas. Many farms failed and returned servicemen abandoned the land they were given. It was a difficult life in those early days. The returned servicemen/soldier resettlement program was a curious piece of early 1900s policy that saw… mixed results.
Anyway, it’s nice to see some of these pre-war era bits of history being preserved.
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Beerwah to Nambour is about a 35 minute trip each way, so in theory they should be able to make do with two trains that cross paths , probably on the triple track section near the stabling yard at palmwoods which is about the halfway point.
Really I think the shuttle should be Beerwah to Gympie (1h45m). You’d need 4-5 sets to run an hourly service to stations in between but 3 cars would be enough at least to start with. I’ve always thought it’s such a shame that the stations even in busy towns like Yandina, Cooroy, etc only see 2 city services each direction a day, what a waste.
Yeah I would say an hourly stopper service between Beerwah and Gympie with increased frequency to 30 minutes in peak would suffice in general.
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IMO it should hourly stopper between Beerwah and Nambour outside of peak, two-hourly to Gympie North (using the same units doing e.g GYN-BWH-NBR-BWH-GYN etc patterns).
During the morning and afternoon peak should be every half-hour in the peak direction (hence southbound is every 30 minutes from 5am until 9am with the later finish to cover for the school traffic north of Beerwah), and in the afternoon peak, should start at 2:30pm until 6:00pm (again the early start to cover the afternoon School traffic).
IIRC the only City direct from North of Beerwah may probably be the current “Gympielander” service (the weekday ‘workers’ (and medical appointments) train for the ‘north of Nambour’ folk), terminating at Roma Street but using the same ‘Traveltrain’ pattern into Roma Street with a stop at Exhibition.
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Just wondering, if the shuttle frequencies from Beerwah to Gympie North are as follows:
- 60 minutes off peak Beerwah to Nambour, 120 minutes to Gympie North
- 30 minutes peak Beerwah to Nambour, 60 minutes to Gympie North
Is there any reason why any services need to go all the way into the city, even in peak? If there are regular services from Beerwah that have come from Caloundra/Birtinya, do you think a simple interchange at Beerwah would be adequate? I suspect that when The Wave opens, patronage at stations like Landsborough will drop off significantly as people who might drive or bus from places like Caloundra will use the station there.
I don’t envision that services even in peak will be at crush capacity or anything, and any service that runs all the way through removes a path for the other lines. It also still massively improves the service frequency for both the Nambour and Gympie North stretches, so it’s still a win in my books. I know that some services from Rosewood run through to the city in peak, but there is a difference in that situation in that the line is basically an extension of the Ipswich line rather than a whole new line, so it’s not sharing paths with another line, just using existing paths already available if that makes sense.
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I think the half-hourly or hourly headway should cut out at Cooroy. Noosa and surrounds should have some reasonable accessibility to the rail network. Anywhere north of that is something of a special case that probably doesn’t justify more than every 2 hours or so.
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My personal view is also that Cooroy should be the limit of the Translink network and that Gympie is really a traveltrain destination. I would like there to be something like four daily services to Gympie, Maryborough, and Bundaberg stopping at Cooroy, then Beerwah <> Nambour every hour with every second one continuing to Cooroy.
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Like this thought! Although I think the bustling metropolis of Traveston might have some issues with that…
There’s plenty of room around the station to create a side terminating platform as well so that freight and long distance services aren’t impacted.
This might be the case currently, but Gympie is beginning to grow and gentrify as more first home buyers are priced out of South East QLD. Quite a few single rural blocks are being subdivided into 10+ houses, and entire housing estates are starting to pop up too. There’s even a few younger people doing daily commutes to the Sunshine Coast now, for blue and white collar jobs.
Not suggesting they need mass transit, but a semi-regular connection to Nambour (to access the Sunshine Coast bus network) and connection onward to Brisbane is beneficial for those who can’t or don’t want to drive 100km to the Sunshine Coast or 160km to Brisbane CBD for things such a medical appointments or to visit family.
Obviously you could do this with a bus, but since the rail line is already there, may as well use it?
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I also think people currently served by 50c fares might be little hard-done by if asked to pay $30 instead for a B-Quick fare. If Gympie really had to move to a Traveltrain service, relying on the current fare structure for people presently within a 50c fare zone is a punch in the face. Or even if it reverted to an older fare structure and was $10-15 on Translink, it would still effectively double (or more) the cost of travel.
Mind you, I think a few regular services a day to Gympie North in the Translink structure is fine. The distance is similar to the outer reaches of the Sydney Trains network, like the Bathurst Bullet which only runs a couple of times a day too. Due to the poor alignment between Bathurst and Lithgow and the windy route through the Blue Mountains, it takes longer as well (a smidge over 4 hours). They’re even improving service on that route now, with the NSW Government working to reopen Wallerawang Station (north of Lithgow) after it closed in 1989.
QR just need to add a 3rd service to gympie each way… And keep it 3 services each way daily…
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