Cleveland railway line to get 36 peak hour commuter services upgraded

It comes as the government brings on line 37 new trains which were ordered by the Campbell Newman government.

Their introduction had been stalled for years by an array of issues which had to be resolved with the manufacturer.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said thousands more seats for commuters would be available as six-car units replaced three car trains on 193 services.

The new services would increase carrying capacity by more than 46,000 seats a week across the network.

“We said we would increase passenger carrying capacity when possible and that's what we've done,” he said.

“Passengers will immediately notice the difference on the Beenleigh, Shorncliffe, Ferny Grove, Cleveland, Northgate and Doomben lines from today.

“Queensland Rail has focused on upgrading Monday to Friday services rather than at weekends when fewer people travel.

“Of the 193 services where capacity will be doubled, 40 are classified as high patronage where average seated capacity occupancy rates are more than 80 per cent.

“...About 6 per cent of the 6248 Monday to Friday services are provided by three-car units on the current timetable.

“After these upgrades just 3.21 per cent of services will be three-car trains.

“The popular 6.54am Shorncliffe to Central, 6.55am Ferny Grove to Park Road and 4.18pm Bowen Hills to Cleveland services will be upgraded, doubling the number of seats on these services.”

Oodgeroo MP Mark Robinson said Cleveland rail commuters would finally receive some relief from the impact of Labor’s cuts to 42 services.

“While this announcement is far from the complete restoration of Labor’s cuts, it goes some ways to help reduce over-crowding,” he said.

“...When Labor’s rail fail happened the state government cut over 400 weekly train services from the rail network due largely to the driver shortage.

“The Cleveland Line was the worst hit and experienced a reduction in the number of services by 42 services each week.

“So I started a “Save Our Rail” campaign to have those services restored.

“The government’s announcement is a response to the pressure of that campaign but it is only a small step in a long road back from their cuts.”

Mr Bailey said that after the latest upgrade there would be just 171 three-car services remaining on the Monday to Friday timetable.

“One hundred of these are on the Rosewood shuttle and they will not be upgraded due to infrastructure limitations on the Rosewood line and low demand," he said.

“Current patronage numbers also show the three-carriage trains meets demand on that line at weekends when patronage is lower.

“This additional capacity is because we now have 37 New Generation Rollingstock (NGR) units available for service on the network so Queensland Rail will consider further upgrades as more NGR units become available.”