More rail pain: Hour-long delays for Brisbane train commuters

Brisbane train commuters endured more peak-hour delays at the start of the working week and return to school, a week after track closures forced travellers to queue for hours for replacement buses.

Commuters on the Caboolture, Redcliffe Peninsula and Sunshine Coast lines faced hour-long delays on Monday morning caused by a signalling issue at Carseldine station about 7.40am.

The fault was repaired shortly before 9am, but commuters were facing residual delays because of the backlog of trains, a Queensland Rail spokeswoman said.

“Due to the residual delays, customers will still experience delays on their way into Brisbane city.
The trains are running at all stops between Zillmere and Northgate to help keep customers moving,” she said.

Last week, hundreds of commuters were forced to queue for hours on suburban streets while waiting for rail replacement buses when the Sunshine Coast, Caboolture, Redcliffe Peninsula, Shorncliffe and Airport lines were all closed for maintenance work during the April school holidays.

Brisbane commuters had been warned of disrupted travel, with the key rail lines across the city to be closed until the end of April for maintenance.

The track closures had to be extended by at least four days, with Queensland Rail blaming industrial actions taken by the Electrical Trades Union.

However, passengers accused Queensland Rail and Translink of failing to supply enough replacement buses to accommodate the usual number of commuters, particularly last Monday.

Commuters were forced to wait for hours for buses from Northgate Station, with the queue snaking through suburban streets.

Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg was publicly absent during the delays, but held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon in which he blamed protected industrial action by the ETU over Easter for the extended delays.

“We’ve sought to minimise the impacts on commuters wherever possible,” he said, explaining the closures were meant to occur at Easter, when fewer people were using the network.

“It has been exacerbated, however, by the actions of certain unions, which have extended this closure.”

The minister said there were delays in powering down the overhead power cables in order for work to be done safely.

This week, Beenleigh and Gold Coast train lines will run as a combined service between Varsity Lakes and Banoon stations, and no trains will run between Banoon and Boggo Road stations, to allow for maintenance work.

The same is expected from April 27-30.

A Transport Department spokesperson said hundreds of interstate bus drivers were being brought in to help with the demand.