Yeah, “short-long” pairing was the planning (at least at the time) as confirmed by RBoT a few years ago. for all the reasons identified in the thread. Part of it (as Bob alludes to) is peak-hour fleet utilisation.
I don’t know why (if there will still be through Gympie services to Brisbane) they would operate any differently from any other Caboolture / Sunshine Coast service, ie through to Boggo Road and Clapham.
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Be good to have a Sunny coast loop …. As i know noosa wants PT access and make tourists use that t noosa ,& not their cars. Noosa have congestion issues….
The OG express, Gympie and later to Maryboroufh, Hervey Bay would be a great express service in the future once tracks north of cooroy are partially duplicated and straightened…..
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I’m of the opinion that rail to the Sunshine Coast Airport is not required at all. There’s about two flights an hour if lucky. Generally speaking, airport rail lines are overrated compared to others.
I would definitely build the rail to Maroochydore and then have a good bus connection from that station through the Maroochydore CBD to the aiport.
The current ‘Gympie-lander’ operates differently from the standard Caboolture/Sunshine Coast services now and are the only services that run express Caboolture to Petrie.
If (and that’s if) the Gympie-lander services are still retained post-CRR, it would be logical to run the daily peak service express from Beerwah, then Caboolture, Petrie, Northgate, Albion, Exhibition and then Roma Street.
However more ideally, the Gympie North trains would be converted to a more frequent Gympie North-Beerwah shuttle service, preferably to be 5 services a day. There would be no north of Beerwah through Citytrain services, and all existing off-peak and weekend Caboolture and Nambour services would be directed to terminate at Birtinya, as well as (per reported current proposal) operate 15 minute off-peak services between Dakabin to Glasshouse Mtns.
As there’s no plans to partially or fully triplicate from Caboolture to Petrie, operating as a two-tier service (to allow DSCL trains to run express from Caboolture to Petrie), plus the rollingstock required to maintain the Caboolture short-runners, would be difficult in Peak Hours (with the only overtaking opportunity is the 3 tracks at Narangba station), taking into consideration the freight services.
Caboolture’s importance as a terminating station reduces post-CRR, and it becomes a stop on the combined Caboolture/DSCL line, serving as a Peak-Hour short runner terminating station. During peak periods, Elimbah yard stows trains that terminate or originate in Caboolture.
Exactamundo.
Station at the David Low Way interchange at Pacific Paradise would be all that is needed. The patronage would overwhelmingly be people coming from the residential catchment on all sides (Bli Bli, Mudjimba, from further north along David Low Way or the motorway etc). I would go no further north by rail unless you end up at Coolum at minimum (or Peregian Springs) - there is no value in an airport-only station since it won’t be at the airport itself and will have literally nothing else around it. Putting it at the airport either introduces the need for yet another branch (with the Maroochydore situation itself being complicated) or adds a massive kink into a route that just shadows the motorway alignment for no equivalent gain in benefit.
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Why does it need to though?
Vastly simpler for the network (and honestly not substantially slower) for any NCL commuter service to have the same stopping pattern as Birtinya trains. The alignment between Caboolture and Petrie is substantially better than the equivalent section from say Beenleigh to Kuraby (which the LGCFR project won’t materially change except at Trinder Park), except around Petrie where all trains would be stopping anyway, so in the absence of an express track just run everything the same.
My preference is to scrub the Gympie to Brisbane service anyway, and to run Birtinya services non-stop from Beerwah to Caboolture. The intermediate stations and anything north of Beerwah would only need half-hourly services at best outside of peak hour, so we should not be stopping every Birtinya train at Beerburrum on the off-chance somebody might want to get on or off. Just have a clockface hourly timetable from Caboolture to Cooroy, extend a few of those further north at 2-3 hr intervals, and in peak hour run through from Caboolture.
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Isn’t there a plan at some time in the future to build a station at Caboolture North? I think both that, and Glass House Mountains might be worthy of regular service, unlike Beerburrum or Elimbah.
Just my 2¢.
^ For sure - just not the current 3. There’s no reason to provide those with 15 minute headways, just run trains through and make good use of the 160kph section.
7 News’s repertoire
Another failed rail transfer due to school holidays today leaving a (very overcrowded) bus load of tourists stranded at Landsborough station waiting for the next train, thankfully only 40 minutes this time.
Never seen it this bad in my life. Passengers were getting waved away and told to wait for the next overcrowded bus because we couldn’t take any more people at one point. Looking at the GTFS data the next 615 is a ‘mdi’ bus which is much smaller and only takes about 60% of a normal bus, good luck to them. This is starting to cause knock on effects on the bus network too, the inbound 615 is 25 minutes late and based on the traffic it’s just going to get worse, so services will start being cancelled soon.
Sorry if my complaints are getting repetitive by the way, I am also escalating these to translink but just thought I’d share them here on the off chance that someone from translink/TMR/the minister’s office reads these threads.
If by any chance anyone falls into this category, please try and arrange an interim solution until the wave is built, even if it’s just for school holidays. This is literally a daily occurrence so far these school holidays. 
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Write to the minister, write to SCC, write to TransLink, write to Kinetic, and keep doing it whenever this happens.
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I would suggest writing to the Shadow Minister and your local MP as well.
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^^The SC Mayor checking out the potential Wave
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Cr Ryan Murphy: “This [Hess Lightram 25] is next generation bus rapid transit (BRT).”
Its all well and good, until the Brisbane Metro/The Wave has to kick several commuters off, because its rubber-tyred wheel axles can’t withstand the weight of ~170 people 
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Does this occur frequently?
Do they have sensors or something at the driver console when they exceed the weight?
I think they do have weight sensors, a few times I’ve gotten on very busy metros a “Please move along the Metro” announcement has played, which I assume is to distribute the weight evenly through the whole vehicle.
Not sure if the announcement is automated or driver controlled
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Was this a problem with the Volgren arties too?
Google AI: The weight sensors detect the weight of the passengers onboard, allowing the system to monitor passenger load and ensure the vehicle remains within safe operating limits.
Some public consultation has opened this morning for Stage 3, looks like they’re collecting feedback on station precincts and alignment. Haven’t had a chance to look through properly
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