Wet weather causes havoc on three major train lines

Brisbane’s unseasonal wet weather is causing woes on the city’s rail lines, with trains suspended at two major stations and commuters warned of lengthy peak-hour delays.

Trains on the Cleveland, Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines are not running through South Bank or South Brisbane stations as a result of a signalling issue caused by flooding.

Buses are replacing trains on sections of the three train lines, while services are operating express through the Tennyson loop to bypass the affected tracks.

“There was a signalling issue caused by flooding around 12.15pm between South Bank and South Brisbane stations,” a Queensland Rail spokeswoman said.

Trains on all three major lines were initially suspended between Roma Street and Yeerongpilly, and Roma Street and Cannon Hill, creating hour-long delays for travellers.

However, the Queensland Rail spokeswoman said trains were being redirected through the Tennyson loop from 2.30pm.

It means trains on the Cleveland line are running express from Roma Street to Buranda, while trains on the Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines are operating express from Roma Street to Rocklea.

Replacement buses are running from Roma Street for commuters needing to access other stations, including Park Road/Boggo Road, Dutton Park, Fairfield, Yeronga and Yeerongpilly.

“We were able to get trains moving again via the Tennyson loop,” the spokeswoman said. “We have deployed extra customer support staff to those key stations as well.

“Signal electricians are on site to find and rectify the fault, but we still have a bit of rain around that will obviously impact the recovery.”

The rain is set to dampen Brisbane for at least another day, making a brolly a necessary accessory.

But warm doonas and bed socks will be more useful from the middle of the week, as the skies clear and the insulating effect of the blanket cloud cover is lost.

Overnight temperatures are due to plummet from Tuesday, the weather bureau predicts, as the cloud band currently sitting over Brisbane dissipates.

Senior meteorologist Harry Clarke said Brisbane’s weather would remain bleak until Tuesday afternoon, with between 10 and 30 millimetres of rain expected in the city.

“There are, particularly towards the Gold Coast hinterland, higher falls than that expected … picking up 50 or maybe even 100 millimetres by the time this event is all said and done tomorrow,” he said.

“It’s not flooding rain, more moderate, but certainly the heaviest rain we’ve had in a while.”

Clarke said the cloud cover had an insulating effect at night, keeping overnight temperatures relatively warm.

“Once this system clears off Tuesday evening and into Wednesday we’ll get a burst of cooler, drier south-westerly winds behind it, so we’ll see a return to mostly sunny conditions,” Clarke said.

But nighttime temperatures could dip into the single digits.

The cloud band sitting over Brisbane on Monday – and spanning from the Kimberly region in Western Australia to the southern NSW coast – was bringing rain to the bulk of the south-east, as well as parts of western Queensland.

He said the “unseasonable” rainfall in Queensland’s west peaked at about 42 millimetres in Windorah, a town more than 1200 kilometres north-west of Brisbane that was hit with flooding in March.

In Brisbane, last week’s wet weather delivered a total of 33 millimetres of rain, about half of which fell on Friday (14.4 millimetres).