A thread for observations around the network.
Queue at Benson St Toowong towards UQ wrapped well around the Glen Rd corner at 1:30pm today. 411 & 412 arrived near simultaneously. Most seats already full on 412. Passengers left behind at Benson and along SFSD, and of course a real pain for everyone trying to alight along SFSD.
There’s a real need for more 402s, especially early in semester.
Hopefully CRR will improve this a little with more rail pax going via Lakes rather than Chancellors too.
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There aren’t enough high capacity buses around - these are the sorts of corridors that need them but because of silly industrial arrangements (paying drivers more to drive artics etc rather than getting everybody skilled up to HR licences and simplifying the allowances), unwillingness to spend money reconfiguring / expanding depots etc, there are only a handful around outside the south-east and the busway. Clark’s should have more than the 6 they have, there should be plenty on the busier Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast routes etc.
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The 402’s are just a band-aid response and are not a sustainable solution.
Why not throw a few of 'em Swiss electric bendy boi’s on the 412?
The point is that more capacity is needed Toowong-UQ and the first step to solving that problem always looks like running a few more ordinary buses.
Here’s a chart of patronage along the 412.
(In March the City-UQ and Toowong-UQ links are a particularly high fraction of demand, but even in January the only other contender is City-Toowong.)
Note the bar graph at the bottom of the page - the 412 is most crowded leaving Toowong. This is the whole point of running 402s.
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What software was used to create that graph?
I call it fluvial.
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Just make route 402 a rocket, only two stops - UQ and the train station.
And have the 402 wait around the corner until 2 minutes before the 412 arrives so it can pull in just before and fill up with UQ-bound passengers to increase the chance of seats left on the 412 for people on KSD.
Interesting rollingstock situation on a lunchtime NAIP service today.
Instead of the usual NGR, IMU or SMU260/IMU160 pairing (to allow at least one car to have a bathroom), I was pretty surprised to see a 3 car SMU260 pull up, already pretty full by the time it got to us at Beerwah. Due to how busy it was and the lack of a bathroom on the train, we came into Platform 1 at Caboolture the wrong way and the guard announced that anyone who needed a bathroom break was free to go and the train will wait for them (a few did take this offer).
After about 5 minutes we continued on, and the train got busier and busier as we got closer to the city, eventually getting uncomfortably full. As we approached Central the guard made another announcement apologising for the overcrowding and overall less than comfortable journey, and advised that a 6 car unit had been arranged and was waiting at Central. Our train was terminated at Central and everyone was to move to the new train across the platform to continue onward.
Overall QR handled it pretty well, but I am perplexed as to how a 3 car SMU with no bathroom was the only available unit for what is (probably) the longest route on the network at just under 3 hours. My guess is that it was originally supposed to be a 6 car and perhaps one unit failed, however there were about 5-6 NGRs stabled at Elimbah and then a good 2-3 IMUs sitting at Caboolture, any of which would have been better even if they hadn’t been cleaned yet.
Sadly our return journey in the afternoon was yet another SMU, however at least this one was a full 6 car service. Overheard a few tourists complaining about the lack of a bathroom, can’t say I blame them.
I appreciate all the good work that QR do, but in 2025 we really need interurban services to have basic facilities, especially on weekends when some stations are unmanned (bathrooms locked) and services only run every 90 minutes on the SCL.
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Just did my journey to Roma St on a working museum piece (EMU55), but I’m still a fan of the AC in the EMUs vs NGRs, on a humid day. Not sure what’s up with the NGR AC units, but they seem less effective. Maybe the higher seatbacks inhibit circulation?
As an aside, the announcer at Roma St announced the Ipswich train as “all stops to Rosewood”, which seems a little confusing. Surely the appropriate announcement is “all stations to Ipswich; change at Ipswich for Rosewood”, or something to that effect?
I believe it to be the window size. It allows more heat (sunlight) in. It’s not fun to sit by an NGR window, especially on a long journey North or South.
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There are a few services on a weekday afternoon which do continue all the way to Rosewood, without the change at Ipswich.
This wasn’t one of them…it was on a Sunday.
New all-time record of 238,000 passenger trips on the QR network on March 17!
Anecdotally, I have noticed that in the past few weeks commuter services have been very busy. My usual SC Line service had people standing all the way back to the gangway on Wednesday morning by the time we got to the city. Carparks have also been incredibly busy.
Great to see a strong post-COVID bounce back, hopefully these numbers will give Translink and QR another nudge to look at adding a few extra AM and PM peak services where possible on most lines.
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That’s great. Hopefully it will also encourage them to add extra off-peak and weekend services…I guess dreams are free!
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Just thinking about that post regarding patronage. I really believe that almost tomorrow at the VERY least they could increase 15 minute weekday services to Manly, Springfield Central, Kippa Ring, Shorncliffe and Airport. Even that would be a good start and would work to build on those gains that are being made.
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March is always busy because uni starts. It soon drops off as students realise driving is better 
Lot of bus service disruptions of late due to ’ congestion '.
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