60kph in the lead-up heading south through Cotton Vale/Thulimbah/The Summit and through the level crossing (there’s a blind 300m radius curve between The Summit station siding and the level crossing). It was 80kph on the straight afterwards through Glen Niven (towards Stanthorpe). But QR has lowered the speed limits on most unprotected level crossings in the area to 25kph (noting the one across the New England Highway is not unprotected).
The track is almost dead straight through the 60kph zone, but is maintained to a low standard (bad ballast, 50% timber sleepers etc.), so even in the absence of level crossings, there are definite limitations. In the context of track that is effectively only used once or twice a month by a steam/diesel operated tourist service, the level of maintenance is reasonable (no freight operates on the line past Warwick; all freight goes south-west to Goondiwindi/Thallon).
But it highlights the risk averse attitude of the organisation. There was no clear rationale to lower the speed limits on quiet unprotected crossings at Cotton Vale, Thulimbah or in The Summit township. They just added those because they could as well.
Question on Notice No. 629
QUESTION:
Will the Minister specify the nature and scope of the ‘supplementary assessments’ currently being undertaken to refine and finalise the Long Distance Passenger Rail business case?
I don’t think they want to do it because, let’s be honest, the BCR will be very poor if the current per passenger subsidy is anything to go by.
They will likely be dragged kicking and screaming to it because of the politics.
That doesn’t mean I personally don’t want this to happen - I really do, and hope it does. And soon. Last time I travelled on the Westy (during COVID), the rolling stock definitely had literal holes in the frame (just not anywhere important luckily).
If I remember correctly, locomotives are out of scope. We had the recent 2900 series remodel, so that’s what we’re going to get haulage-wise. A couple of them live at Toowoomba in the bay platform usually, and they are perfectly serviceable (albeit not an AC connection in sight).
I personally like the ‘accessibility to the common man’ of the Spirit of the Outback; I’d hate to see to go so high class it becomes unaffordable and/or inaccessible to most people. Make it very comfortable and a little classy, sure - but I think it represents the best value you can get out of a rail journey in Australia, and I’d hate to lose that. (It’s like my circa 2008-2013 journeys on Japan’s Hokutosei (Sapporo - Ueno) and Twilight Express (Sapporo - Osaka) in the order of $500-700 for two people in a twin room - now gone and replaced by $10,000+ cruise trains )
With respect to the western line, the track is good quality as far as Miles (where the coal mines end, essentially), so I’d consider that a possible logical truncation point if we had to farewell the overnighter going further west.
But if we must bid farewell to the longer distance run by rail, I’d be lobbying for Warwick (which is bigger than Dalby) to be included in a more regional-type rail system. Stanthorpe is probably not feasible because the average speed on the ascent from Warwick to there is about 30kph.
…And maybe Townsville to Charters Towers (and an extra daily Townsville - Cairns service if we can bring the travel time up to something respectable - 5.5hrs at present is frankly unacceptable).
Would it be too insane to run shuttle services to Maryborough Central from Beerwah once DSCL is in operation?
You could take a few IMU16x and 12x and retrofit them with batteries for the final stretch from Mary West to the city centre, and use those as well to run last mile services to Gympie Central.
Obviously tracks would have to be renewed but it wouldn’t be extremely complex.
About the Spirit of the Outback: get new carriages for it (with an extra order for the Inlander) and throw the old stock for the Westlander for the time being. If we’re gonna build rolling stock in Torbanlea might as well use the plant for more than just the QTMP.
Saw via Facebook earlier in the week that the Electric Tilt Train trip Q994 (AM Bundaberg to Roma St service) made an additional stop at Exibition station for the Ekka Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday (12, 14, 15, 16 August). Seems like a great initiative.
While trying to find the link again I found this video of it: Redirecting...
So QRTravel is developing a new website for their onboard infotainment (qrtv.com.au, only access on QRTravel wifi), and is available to the public in prerelease.
I only used the live journey tracker, and I have a few pieces of feedback:
Why does the live journey tracker list down all the passing loops (e.g. Gladstone, IV7, IVG (Iveragh), BRR (Bororen), Miriam Vale). It would be more sensible to list down the stations only.
The speed trading on the live map is woefully inaccurate. One time the speed of the train was shown as 25kph shortly after leaving Maryborough West. The train was travelling at around 130kph.
With the movies now going on people’s personal devices, would the onboard monitors revert back to showing the live journey tracking once the new infotainment is in stable release?/
These are just two pieces of feedback I have for the new infotainment system for QRTravel.
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