Work has either started very early this morning, or has been going all night at the new Loganlea station. I guess working overnight makes sense, as there’s very few trains using this corridor overnight, other than the very occasional cattle train to Holmview.
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We definitely get short changed in SEQ compared to the scope and quality they get in Perth.
https://www.metronet.wa.gov.au/projects/level-crossing-removal
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They did have to shut down most of that line for nearly two years to do that though. The results were great but it caused a lot of strife in the interim.
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Construction has begun on the major rail works package for the $5.75-billion Logan and Gold Coast Faster Rail project, marking a major milestone in increasing rail network capacity and reliability between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
The work is being delivered by the ActivUs Alliance, which comprises UGL, Acciona, CPB Contractors, SMEC and WSP, in partnership with the Department of Transport and Main Roads and Queensland Rail.
The LGC major rail package of works includes doubling the rail tracks from two to four between Kuraby and Beenleigh, including all civil works and civil structures, and carrying out upgrades to make train stations more modern and accessible, including improved park ‘n’ ride facilities.
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Updated station designs for Edens Landing have been released, and while it’s not as substantial a change as Bethania or Woodridge, there have been some changes over the previous design. The station has been moved slightly inbound to better line up against Eddy Avenue, and includes a bus-friendly turnaround - maybe buses might finally be routed to service the station itself.
The station is also now shown to be on a completely straight section of track too, compared to the current alignment that is on more of a shallow S (with the current station being on a curve).
At the end of the day though, there’s only so much you can do with Edens Landing. Most of that station’s issues are to do with the layout of the suburb, rather than the station itself.
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If only they could add a pedestrian bridge and path across the Logan River so that the people in Loganholme could use the station as well…
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I agree, although I think it would really need to be a bus-carrying green bridge to get the most of it. The Loganholme area isn’t the most walkable, and the most appropriate area for a bridge over is a little distance from the station.
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I’ve been doing some educated analysis/guessing on what would be the most amount of services available to schedule in off peak (both inbound and outbound) once CRR and LGCFR have finished. I believe with an upgrade to Altandi to four platforms, it would be possible to run 4tph to/from the GC running the current stopping pattern, 2tph Beenleigh services running all stops to/from Beenleigh to Altandi, then express to/from Boggo Rd and finally, 4tph all stops to/from Altandi to Boggo Rd.
Do you believe this is too many services for the current demand ? Any educated or otherwise feedback on if people believe the above is possible is welcome.
This would provide 10 services in each direction outside of peak through the tunnel. Yes, some headways I’ve calculated are tight but possible with ETCS.
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My feeling is that they would opt to increase Beenleigh to 4tph before adding something like an Altandi starter.
If they were only building one bus bridge, I’d make it from Station Rd, Bethania, up to Murrays Rd/Mandew St, with a turn off to the university campus and Armstrong Rd. That would link up the Hyperdome, the university, the hospital and two train stations. Edens Landing to southern Loganholme would be a distant second choice for me.
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I think current demand isn’t what we should be aiming to address, future demand is, and that will only grow. On top of this, we should be using trains as the trunk services and buses as feeder services into train stations for greater efficiency, but that’s harder to do when there are concerns about available passenger capacity on express trains, and people will go out of their way to avoid transferring onto a Beenleigh line all-stopper. I believe this is a big reason why we persist with extremely long express bus routes like the 551 and 561 instead of terminating them at Loganlea or Kingston, which would allow much more frequent services.
To properly use trains as the trunk services they’re meant to be, we need frequent services, and quicker journeys from the outlying parts of the Beenleigh line, so the demand is better distributed. I’m sure it’s a more comfortable journey from Loganlea to Roma Street in morning peak hours if you’re sitting on a Beenleigh line train rather than standing on a Gold Coast line train, but for many people I’d imagine an extra 15 minutes of commuting time isn’t worth it. If that were cut down to 6 minutes by running express between Altandi and Boggo Road however, maybe that changes some people’s decisions. It might even make the prospect of transferring to a train at Kingston or Bethania seem a lot less inconvenient than it does now.
So no, I don’t think it’s too many services. Actually, if the infrastructure can support shorter headways, I’d want even more than that - 4 tph of each of the three stopping patterns.
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I agree with this concept except for using Murray Road to get it up to Mandew Street. Murrays Road is narrow, winding, very flood prone and it runs through a highly ecologically sensitive area (home to the endangered Gossia gonoclada - Logan’s own Wollumi Pine).
Instead, I’d send up up Sewell Road - it’s much more straight, it’s wider (and could be widened further to include a local bus stop), it would be less flood prone I would imagine (it goes up and down a hill) and would allow reasonable access to either the Mandew Street or Grandis Street for a bit more flexibility.
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Just on this topic, I will point out that a 551 and 561 routes do also provide additional peak capacity for Springwood and Rochedale Stations, so while I think there could be benefits in having these routes servicing Kingston Station, I wouldn’t necessarily terminate them there (at least not until M1 can be expanded to Springwood).
What I was meaning was building an entirely separate elevated road up to the Murrays/Mandew roundabout. Elevation is absolutely needed to get across the river, motorway and flood plains. In a perfect world I wouldn’t use Murrays or Sewell, as a residential street is probably not the best place for high bus volumes. But I’m not sure where the protected trees are, so I’m unsure what’s achievable.
Terminating at Kingston (or Loganlea) would require LGCFR to be completed and better bus infrastructure to the station. It’s not something that can happen overnight, but can be an aspirational goal.
I’d argue the existence of those routes in their present form is a failure of planning, and the extra peak capacity at Springwood and Rochedale could be provided by making the 569 stop there.
7 posts were merged into an existing topic: Bus Services and related infrastructure
Passing Loganlea on DG92 and track is being laid out at the new platforms while I’m writing this. They want this done ASAP.
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I can’t wait. The old station is absolutely not fit for purpose.
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Amazing what they can achieve when they actually get their A into G right?
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More that they need to remove the old station before they can start quadding the track through there.
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