I didn’t know the Brisbane busways we’re inspired by Ottawa’s.
Ironically, Ottawa is converting it’s busways into light rail.
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Converting busways to rail…who’d have thought!
I still don’t see how the GC line becomes genuinely “faster” if you i) don’t do anything closer into the city than what’s proposed, there are serious issues before Logan - like it’s using a century old suburban corridor and ii) keep adding “local” stations at the GC end! But I suppose it’s the Queeeennnsssllllllaaannnddddd definition of “faster” rail!
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Yeah. There’s a need for a bypass tunnel from Runcorn to Coopers Plains. But I think that’s everything in the current paradigm - to go faster still will have to be for HSR.
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I remember seeing a video about some new railway station in the UK being opened up and theres some policy in the UK that the addition of any new railway stations must not make the existing line slower. To open a new station requires speed improvements to be found elsewhere on the line to balance everything out. So either line speed improvements, relaignments, or fixing bridges, or level crossings that might have a lower speed that track geometry might suggest.
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I like that, although Queensland seems to be masters at slowing down the network as a whole. Line speeds, timetable padding and station dwell times all seem worse than they used to be.
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Saw a lot of work being done at the level crossing near Kuraby station. My guess is that they want that one done first out of the level crossing removals that are part of the upgrade.
It’s honestly amazing how much just 2 new stations has made the commute from varsity to RBWH feel so much longer than it was before
I’ve heard that the trains have to dwell at Pimpama for longer than usual haha…
I imagine it’s particularly long at the moment!
Why do they have to dwell at Pimpama for so long?
I actually don’t know. For all I know it could be a rumour. Maybe they’re doing it for the sake of living up to the ‘Bombardier Express’ nickname.
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Found a great POV of trains running thru on Youtube shorts
Looking forward to going through shortly!
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When they finally get built the outside platforms will be for Gold Coast/Airport services right?
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Depends how the four track section is setup. Will in be up, up, down, down or as per the four track section between Northgate and City ?
Yes, I believe so as at stations where the express passes there is just island platform serving middle two tracks for all stops services; see Kingston below
Which has interesting implications for the inevitable four tracking further in, given CRR tunnels are on the inside…
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I can’t see how they can fit an extra track in many areas that are currently 3 tracks, especially from Yeerongpilly to Dutton Park. The only way I can see it happening is demolition of existing (and newly rebuilt) stations with a single island platform.
Yep, though for Dutton Park to Yeerongpilly I figure it’d be two side platforms with four tracks between them.
But then that would cause issues with the dual gauge track. The narrow-gauge part of the DG is shifted to the east (i.e. facing the corridor inwards), so if the inbound side platform was facing the corridor from the west, either a standard gauge train would be too wide to fit, or a narrow gauge train would be too narrow to reach the platform.
There are two ways around that problem though: 1) Use platform gap fillers like on the Sydney Metro Bankstown line; or 2) Have the side platform on the other side of the track facing outwards like platform 5 at Boggo Road station.
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