Hundreds of rail services cut as wage dispute drags on

Rail commuters across Brisbane have been warned of fewer services, with a reduced timetable from Tuesday as an industrial dispute involving several unions lingers.

Seven unions, including the Electrical Trades Union and Rail Tram and Bus Union, are engaged in talks with state-owned railway operator Queensland Rail.

Queensland Rail head of corporate affairs Nev Conway told ABC Brisbane on Tuesday the operator had been forced to pull trains from service due to a backlog in maintenance, following rolling work bans from electricians, maintenance workers and other key support roles.

He said most trains would run on a reduced schedule, as almost 300 services were cut from the timetable.

Services on the Gold Coast, Cleveland, Redcliffe, Caboolture, Springfield, Ipswich, and Ferny Grove lines would be bolstered between 6am and 9am and 3.30pm and 6.30pm, he said.

“Normally, we would run a train every six to 10 minutes for most lines, but now they’ll be 15 minutes in the morning and afternoon peaks and 30 minutes for periods outside of that,” Conway said.

For other services, including the Shorncliffe, Beenleigh, and Sunshine Coast lines, trains were running at 30-minute intervals all day.

Shuttles running between Ipswich and Rosewood, and Doomben and Eagle Junction were also running every half-hour.

Last month, Queensland Rail also warned customers three-car trains would operate across the network, with the Ferny Grove and Cleveland lines worst affected.

Conway said the effects had been wider-reaching than workers and unions had first indicated.

“They’ll keep spinning a yarn about low-level work bans like some sort of cheap parlour trick or Jedi mind games, ‘nothing to see here’, but the impacts are real,” he said.

Last week, Peter Allen, secretary of the Queensland branch of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, said the state-owned operator’s proposals had been “pitiful”.

“They are almost a carbon copy of what was provided previously … [and that] would send people’s conditions backwards,” he said.

Conway maintained Queensland Rail had been engaging in “respectful, good faith negotiations” with workers, but had yet to receive a formal counter-offer from the unions.

Queensland Rail is due to meet with the unions again on Thursday.

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