The largest timetable overhaul in more than a decade has delivered a better experience for commuters with new figures showing peak period patronage is up and crowding has been reduced.
Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said Queensland Rail’s latest customer survey showed the new timetable implemented in June on the Ipswich/Rosewood and Caboolture/Sunshine Coast lines was a success.
“The changes we made to these timetables have had a measurable impact,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“We are attracting more customers while at the same time reducing the number of services where customers stand more than 20 minutes
“Introducing a new timetable is a challenging process – it involves many months of planning, consultation, and operational changes once it is introduced.
“But I am pleased to say the work done by Queensland Rail and Translink has been a success.
“They came up with the best way to deliver for customers after studying what other rail operators are doing around the world, and analysing the rail network to get the maximum number of services where our customers need them.”
Ms Palaszczuk said the result was a timetable which figures show is benefiting hundreds of thousands of commuters each week.
“What we have seen is very positive feedback, and these new figures back that up,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“go card usage figures have given us a more accurate snapshot of how our customers use our network – some incorrectly interpreted that as a drop in patronage – but these figures show the opposite is true.
“The results show a 4.7 per cent lift in patronage across the network during the morning peak and during the evening peak patronage is up 2.5 per cent.
“The growth figures don’t take into account the new Richlands station, which now attracts more than 1200 daily customers in the morning peak and 877 customers in the evening peak.
“The increasing patronage has not come at the expense of customer comfort, with the survey also showing a dramatic reduction in crowding as a result of the new timetable.”
The survey is produced using professional counters at stations recording each person getting on or off services.
The number of crowded services on the Caboolture line during peak periods has reduced from 14 to 8, Sunshine Coast from 5 to 3, Ipswich from 9 to 4.
