[QLD] Park Road upgrade nearly complete (and QR timetables)

[Steven McIntyre <stev@uq.net.au>]

  Never posted anything here before, for some reason I took forever to
even notice this newsgroup exists ):  After reading through some
500 odd threads (in a quick catchup) I could type for days but I'll spare
everyone the agony of hearing me whinge about the Melbourne rail system
(or Metcard) that I grew up with.  (Now that I've finished typing this,
it ended up much longer than I planned)

  Living around the corner from Park Road, and catching trains practically
every day I've got a strong interest in how the upgrade to Park Road is
coming along.  The new timetables (starting May 7th) are out.

  I'm being told by staff that the "third" track (well its platform 3)
won't be operational until at least June.  Signalling and track works
continuing beyond May 7th.  The station itself is almost complete,
the white barrier fencing along platforms 3 and 4 is going up and the
elevators are nearly operational.  The new station building is almost
complete as well.  Whether electronic signage (similar to South Brisbane,
Bowen Hills and Northgate is actually put up though...)

[The platform layout for Park Road is a bit weird.  Platforms 1 and 4
being single.  Platforms 2/3 are an island, but platform 3 starts south
of the station finishing halfway up platform 2.]
(As a sidenote, Cleveland trains have to run off Platforms 1 and 2)

  In theory the XPT could stop at Park Road though I doubt it'll be
happening anytime in the near future.  May be used as a backup though
if some problem did occur preventing the XPT from reaching Roma Street.

  Minimal changes occurred on the Beenleigh and Cleveland lines from
what I can tell.  Gold Coast services being extended to the Airport
(though only to 8pm).  Gold Coast services will continue to not stop
at Park Road which I think of as extremely irritating.

  What I refer to as "the strange train" in the morning; the 8:10am from
Park Road to Bowen Hills running via Yeerongpilly, Sherwood then up the
Ipswich/Corinda line before terminating at Bowen Hills.  Previously
this service terminated at Yeerongpilly.

  I've noticed the 4 Gold Coast services (2 out and 2 in) over the weekend
via Sherwood have been scrapped (they now run via South Brisbane as they
originally did).

  2 trains an hour on a Saturday to the Airport??? Seemed strange to me, as
there are 4 trains an hour on a Sunday (from Roma St this is btw).

  Services between Yeerongpilly and Corinda have been cut back substantially.
This isn't a surprise, the rumours on this have been going on for ages.
There are a few services running to Corinda/Darra/Sherwood each morning
via South Brisbane (and the reverse).

  I lodged a submission with QR regarding interchange times within
the Brisbane Citytrain network (for lines with a regular 30 min service).
In particular I really complained about interchange times from Beenleigh <->
Cleveland and Shorncliffe <-> Caboolture.  The worst is waiting 54 or 56 mins
for your connection train (when they run hourly) due to the timetabling.

Anyone feel like whacking up a "possible" Cleveland -> Bowen Hills,
Beenleigh -> Ferny Grove and Robina -> Airport (Domestic) off peak
timetable for the hell of it?  From what I can tell the platform limitation
at Beenleigh (2 platforms) makes solving this problem a challenge...

-- 

Steven McIntyre
stev@uq.net.au
The next station is Park Road.  This is a train to Brisbane City...... :)