Queensland Rail, also known as QR, is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, Queensland Rail operates suburban and long-distance passenger services. It also owns and maintains approximately 8,000 kilometres of track in Queensland.
Video Queensland Rail
History
Beginnings
Queensland Railways was the first operator in the world to adopt narrow gauge (in this case 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)) for a main line, and this remains the systemwide gauge within Queensland today.
The colony of Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859, and the new government was keen to facilitate development and immigration. Improved transport to the fertile Darling Downs region situated west of Toowoomba was seen as a priority. As adequate river transport was already established between the capital Brisbane and the then separate settlement of Ipswich, the railway commenced from the latter locality and the initial section, built over relatively flat, easy country opened to Bigge's Camp, at the eastern base of the Little Liverpool Range, on 31 July 1865. Called the Main Line, the only significant engineering work on that section was the bridge over the Bremer River to North Ipswich.
Tunneling excavation through the Little Liverpool Range delayed the opening of the next section to Gatton by 10 months, but the line was opened to Toowoomba in 1867, the ascent of the Main Range being the reason for the adoption of narrow gauge.
Built by the Queensland government to the unusual (for the time) gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm), the line largely followed the alignment surveyed by a private company, the Moreton Bay Tramway Company, which had proposed to build a 4 ft 8 1/2 in (1,435 mm) horse-drawn tramway but had been unable to raise funds to do so beyond an initial start on earthworks.
The adoption of narrow gauge was controversial at the time, and was largely predicated by the government's desire for the fastest possible construction timeframe at least cost. This resulted in adoption of sharper curves and a lower axle load than was considered possible using standard gauge, and an assessment at the time put the cost of a narrow gauge line from Ipswich to Toowoomba at 25% of the cost of a standard gauge line. In a colony with a non-indigenous population of 30,000 when the decision was made, it is understandable.
Queensland Rail went on to develop an extensive network of railways to facilitate the economic and social development of the state, totaling 10,500 km at its peak in 1932.
Changing transport patterns resulted in the closure of many development branch lines from 1948 onwards, but at the same time the main lines were upgraded to provide contemporary services, and from the 1970s an extensive network of new lines was developed, particularly to service export coal mines.
Electrification
Commencing in November 1979 the Brisbane suburban network was electrified.
In 1978, discussions were commenced on possible electrification of the Blackwater and Goonyella coal networks. This was due to an expected increase in coal traffic across the networks, ageing diesel-electric locomotive fleet and the increase in diesel fuel costs. By early 1983, a decision had been made to electrify the networks and by early 1984 contracts were already starting to be let for the new locomotives and other works for the project. The decision was made to electrify with the 25 kV AC railway electrification system as used on the Brisbane suburban network. This would allow future connection of the Brisbane network with the coal networks via the North Coast line.
The project was to be carried out in four stages:
Stage 1: Electrification of the main line from Gladstone to Rockhampton, including parts of Rockhampton marshalling yard, then west to Blackwater and the coal mines in the area. This was a total of 720 kilometres (450 mi) of track.
Stage 2: Electrification of the coal lines south of Dalrymple Bay and Hay Point, then west through the Goonyella system, south-west to Blair Athol and south to Gregory - linking the Goonyella system to the Blackwater system. This was a total of 773 kilometres (480 mi) of track.
Stage 3: Electrification of the main western line from Burngrove to Emerald. This would allow electric freight from Rockhampton to Emerald.
Stage 4: Electrification of the line from Newlands coal mine to Collinsville and north-east to Abbott Point. This stage never went ahead. In 1986 it was decided to electrify the North Coast line between Brisbane and Gladstone instead and this became known as Stage 4.
Interstate expansion
In September 1999 Queensland Rail was rebranded as QR. In March 2002 Queensland Rail purchased Northern Rivers Railroad and rebranded it Interail, fulfilling a long held ambition of to expand beyond its state borders.
In March 2003 Queensland Rail entered the Hunter Valley coal market when Interail commenced a contract from Duralie Colliery to Stratford Mine. Another coal contract was won in late 2003 for the haulage of coal from Newstan Colliery, Fassifern to Vales Point Power Station. In 2004 Interail began running Brisbane to Melbourne and Sydney to Melbourne intermodal services. In June 2005 Queensland Rail acquired the CRT Group.
In June 2006 the Western Australian business of the Australian Railroad Group was purchased.
Privatisation
In June 2009 the Queensland Government announced the privatisation of Queensland Rail's freight business. This resulted in Queensland Rail's freight assets being transferred to QR National (now Aurizon) from 1 July 2010.
Redcliffe Peninsula railway line
In October 2016 the opening of a new rail line to the Redcliffe Peninsula resulted in the failure of the rail network. 100s of services were cancelled without notice due to a lack of trained drivers and staff. Passengers experienced extended delays and promised services which did not arrive.
Several weeks after the service interruptions, Queensland Rail CEO Helen Gluer announced her resignation from the company, along with chairman Michael Klug.
It was announced on 27 October 2016, that the director-general of the Department of Transport and Main Roads, Neil Scales, would replace Helen Gluer.
An inquiry into Queensland Rail's train crewing conducted by Phillip Strachan was completed in February 2017. The report determined that Queensland Rail had operated for a number of years with insufficient train crews, paying overtime to cover all the scheduled services and had failed to recruit sufficient additional train crew in anticipation of the opening of the Redcliffe line, creating a severe shortfall of train crew resulting in the cancellation of many services. The report blamed Queensland Rail for having an unwieldy management structure that relied on intuition rather than accurate forecasting and a reluctance to share bad news.
Commissioners
The Commissioners of the Queensland Railways included:
- 1863-1864: Abram Fitzgibbon
- 1864-1885: Arthur Orpen Herbert
- 1885-1889: Francis Curnow
- 1889-1894: A. Johnston
- 1889-1896: John Mathieson
- 1889-1902: R. J. Gray
- 1902-1911: James Forsyth Thallon
- 1911: T. M. King
- 1911-1918: Charles Barnard Evans
- 1918-1938: J. W. Davidson
Maps Queensland Rail
Services
City network
Queensland Rail, in partnership with TransLink, provides Urban and Interurban rail and bus services throughout South East Queensland. These rail services operate on eleven rail lines including Beenleigh, Caboolture, Cleveland, Doomben, Exhibition, Ferny Grove, Gold Coast, Gympie North, Ipswich-Rosewood, Redcliffe Peninsula, Shorncliffe, and Springfield lines. Queensland Rail provides train services on these lines with its rolling stock of electric multiple units, which includes the Electric Multiple Units (EMU), the Suburban Multiple Units (SMU), the Interurban Multiple Units (IMU) and the InterCity Express (ICE).
Due to low patronage, lines such as the Pinkenba line have been closed and replaced by bus services known as a RailBus. During some times of the day trains on the Nambour line and Doomben line are also replaced by the RailBus.
Long-distance trains
Queensland Rail operate these long-range passenger rail services:
- Electric Tilt Train: Brisbane to Rockhampton
- Spirit of Queensland Diesel Tilt Train: Brisbane to Cairns
- Spirit of the Outback: Brisbane to Longreach
- The Inlander: Townsville to Mount Isa
- The Westlander: Brisbane to Charleville
Annual patronage for these services in 2011/12 was 795,000. In 2007/08, the subsidy for the Brisbane-Cairns route was $130 million, or $900 per passenger. In 2001/02 it was $270 million.
Queensland Rail also operate these tourist trains:
- Kuranda Scenic Railway: Cairns to Kuranda
- The Gulflander Normanton and Croydon
- The Savannahlander: Cairns to Forsayth
Fleet
- 1 This table only includes locomotives owned by Queensland Rail. QR also hires locomotives from Aurizon as required.
See also
- Rail transport in Queensland
References
External links
- Media related to Queensland Rail at Wikimedia Commons
- Queensland Rail
- TransLink
- Works by Queensland Railways at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Strachan Commission of Inquiry Report on Queensland Rail train crewing practices
Source of article : Wikipedia
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