Inner City Rail and Brisban rail system

I have been hum-ing and ha-ing about what to write in a follow-up post on the ICRCS. After the release by the government of proposals a fortnight ago, there was a lot of buzz and then silence. A lot of the feedback (particularly in the Courier Mail) was very negative. In the rail and transport 'fan' community there was also a lot of discussion about why various things were proposed and why others weren't.

I have been giving quite a few informal briefings at work on what the project was and why it found what it did, but I don't feel at liberty to talk outside about it as much as I might like. Hopefully, the government will release more information from the very extensive study reports soon.

What I do want to say though is that Brisbane/SEQ badly needs a strategic rail network review. Something that looks at where the city is growing over the next 20-30 years (and beyond) and what rail network will be needed to serve it. This needs to not just tot up the existing SEQIPP suburban extensions, but also look at trunk and middle suburb needs (Newstead - Bulimba - Hamilton - Northgate ? Spring Hill - Newmarket - Stafford - Petrie?) to keep the network effective.

The ICRCS makes a start for the inner city, but the rest still needs to be done.

ICRCS findings announced!

In a press release today, Premier Anita Bligh and Transport Minister John Mickel have announced the findings of the Inner City Rail Capacity Study. The study itself hasn't been released to the public yet (stay tuned!) but the press release and associated maps released to MX newspaper confirm the basic study findings: the need for one new cross-city corridor from the Gold Coast line by 2016 and a second new corridor from the Ipswich Line to the Caboolture line by 2026.

The whole lot is expected to cost over $14 billion, and Infrastructure Australia (the Federal government's infrastructure fund) is being asked to contribute.

The press release also releases some interesting figures that show the scale of the demand:

Ms Bligh said the Inner City Rail Capacity Study found that in 2006 more than 44,000 people used city train services each day during the two hour morning peak period.

“By 2016 demand is forecast to reach between 70,000 and 80,000 people in peak periods and by 2026 increase further to between 105,000 and 130,000 people,” she said.

I'm quite excited the project is slowly being released, but I am a little worried that it might be being oversold with phrases like "world-class 21st century underground rail network".

What the project is is a way of providing capacity in the congested inner city for services from the outer suburbs. Along the way, there are a few underground stations to tap into various opportunities, but it is not really an underground 'network' as such.

Edited to add

Immediately after posting this, I discovered that the project web site has been updated with various documents. I am a bit surprised at what has been released and for the truly geeky I would recommend the "rail operations review" (warning: 5MB pdf file)

Time for the Hamilton NorthshoreTrain

The Urban Land Development Authority (ULDA) has released details of the Master Plan for the Hamilton Northshore site.

Those of you know know the area know that it is served by Kingsford Smith Drive, which gets incredibly busy. Heaven knows how it is going to cope with the 26,000 people who are expected to work there every day!

Luckily, the master plan suggests the extension of the Doomben line into the site - an extension of less than a kilometre.

I sincerely hope the state government takes them up on this option. Otherwise, chaos can be expected.