Yes, road traffic quite manageable today. I travelled from Goodna to Stafford via Toowong and Bardon today by horseless carriage, around 9:15am. Was easy going.
It’s QR heritage day on the Beenleigh line again. Currently aboard EMU51 (with EMU59 leading).
Out of interest, does anyone know how many (and which sets) of EMUs are still in service?
SMU220s all morning for me today on both NABR and CAIP services.
Second time this week that the 6:05am CAIP has been a 3 car unit which is frustrating but at least staff were warning people before it arrived. I thought we were past the days of 3 car peak services but not quite yet it seems.
One thing the older fleet has going for it is they are dramatically less faraday cagey. Sections of the track where my usual NGR trip home has zero mobile signal (Caboolture to Beerwah) I was getting full signal today. Can’t complain about that!
1 Like
Yesterday morning on a Beenleigh Train to Southbank at 8.25 from Fortitude Valley.
I think the patronage peak was two weeks ago. Really tapering off now. Track closures from Friday, so patronage will remain lower than usual until after Labour Day, I reckon. Might see a morning spike with Anzac Day though.
School holidays started 2 weeks ago. It’ll likely pick up again after next week (Uni mid-sem is next week).
1 Like
I caught one of those new Translink Hybrid diesels from the Hyperdome to IKEA (552). They are also equipped with internal PIDs (no audio though). Yet, I guess they can upgrade them for audio or turn it on if it’s installed already.
5 Likes
It seems those Consat info systems are quite a bit glitchy, rode a Kinetic Yutong with announcements which were glitching out and quite a few other buses which had the display not working.
Good to see Clarks getting new buses though, their fleet of Volvo B12’s were getting quite tired.
1 Like
That driver is a bit of a goober!
I got one of these Custom buses on the way back which has a slightly different interior but also has PIDs.
The PIDs were working but they alternate between info ads and community announcements.
1 Like
I very much dislike having ads on the PIDs. It’s not great for commuters. Ads should be limited to externally placed ads.
1 Like
I don’t mind as it good use of digital infrastructure. This is very common form of information delivery on PT infrastructure around the world.
Welcome to the forum! It’s interesting that they’re going through all this effort just for a single digit change.
I’m pretty sure they’re going to merge stops to make space for more frequent departures.
Stop 83 is basically dead apart from a couple hours in the early morning, while 82 is constantly busy due to it being the departure zone from all Clarks routes to Logan.
1 Like
Had the same experience on a Kinetic Yutong (route 600).
The actual stop info on the PID was working properly and quite useful, but the audio was a mess. It looked pretty similar to this so I wonder if the PID software is going to become standardised across translink contracted fleet eventually.
No ads, thankfully.
I wouldn’t be opposed to Consat equipment if it wasn’t such a piece of crap.
On my experience with Kinetic buses down on the GC the systems are constantly having issues (screens not showing info, destos not changing destination, etc) while also having legibility issues due to inflexible programming.
It’s not great.
I heard a while ago that Hanover PID’s were going to be installed in some operators across SEQ, but haven’t heard anything since, but would be nice to see how they compare to the Consat System.
I reckon all council buses from now on will have the Consat system installed, they have them in the Yutongs, BZL’s, Blue Citygliders and also the Council TMR’s as well.
1 Like
I rode the 600 last year when the electrics first went into service. The PIDs worked well then as well as the stop announcements.
I caught the same bus today too! I was the funny looking bloke in the purple shirt. 
Unfortunately, these are just diesel buses, being a Volvo B8RLE. I do hope one day we receive some hybrids in replacement for our electric buses though. I absolutely love the concept of hybrid vehicles in general.
On Consat, we can adjust the volume.
In the Customs, the announcements are throughout the bus, but in the Volgrens, they’re only through the drivers speaker, which I can’t say isn’t much use to us.
I was hoping the Consat announcement speaker was up loud enough for my passengers to hear.
Next time, ask for a demonstration, some of us are more than happy to share some info on new products we get to use! 
4 Likes
Definitely less crowded around the network today, at least where I’ve been. The train this morning had about people in my carriage, and my usual bus to work was an almost-full seated load, instead of packed to the rafters, and going home there’s 2 passengers on the bus, including myself.