I definitely think that long distance coaches is the way-to-go, for Toowoomba residents.
The 539 is a proven testament to this, albeit it terminates at Gatton.
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Iâve suggested similar in other threads, but heavy rail is more or less a no-go without with Inland Rail alignment - irrespective of whether you run trains to Helidon and shuttle bus to Toowoomba or not, what currently exists just canât compete with roads, even to the bottom of the range.
City to Ipswich remains a major bottleneck in getting rail to Helidon or Toowoomba going - even with inland rail, the fact it takes an ~ 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to Rosewood (based on the Westlander timetable) means the rest of the trip has to be extraordinarily efficient to even be considered competitive (and it will still be slower most likely). Inland Rail will have no impact on this (except perhaps for freeing up some freight slots on the Ipswich line).
Itâs a real shame, but itâs the situation we find ourselves in.
But a Translink bus service using the Warrego, departing from Roma St (or Ipswich if the route planners are real uppity about a highway bus duplicating part of the route where rail exists) can still be a legacy for Toowoomba from the Olympics. Even getting the attitude change out of the planners that medium-distance bus can and should be used where appropriate as part of the Translink network would be a win.
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There is a perception that rail is the only option for long distances. But Victoria, NSW and WA all have long distance coach networks which either feed or complement the long distance rail network.
Visit Southern Cross Station in Melbourne, plenty of V/Line regional coaches leaving from there.
Itâs Queensland thatâs the outlier.
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A couple of 539 services do terminate at Helidon weekdays. But very infrequent.
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PT Regional Coach Services
It is worth looking at what other states do, like Western Australia. WA is also very large and very low density. The services that TransWA provides supplement rail services and also go to places that the rail network doesnât reach.
Distances involved are further than Brisbane-Toowoomba (about 140 km), for example, Perth to Bunbury Terminal (about 170 km).
Excerpt from the TransWA website
Our regional road services consist of 23 Volvo B11R coaches travelling over 14 routes.
A coach is a luxury bus designed for long-distance travel. Each of our road coaches has an onboard toilet, entertainment and room for luggage.
Road Coach safety information can be found here.
Notes
^ they do it well. The Australind road coach - East Perth Terminal to Bunbury is to replace the Australind train, which is presently not in service. The Australind rail will be back with new train sets in 2026! More > Australind Service Changes
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The Westlander isnât especially fast and I think a Toowoomba service running with a modern DMU would have notably better performance characteristics.
Thereâs two through-running Rosewood trains in PM peak (leaving Roma St at 16:18 and 17:18) express Milton-Indro-Darra; and they take 1:10 to get to Rosewood (and only 49min for Ipswich, whereas the Westlander takes 58min).
The electric expresses save about 1 minute per station skipped so a theoretical Rosewood-Ipswich-Darra-Indro-Milton-Roma St electric express, skipping 15 stations, should be able to get a total run time of 0:55.
The DMU is probably slower to accelerate than the electric so letâs say it needs an extra minute for each station it stops at - that puts it at 1 hour flat from Rosewood to Roma St, still a 15 minute saving over the Westlander today (which makes 2 fewer stops).
Having said all that, the intensity of service between Darra and Ipswich is now high enough in peak that I donât think you can save 10 minutes without running up the back of the previous commuter service - hence this likely also requires triplication from Darra to Ipswich.
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Interesting Time Comparison
Greyhound Bus to Ipswich
It seems that the Greyhound Coach to Ipswich takes about 45 minutes to reach Ipswich from Brisbane. Not sure why the Queensland Government logo is appearing on this timetable (perhaps part of the route is subsidised?).
Compare to the Ipswich train timetable
Express train - 48 minutes from Roma Street
All Stops train - 56 minutes from Roma Street (express trains are about 8 min faster)
Notes
Greyhound Timetable https://documents.greyhound.com.au/common/timetables/Brisbane-Toowoomba.pdf
Ipswich Train Timetable https://translink.com.au/sites/default/files/acquiadam-assets/timetables/200810-ipswich-rosewood-.pdf
Depends on the time of day for the Greyhound coaches. There are regular delays inbound in the morning and outbound in the afternoon between Brisbane and Ipswich particularly. At least with the rail it is unaffected by gridlock/congestion on the Ipswich Highway.
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An area for exploration will be potential routings and scheduled timings.
Just hope itll be double track from Ebenzer/Rosewood interchange to Toowoomba entry/exit junction as inland rail can go single track after toowoomba wuth passing loops as dont think therell be passanger services outside Westlabder beyond that.
Speaking of doublle trackâŚ.is Rosewood to Ipswich double track at al? And was it electric at all?
Yes Windy. Double track to Rosewood and electrified. Electrification stops at Rosewood.
*This double track system extends beyond Rosewood to Helidon at the base of the Great Dividing Range with the exception of the section between Grandchester and Yarongmulu which is single track over the Little Liverpool Range and incorporates two tunnels.
From Helidon the single track railway begins the 470m climb up the Great Dividing Range,
passing through nine tunnels before cresting at Harlaxton. From Harlaxton the track descends
to the Toowoomba CBD.
There are six crossing loops on this section namely Grandchester, Lockyer, Murphyâs Creek,
Holmes, Spring Bluff and Rangeview.
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Two of those services have a note stating those continue beyond Toowoomba towards Western Qld per the timetable, Iâd suspect the beyond services are partially subsidised.
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Iâd think a limited stops coach service from Ipswich to Toowoomba (call it the Route 538) could do, stopping in at Plainland, Gatton with selected services diverting into UQ Gatton and Helidon.
In my proposal, the â538â would use the same coaches on the Route 539 Rosewood to Gatton/Helidon, with some TMR Volgen low floor buses leased to Bus Qld, to enable the TMR Volgrens to take over the coaches currently used on the 539 service.
They best way is to realign and electrify the rail from Rosewood to Helidon, with applicable tunnelling and viaducts along the flood plain.
You would also need to rebuild stations both at Gatton and Helidon. Overall it may be cheaper than the current projects down to the GC and the Wave.
The good thing about viaducts across farmland and the flood plain is that resumptions are minimal as you can continue farming under the viaduct.
Thatâs true for pastoral farming but generally isnât true for cropping, and I think youâd find most of the flood plain is cropping not pastures.
I do agree with your overall point though, and I think it would be good to have a proper alignment developed that is 160km capable and have QGov putting in some money with inland rail to keep it 2 tracks all the way to Helidon.
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Yeah. At the very least though, a viaduct would be less impactful than an at grade railway, even for cropping. Assuming the clearance is high enough, farmers would still be able to easily use machinery around a viaduct.
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Why stop at 160 in 2025. What about 250 and make it significantly faster than driving? The QLD government should be ambitious and should lead the nation in infrastructure as a result of mining resource levies, just like the WA government does.
Youâll need to change it to standard gauge, therefore different rail stock and dual gauge all the way to Roma Street.
Trains at 140kph or 150 kph would be significantly faster than driving. Thus Rosewood to Helidon wouldnât take long and you can also use the existing stabling at Wulkuraka to reduce on overall project costs, unless stabling is required at Helidon for a couple of trains?
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If you want to go really fast you need really wide station spacing too (and really straight track). Accel/braking means you have diminishing returns to top speed.
At 10km station spacing and ballpark acceleration/braking, going from 150km/h to 250km/h might take you from 4:42 down to 3:33.
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