Very open-ended topic/question here, but it’s something I think about a lot - how do we get more people off the roads and on to long-distance trains? Obviously purchasing new trainsets to run more electric tilt services would be one thing, but I’m curious if anyone has particular things they think the state should be doing to get the long-distance mode share up from the abysmal state it’s undoubtedly in currently. If Victoria can do it, so can we!
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For daytime services (particularly the Westlander), it’s about speed. For the trip bme-toowoomba it’s so abysmally slow it’s not worth it. It also only comes like twice a week so pretty useless for most people. Problem is to improve speed on that line you’d need the new Inland Rail tunnel to improve the alignment, and that’s not happening any time soon
Speed on the tilts is relatively good. Some minor curve easing through northern suburbs would go a long way, as would the Beerburrum to Nambour duplication / realignment. Buying a few more tilts to double daily frequency could also be a good option
The other thing I’d like to see is proper sleepers. Particularly for the XPT. A sleeper service that departs BNE at say 6pm and arrives at 8am in Sydney the next day would be great. Only thing is the sleeper cars in the XPT suck, and we’d need to purchase another train. The advantage of a proper sleeper is that there’s no need to improve speed, people are very happy to travel through the night. The current trip is already 14 hours but it annoyingly departs Brisbane around 6AM, rather than as an overnight option
Similar sleeper services could be introduced on the XPT Mel-Syd leg, and the overlander Mel-Adelaide. Provided sleeper services were good, and the cost wasn’t astronomically high (the XPT is expensive), I think this would make it a much more viable option for a lot of people. And that’s all done without a single improvement to the alignment or track/station infrastructure
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Yes, sleepers and catering. Attached a photograph of the buffet car on the Westlander when it had both. Buffet car Westlander April 2012
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Speed. Needs to be comparable or much faster than driving.
WiFi or free internet access.
Speed, and timetabling are big for me.
A colleague of mine lives in the Wide Bay and works remotely for our Brisbane based business, on the odd occasion they need to come into the office for a meeting in person they will often have to catch the afternoon service on the previous day because the morning service only gets into Roma Street at around 10am, almost viable as a commuter service but not quite.
If they could shave 40 minutes off the trip through a combination of shorter stops and alignment improvements to bring it down to 4 hours, you could feasibly have a 5am departure in Bundaberg for a 9am arrival in the city, making it much more convenient for business travel or people who need to attend appointments in Brisbane. It would also make the train trip just about as long as driving, which is a great way to increase utilisation, everyone wants an alternative to the Bruce Highway.
Newer rollingstock would be nice as well, I pass through platform 10 at Roma Street pretty often when the electric tilter is waiting to depart and while the electric tilters still look good, they fall far short when compared to long distance trains in other countries or even other states.
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On the section of double-track from Mt Larcom to Rockhampton, the Tilt Trains are both signed to reach speeds of up to 160km/h, but the fastest the trains ever achieve on the track segment is 100kph due to heavy coal and freight traffic. I remember when the Tilt Trains were consistently delayed by 30 minutes since the trains had to travel at a slower speed than what is signed on the tracks. The delays were so commonplace that the timetable was updated to accommodate for the lower line speed.
What if they add another third track on from Mt Larcom to Rockhampton where they the Tilt Trains can consistently reach 160kph, enabling the journey time to decrease by 30min?
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It’s a useful idea, but unfortunately the corridor between Gladstone and the turnoff to Emerald/Longreach (and inland till just short of Emerald) is leased to Aurizon for the better part of 100 years, so we would have to convince them to let it happen, unless it were built on an alignment outside the existing corridor.
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I mean this would relieve pressure on the line for them as they wouldn’t have as many conflicts with the passenger trains so why would they be against it? Just asking out of curiosity.
I worry that 2x electric tilts, 2x diesel tilts (one each direction each day) and 4x weekly Spirit of the Outback runs doesn’t really free up that much capacity in the grand scheme. And the DTT isn’t actually every day, either.
I suspect Aurizon are comfortable with the status quo, taking track usage charges from QR and then assigning priority to their own trains and making passengers wait. It really calls into question the rationale behind leasing Gladstone - Rockhampton to them for close to a century if you cared very much about passengers.
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The rationale behind the entire privatisation of QR is questionable at best. QR was turning a profit for the state & allowed us to have control over things like scheduling - not to mention this entire conversation about “would Aurizon let us build additional tracks in their ROW” wouldn’t be happening.
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2 things.
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QR had no ability to raise funds as it could as Aurizon and would have been a bigger drain on the borrowings of the Government…and it needed to borrow big.
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Aurizon only has a lease of the network it is still owned by the QLD Government. If QLD Govt wanted a third track in ROW I don’t think there is anything stopping them other than logistics of doing so and operating it.
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Good points. In all honesty though, if I think about where I’d like 100+km of electrified track to go (in a world of finite budgets and high infrastructure costs), I’m must admit anywhere between Gladstone and Rockhampton doesn’t make my priority list. Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Springfield/Ripley, Beaudesert, Lockyer Valley (Rosewood - Helidon to enable bus shuttles to Toowoomba) and numerous well-canvassed duplication projects would all rank higher for me.
I’d like that one bridge near Warwick with a speed restriction of 15kph repaired too, and brought back up to the line speed in that area of 60-80kph 
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Forcing Aurizon to give priority to passengers trains would probably provide some level of improvement. For example, a couple of years ago I was on SotO heading east. We were on time to Gracemere but held short of Rocky because a late running southbound DTT was given our slot. Aurizon held us at Rocky (once we could get to the platform) until the next open slot on their schedule, about 3 hours later. No priority given. If we could have simply had the next slot and the coalies could wait, we would have only been delayed a short time.
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Maybe transfer the network to ARTC like Hunter Valley Network to
Any significant improvement is going to rely on upgrades to infrastructure. If it were up to me, I would start at Cairns and Brisbane and work towards each other. Straighter track, doubled to Rockhampton all the way. Higher speeds, especially north of Rockhampton. Really the Diesel Tilt should be able to do Brisbane - Cairns in under 24 hours.
I have this grand idea I’d call Project 200 which would include upgrading most of the alignment to be capable of 160-200km/h. It would include new trains capable of 200km/h deisel and electric sets or bi-mode. This could cascade the existing tilt trains to secondary services or even retirement. Definitely more medium distance services (think Maryborough & Bundaberg).
This could be done in conjunction with faster trains to Toowoomba and eventual upgrading of some lines out west to take higher speeds. You need to be averaging over 100km/h to be competitive on speed. It’s why the UK trains are (except on price) because you can do 393 miles by track from Edinburgh to London in a bit over 4 hours. I mean, if you could ride the train to Rockhampton that quickly (a similar distance by rail), it would almost be competitive with flying (current flight time is a little over an hour however with check in time and having to travel from Brisbane Airport, the total journey time is longer).
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The line speed from Townsville to Cairns is particularly diabolical. Almost 6 hours for about 360km, at an average speed of about 60kph. People fly instead, and given that travel time, they really don’t have much of a choice right now.
There is actually a very small stretch of track north of Ayr that’s got a speed board of T160 (160 for tilt trains). But by the time you get to 160, you hit a 100kph curve and then you don’t see anything even approaching that speed again.
Beyond just alignments, curves etc, there’s the issue of road crossings at high speed. And cane tram crossings. And low quality of the steel used in the rails on parts of the network (QLD has very little high density, high load track). Most of these would essentially have to be removed/replaced to safely support line speeds in excess of 160kph. The policy of removing level crossings where such T160 speed upgrades have or are (slowly) happening (i.e. Caboolture after Pumicestone Rd level crossing - Beerburrum - Beerwah) is appropriate; but the cost of that across the span of the North Coast line would be monumental. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen over time, but the prospect is no doubt a daunting one for the payers.
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Considering that there is an abundance in long, straight track north of Rockhampton, what are the reasons that the DTT doesn’t do much fast running on those long straights after Rockhampton?
The North Coast Line (North) information pack (2024 edition) is opaque about the exact reasons for specific speed boards. What is clear is the speeds north of Rockhampton are likely not primarily driven by curves.
For example, Rockhampton to Mackay has 1.7% of track with sub-80kph curves, and just 0.2% sub-60kph.
I’m guessing it’s driven by the number of unprotected level crossings in large part. As someone who lives in the regions and actively participates in railway operations in the regions (as volunteer crew with Southern Downs Steam Railway), I see things too often that indicate the motoring public will not act in a manner that would ensure the safety of passengers at high speed around level crossings.
Between Rocklands (NCL/Central Western Line interface) and Cairns there are 637 ‘Rail/Road interfaces’. I guarantee the vast majority of ones outside towns and cities are passive only (e.g. a stop sign or a ‘look for trains’ sign). I suspect there’s no way they’re going to put a T160 speed board through a passive level crossing. Most towns and cities have a stop, so you’re not doing 160kph there, either (the train may not stop at some intermediate stations if no-one is pre-booked, like St Lawrence, Carmila, Home Hill etc.; but it’s hard to build that assumption into your schedule).
There is an unspecified number of cane tram crossings that require slow speeds too, but these are essentially only north of Mackay (for those who haven’t seen the terrain between Rockhampton and Carmila, there’s not much there but grazing country).
Unprotected level crossings are a major safety risk. Last year, there was a smash at an unprotected level crossing between Goondiwindi and Toobeah with a loaded Watco grain train and a B-double on a 60kph stretch of track. It was a real mess. Imagine what that might look like at double that speed, or even triple. Then think about it with people onboard instead of wheat.
There was a smash last year on a rail/road interface on the New England Highway at The Summit (near Stanthorpe) where a ute with trailer hit a track inspection vehicle (being used for tourism operations). The crossing has flashing lights (they were ignored). The inspection vehicle driver broke every bone from the waist down. Now that level crossing has a rail speed limit of 15kph and traffic lights are being installed.
I suspect high speeds through unprotected (or even lightly protected) level crossings is a risk QR simply isn’t willing to take.
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I saw a vlog about a VLine journey from Melbourne to Ararat via Ballarat in a VLocity. From the leg from Ballarat to Ararat, the VLocity travelled at a maximum speed of 130kph instead of 160kph thanks to the numerous ‘Look For Trains’ level crossings. I’m not whether rail gauge plays an important factor (5’3 VIC and 3’6 QLD), but I think the DTT can travel at 125kph past all the ‘Look For Trains’ crossings.
I suspect you overestimate QR’s appetite for risk 
(it’s about as low as conceivably possible).
They installed a few autonomous solar/battery powered flashing lights sets (I think 5) linked to sensors ahead of the crossings a few years ago as a test for improving level crossing safety. I’ve not seen or heard anything more about them since, but as an idea I rather like them.
Installing hundreds of them is no doubt off the table, but one thinks there must be an appropriate balance of risk and benefit that can be struck.
Just expect closed minds and lots of resistance along the way.
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out of curiosity what was the previous speed limit on that section of track at the summit?