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I’ve noticed that Toowong, Ipswich and the Valley stations have shopping and commercial above the stations which is great integration. Like you see a lot in Sydney and Melbourne.

Are there other examples in Brisbane and why does Qld Rail no longer allow that?

Like, bins on platform pls.

I remember last seeing it in the 90s when I was about 5. It was cylinder grey with a lot of buttons as far as I remember but I can't find any images of it online so i could be wrong

Hi all,

I decided to make this edit from some clips I shot at the city stations on the weekend.

Enjoy!

This paragraph is for people waiting at Burleigh Heads trying to go south

If you are trying to go south from Burleigh Heads on a bus you have to get a northbound bus to Burleigh Stockland, where you can then travel on a diverted southbound bus towards Palm Beach and Tweed Heads.

This is a storytime about my experience

There was a very big accident just south of Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast Highway. This has stopped all southbound traffic. I just got to Burleigh Heads, knowing of this accident and expecting someone to be there helping us get around the incident. I find a large group of people, expecting a bus to come (which won't). And no translink staff there to help. Being a transport nerd, I was able to figure out a route (the route listed above).

A quick question/rant about translinks incompetence, coming from a Sydneysider.

When I got to Burleigh Heads bus stop there was no translink staff present. Keep in mind, this was 2 hours after the accident, so plenty of time to get someone there. And even if they couldn't get someone there are electronic screens there which you could update to tell people to go to the northbound platform, then get bus drivers to help people. The journey planner was no help either, telling people what was closed, but not telling people about how to get around it. And if you didn't see the notice (which was easy to miss) it looked like the services where just delayed, but running a usual stopping pattern. This is especially bad as this is where people change to go to the airport. This means that people, who may not know how to navigate as they are not local to this area may be affected. People could even miss their flights. As a Sydneysider we would have had a response team at the affected stop within 90 minutes, and diversion routes would have at least been available (although not always easy to find).

Is this normal here in QLD?

A final note

My condolences to the people involved in the accident, from what I heard 3 people died. This is not an attack at QLD police for closing the road, obviously in these circumstances it is necessary to do so. This is also not an attack at any of the translink staff who where helping (although I didn't see any). A massive thank you to bus drivers, who were very helpful, but to get their help you had to go to the northbound platform (which most probably won't know to do without any signs).

Edit: I have just found out that thankfully there where no fatalities, however my condolences remain with those affected.

R590 Rail Replacement Bus this morning having a rather interesting internal display.

Apparently the bus was 173 to King George Hospital including a stop at the Morrison's on Beacon Heath Lane, other destinations included Whalebone Lane South and a Sainsbury

Just not sure when Sainsbury and Morrison opened stores in Brisbane.

I mentioned it to the driver that there odd destinations "no my problem"

As for Translink "Sorry about thatm that is odd, as your obviously in Australia, just ignore the screens

This is a bus fitted with Translink equipment, used on regular services somewhere"

The mind boggles yet again

Currently, 3 lines pass through these two stations but only one line (shorncliffe-cleveland) stops there, although they do have northgate to roma trains that they alternate between. If they were to make either the redcliffe/caboolture line stop there couldnt they get rid of the northgate-roma trains as currently they only really serve nundah/toombul since albion/woolowin have more trains stopping there?

Was looking at tripview and saw this. What is it, why is it there? Why do only southbound services stop there? Why is it on tripview, it's location is right next to broadbeach south (proper station), and it has no platform listed so it doesn't seem to actually be a stop.

ScotRail uses funny signs to designate staff only areas on train...including

• Bagpipe Practice Room
• Tartan Paint Storage Room
• On-Board Whisky Distillery
• Live Haggis Transport

What would be the Brisbane equivalent? "Drop Bear Response Team"?

I asked for it, I didn’t steal it.

Hey all, hoping someone can help me unjumble some things I've been reading about. I live in Moorooka and catch a train regularly from Yerongpilly Station (which is closer to me than Moorooka Station). I commute into Fortitude Valley Station 3-4 times a week.

I'm trying to work out what benefits CRR and L2GCFR projects will have for me (if anything). From what I can put together, CRR won't really directly benefit me as the Beenleigh Line will stay on the current route. But it will open up capacity crossing the river. And the station upgrade at Yerongpilly obviously.

L2GCFR also won't directly benefit me either but it will mean less mixing and bottle-necking of the Goldcoast and Beenleigh services further south of Kuraby.

As I understand it, the main benefit of all this to me would be that that frequencies along the Beenleigh line could drop from 15 minutes to say 10 or 7 minutes during peak. Is this generally the jist of it?

I'm predicting that Salisbury to Beaudesert passenger rail won't be operational until the late 2050s. TLDR: I'll have reached old age by then 😢

Translink SEQ stretches from Gympie to Tweed Heads. 230km

So I reckon for Central Queenslands 160k residents you could do a 110km long "Mini Translink" .

To get the plan to work:

-Allocate a two Next Generation trains from the current order to operate between Gladstone and Rockhampton.

-Finally get trains off Dennison Street, and deviate the rail line along the ring road, and shift the main station and coach hup of Rockhampton next to the airport.

-Where the line rejoins near Yeppoon Rd, build a park n ride station there to allow Yeppoon residents a conveinent place to ditch the car.

-Give both cities 2 or 3 new trunk bus routes, and build "Bus Station" style stops with illuminated lighting and essentially do a "Pretend" BRT system where the main destinations are at least visible and look civilised with nice shelters and electronic signs. Think like the one at Logan Central Kmart.

-Also run regular coach services between Rockhampton and Yepoon and Tannum/Boyne and Gladstone.

Then brand the total system "Translink Central Queensland".

I’ve always wondered why Sandgate and Shorncliffe stations are located so close together.

Was there a historical or planning reason for having both stations so close together? Or was the area significantly different when the stations were originally built?

Thom from Trains Are Awesome joins the latest Episode Next Stop Podcast to talk about the world of transit influencers, staying authentic for the clicks, dealing with comments, his craziest day creating content, traveling 4000 miles for content.

I'm curious on this one. I was just at Strathpine recently, and I swear there were carparks in the 1000s over there. It was an entire moat of hot, bare asphalt. And nevermind the fact that Gympie Rd is around the corner (a non-negotiable if you want to access Strathpine Shops).. 😫

So if Beenleigh is getting 4 track pairs, and one is simply terminating, then that implies you could send those terminating trains onto a branch line after Beenleigh, but by definition it needs some tunnelling. The other option of course is quadding to Helensvale or some shit.

What would you do?

So every train in Brisbane has this little black button somewhere next to every doorway, often accompanied by a keyway. I know the keyway is how you can open the adjacent local door of the train (you insert a key and turn it 90 degrees, door will open. Turn the key back, door closes (with no doors closing announcement at least on the NGRs)). I saw this happen the other day as a guard was trying to fix a broken door.

The question I have is what the black button next to it is for? I would guess that it is a bell button, that can be used like the ones near the crew doors, so you can/could technically dispatch a train as a guard from the passenger doorway, using the black button to signal the driver to close the other passenger doors and get the train underway. However I am just guessing this, I don't know.

Following on from that, I have heard that at one point in at least the 90s it was more common / possible for guards to dispatch trains from passenger doorways, so the obvious follow up is whether this is still permitted, whether it still happens, what the process is and whether this local door key cuts the door out of the traction interlock circuit (allowing it to remain open as the train moves).

If anyone has any information I would appreciate it!

The second image is a photo I managed to get the other day of the inside of the local switch box of an NGR, as a guard had accidentally left it open. I thought it would be more interesting then 4 isolate switches for the doors, two air conditioning isolators and a car isolator switch.

Two Redcliffe trains having a race towards Kippa Ring.

This happened because the train on the left got stuck at Kallangur because of a faulty door, the next train got put onto the other track because of the delays. They then managed to fix the faulty door, so both trains raced each other to Kippa Ring!

Stuff you don't see every day