Local rail passenger services in regional cities
Electric set about to work a local service at Port Kembla, in the suburbs of Wollongong. (own photo)
There are plenty of regional passenger services in Australia (moreso in the east), although most are either short distance services to the capital city (<200km), or much longer and less frequent intercity services, some of which are provided purely as welfare.
Few services are provided that are provided purely for local patronage in a regional centre, or between centres. Existing examples would be:
- Newcastle, NSW – Diesel railcars service the line to Telarah relatively frequently on weekdays, with services a few times a day further into the Hunter. Telarah trains can be heavily patronised at the right times of day (although none are more than 2 cars), I don’t know what the patronage to Scone is like although the loadings on my Dungog train last month were not inspiring. Services are still too infrequent to attract many choice passengers.
Suburban sets provide an infrequent (hourly) local service to stations on the Main North line toward Sydney, which only receive a train every two hours on weekends from every 2nd interurban train. I don’t think this is anything more than welfare. Despite the rail line passing near Westfield Kotara and the Glendale Super Centre neither are near present stations.
- Wollongong, NSW - An electrified branch line to Port Kembla exists which despite being a important freight corridor, doesn’t go anywhere useful for passenger services, although an infrequent CityRail service operates as a shuttle from Thirroul at most times. There is potential for strong local patronage in the Thirroul to Shellharbour section, but present services are only hourly and have little/no integration with bus services (also an issue in Newcastle).
- In Victoria, Geelong has a number of suburban stations but are in poor locations for local usage. Quite a lot of travel between towns is made on Latrobe Valley services although frequencies can be as low as two-hourly on weekends. Clearly all services are designed for travellers to Melbourne.
Potential Services
Services in Newcastle and Wollongong in NSW could easily be upgraded to a suburban level of service, supported by a proper local bus network. I don’t know if local trains in the Blue Mountains could be viable.
Regional New South Wales and Queensland’s North Coast have a number of regional centres which are relatively close but only linked by infrequent CountryLink or Traveltrain services. I don’t know if there would be much demand for travel between centres, presumably buses could cover it.
I’m not sure what would be viable in Victoria, particularily in Gippsland. Some proposals have eventuated recently in Bendigo for a light rail system. Geelong and Ballarat had trams many many moons ago.
No regional centres in Australia have a proper bus network, so fixing those should be the first priority. Until capital cities have a proper public transport system, regional areas will certainly be on the government’s backburner for some time. Buses should suffice for public transport.
Any comments or ideas?
Bendigo also had trams as did Newcastle.
The problem with Victorian regional city trams was that in about 1930 when the Sate Electricity Commission took over the electricity supply and tram companies the government at the time just changed the legislation to make the SEC a tram operator against its wishes instead of a sensible solution like giving them to the councils or setting up new tramways boards.
Despite my commentary on a Bendigo Light Rail network recently, my simple answer in this case is I don’t know – would need to see the data. While the tourist route could be easily expanded using heritage equipment, whether this performs any useful service is hard to say.
I feel the Newcastle rail system needs a bit of a look at what it is really for. The Newcastle CBD could be revived into a proper regional CBD but with less prospect now than many places.
I feel Newcastle still needs to move up the value chain somewhat. The city did not make the transition from industrial city to post-modern city very well. Some examples: When the giant Westfields at Kotara and Charlestown opened it sucked a lot of retail out of the CBD. Of course a similar phenonenon occurred in much larger cities like Sydney or Melbourne, but the retail in those CBDs was replaced with something the Westfield chain will never have – culture. Hence a lot of cafes and experimental or experiential retail is located in the CBDs now.
Likewise in the service industries. A lot of basic services and support services that used to be undertaken in Melbourne and Sydney CBDs have moved out to the suburban CBDs and industrial parks of the outskirts (or been lost to Australia).
But the CBD service industries that remain have expanded and moved up the value chain somewhat. You may not find the people who will sell you the insurance product in Sydney’s CBD any more; but you will find the people who design the product and market it there.
And it is not just on the ’supply’ side – I suspect on the demand side a lot of Novocastrians, if they have money at all, it is new to their families. Low on the Maslow heirarchy of needs, and probably not concerned about issues of environment and lifestyle.
Hence Newcastle, more than the state capitals, the rail service lingers on as the service of last resort rather than first resort, its fortunes tied somewhat to the urban structure. That said, some recent moves like the Honeysuckle redevelopment were a step in the right direction. More such steps need to be taken.
The University has been said to have grown to be the largest employer and replaced the steelworks as the city’s anchor. The railway does connect the University so that is not the issue. Some of the debate about extending the wires to the University seemed to recognise this.
Wollongong I feel has less overall need for a regional service but the linear shape of the urban area reinforces the benefits for rail, and it is within commuting distance of Sydney.
Geelong I don’t know, probably a similar comment to Wollongong but even less focus for locals on going to their CBD. Geelong is the best case for building up local bus networks first.
The idea of a suburban/regional service in Cairns using existing QR track has often been suggested. Services could run along the Brisbane main line from suburbs south of the city (presumably from Gordonvale, but potentially could go further south the Babinda, but this may impact on frequency). North of the city services would run along the Kuranda railway track to Redlynch. There are several existing stations along the route and several potential locations for new stations. Issues would be resolving timetabling with the Kuranda tourist train, Brisbane services and freight services, but these could be overcome.
Other ideas for Cairns include running light rail on the sugar cane train network, but this would involve significant amounts of new infrastructure. There is also the question of what would happen during cane crushing season when the tracks are used (obviously) by cane trains.
Rockhampton used to have a steam tram network which was very popular in the early 20th century but it died with the advent of the car. Now, Rockhampton has a less than functional bus service with poor patronage that, while it does go the airport, doesn’t allow easy movement across the city. I think inner city Rockhampton would be well serviced by a sort of “city circle” bus route to allow people to get around relatively easily without having to walk in the tropical heat.
As for getting between Rockhampton and places like Mt Morgan and Yepoon, if you don’t own a car, someone you know does.
Cairns has the Tilt Train stop in the middle of town, a shuttle bus from the airport to most downtown destinations and a pretty good cycling network. Because it’s so tourist oriented, Cairns is a very walkable city and the bike lanes go pretty much everywhere you’d want to go. There are a few buses but there’s not much call for it when you can just jump on a bike or walk in the seaside breeze. Getting to and from other regional areas like Port Douglas, though, may require a bit more investment in buses although there are shuttles.
The Qld Government has committed to building a few new rail lines. One, near Ipswich, will be a commuter line for people who live in the new Ripley Valley development. The other main one is further towards the Sunshine Coast itself, rather than the hinterland (Nambour, etc.). This will be good but I doubt there’ll be a sufficient density of stations to allow people to use it to get around the Sunshine Coast.
The Gold Coast’s “Mass Transit” system, which could be either a busway or a light railway, is going to link the major centres like Broadbeach, Surfers’ Paradise and Harbourtown. I imagine it will integrate well with the bus network down there but it could be a real mess of changing services if it’s not done properly (which I imagine it won’t be).
I was very impressed with Newcastle’s train network while I was down there. It’s a satellite town of Sydney yet there are still trains running from Newcastle to Morriset and Fassifern and other nearby destinations. I wonder if the Toronto spur line will ever be reopened or whether it will stay as a bus route.
Cairns actually has a pretty decent bus service as far as regional cities go. (It has a really odd numbering system though).
I managed to find this PDF, which not only has a map of all the bus routes, but the map also indicates the rail line which I referred to above. (according to Google Maps, the distance from end to end would be aprox 40km. I got it to measure the distance by road). Now all it needs is a train service to run along it.
I vaguely remember reading Queensland Transport’s strategic transport plan for Cairns which I think ruled out a train service.
http://www.sunbus.com.au/pdf/Cairns_network_guide.pdf
Yes you wouldn’t get much sympathy from me for a Cairns-based heavy rail service. The old route to Woree would be useful for light rail (if the numbers stacked up) and I expect to the foot of the range you could do it.
But to follow SITWWW’s primary point, light rail is best used when the bus service is not coping because of the load, but heavy rail is still too much. And when you are trying to promote a ‘hop-on, hop-off’ usage pattern. You have to have something that people want to ‘hop-on, hop-off’ for. Some cities are laid out that way, for example Melbourne, others just aren’t.
Consider that journeys of up to 3 kilometres are an excellent length for light rail, and that in Melbourne the vehicle might have turned over its passenger load several times on a journey. The 96 from Ackland St St Kilda might have carried 100 people to the Casino, but all of them are off the tram by Southern Cross. Another 100 people are on the tram but they are all off by Swanston St. Another 100 people board at Target and are off by the Exhibition Building, finally 100 people might ride from Parliament towards East Brunswick.
This is light rail at its best – but you have to have many of these short journeys to do, and I don’t know how many of the provincial cities can do this. Newcastle probably could. It’s not just a population thing (of course that helps) but how the city is laid out.
Thanks all for the comments – the standard of discussion on this site is very high.
Riccardo – From my observations of Newcastle’s CBD it is still very quiet and undeveloped for the population of the Hunter area, for example there is little shopping. The rail system in the Lower Hunter is still designed around the CBD as the main destination. Had that line been closed, I don’t know what potential there would be for local services.
I was eating in the food court at Westfield Kotara in July which had a good view of passing trains on the Main North so there is still potential for other destinations to be serviced by rail. Seemed very hostile to anybody entering from the street.
Wollongong was suggested by me as a candidate because the existing railway line already services a fair few destinations – north to the University and the suburbs up to Thirroul, south to Dapto (shopping centre), Albion Park and Oak Flats which is an ideal station to service the Shellharbour area. Bit of congestion due to single track south of Unanderra plus conflict from interurban and coal trains north of Wollongong.
There was also the service to Moss Vale until 1994. I doubt that would be viable again – the present bus is hopeless (only 3x daily) and having travelled the Unanderra-Mossy line it seems quite slow. The limited paths from the single line are needed for freight.
Sam – I’m assuming that the Maroochydore line would be similar to the Robina line so that it has few stations (designed for long distance pax). I wonder if Toronto would still be open if it had been included in the 1980s electrification, would have made a logical place to run the local K sets to.
Yes, my point about trams/light rail has always been that they have a particular use as opposed to being a superior form of transport to buses that should be implemented where possible, as is suggested on RP and SSC.
There is probably not many places outside of capital cities where the passenger volumes for local services would warrant the capacity of heavy rail, or even light rail for most instances.
For example, most of Bendigo’s buses only run every 30 mins (at best) on weekdays and hourly on weekends and usually finish at 6pm or 9pm (depending on route or day). You could increase bus patronage much more before you consider LR.
Bus routes in regional cities should be redesigned so they’re as direct as possible, and actually perform a useful function.
I don’t think it’s too much to expect that every route runs every day, and the major routes (ie. Bendigo route 1) run every 15 minutes until at least 10pm. Minor routes can be decided on a case-by-case basis, but I believe every 30 minutes until 9pm should be the absolute minimum.
South East QLD also has a couple of purely local services, the best example being Ipswich to Rosewood which is operated as an Ipswich centric suburban line (but with onward connection to Brisbane).
There are also infrequent Nambour – Caboolture shuttles that do not continue into Brisbane.
In past days, regional suburban services existed in Toowoomba, Maryborough, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Townsville and Cairns, plus a wide variety of local railcar operations. Of these, the Toowoomba service was the only short lived one, fading away by the 1920s. The others existed in some form for 70 or more years.
Bundaberg was the next to go, early ’40s with the truncation of the line that once serviced Bargara.
Rocky & Townsville both threw in the towel in the 1960s, Rockhampton as a result of the 1964 branch line closures which took out the once very popular Emu Park line. At its peak, the local network around Rockhampton was bigger than the Brisbane suburban system, with lines to every point of the compass and 45 degrees in between. A kind of tropical analog of Ballarat in its heyday.
Cairns soldiered on with suburban railcars much longer, with the last remnants of these services persisting to the late 1970s; the last provincial QLD city to have a genuine suburban train service. Photos exist of peak hour Gordonvale to Cairns railcars which were “standing room only” as late as the 1960s. Cairns also retained a longer distance reminder of its local service – 2000 class railcar runs to Tully and Ravenshoe – right up to 1989.
Turning attention to the current day, I do not believe there is potential for suburban heavy rail service anywhere in QLD outside the south east corner. Townsville and Cairns both may eventually warrant light rail – I’m talking long term here, and Cairns is building its first busway (dedicated bus lanes as part of a freeway style upgrade to the Bruce Highway). Since the 1960s neither city has developed in a manner that supports re-use of the old suburban rail routes. If Cairns ever has suburban rail again, it is most likely to be light rail along former cane tramway corridors, and possibly operating over the 3′6″ QR metals as well.
If further non Brisbane centric local services appear in QLD, they are much more likely to grow from demand in the two coastal strips, Sunshine Coast & Gold Coast. The Sunshine Coast (CAMCOS) proposal includes local trains between Maroochydore & Caloundra to supplement an hourly service to Brisbane. On the Gold Coast, I doubt local service on the line south of Beenleigh is likely, but the proposed rapid transit system will most likely be a light rail system that will fill a similar function and returns rail to the same area that was served by the old Southport branch.
On the other hand, the Ipswich local service looks like fading away. Current network proposals for Brisbane would see the Ipswich – Rosewood shuttles replaced with a full time express Brisbane – Ipswich – Rosewood service.
The issue of the Newcastle CBD branch line in NSW has reared it’s head again, with the current issue being a developer proposing to cut back the line to Wickham Station, but the government isn’t budging at the moment.
This opinion piece from the Newcastle Herald titled Rail line racecourse makes out that the trains only exist to carry losers and that the line is wasting valuable space.
Not sure what to make of this all – would love to see the area redeveloped but IMO the trunk rail line is essential as a transport corridor especially to service the new developments. Putting the line underground has been proposed but would be very difficult due to the location and for the cost you would get exactly what benefit?
What I don’t get is all this stuff about cutting the line, but not completely. Always Hamilton, Wickham or Civic. If you’re going to cut the line might as well be Broadmeadow and be done with it.
Maybe the Libs will have a go when they get in!
I don’t buy this line about ‘unobstructed views’ blah blah. There are plenty, yeah, too many obstructions already. They tried that trick in Melbourne, pulled down the Gas and Fuel building and stuck a different obstruction in its place.
I would suggest a Karlsruhe stadtbahn style thing could go in, run on turn-up-and-go frequency and therefore not disadvantage anyone who wants to connect with trains to Sydney and Maitland. I would also suggest we acknowledge that Maitland, despite its excellent service, is really an interurban service in the meaning that once applied to the capital cities’ suburban services pre 1970s. The trains could connect at a massively redesigned Broadmeadow Station and then share the mainlines with services to the south and west.
The station is a crying shame. Maybe the building and platform 1 could be incorporated into a retail development with the LRVs stopping there, but heading on to Nobbies.
I don’t see what is really wrong with the existing line as a public transport corridor. It works fairly well having the Sydney & Maitland services coming into the main station.
Don’t see light rail as having any/many advantages – wouldn’t shut up the “the line is a blight” brigade and remove the CBD-to-CBD service from Sydney and Maitland to Newcastle. Buses could easily cater for intra-CBD travel.
Interesting that you consider Maitland’s service ‘excellent’ – I’d say that it’s still only a welfare service off-peak/weekends.
BTW, have you noticed that this site has been fairly quiet as of late?
What about grade seperating or sinking the line from Broadmeadow to Newcastle? This would hopefully reduce the argument for trying to close the line.
I’m not really familiar with NSW, but I’ve had a read of all the comments on the pages Somebody linked. Surely a simple cut & cover for the station area & surrounds, with development over the top to cover costs, would solve the “suburb separation” problem? Then you’d also have residences near the shopping centre – surely a win for them, and for ‘revitalizing’ the CBD…?
Dave: I don’t think that Newcastle Station itself is what they are whinging about. This shot shows the alleged “blight”:
http://www.nswrail.net/locations/photo.php?name=NSW:Newcastle:12&line=NSW:newcastle:0
The line was electrified in the 1980s and some of the earlier proposals were for the line to be de-electrified and the wires strung the other way to the University (Warabrook), which would still allow the Maitland diesel trains to run into Newcastle.
If they want to improve the amenity of the area, all that I could suggest would be to have more crossings of the railway line and low profile overhead. I think that putting it underground or cut-n-cover would have water table issues and would not offer any benefits from a PT point of view.
Thanks Somebody. I’d be interested in how many Maitland and Beresford/Thornton people actually use any form of transport to get to Newcastle. I get the impression (and some of my family are Novocastrian) that Maitland hasn’t really fallen into Newcastle’s orbit hence my comment that the service is interurban and sufficient at current timetables.
My tendency is to look at urban areas and see opportunities for turn-up-and-go public transport. For interurban journeys, I would set the bar higher and require that the journeys really are about higher ‘value’ trips.
You could use Maitland as an outlet for Newcastle congestion etc but I would suggest that Newcastle is a long way from needing such an outlet and probelms within Newcastle should be fixed first before worrying about mid- and upper-Hunter transport.
Same with Muswellbrook and Dungog services. Great that they are available for people, I still struggle to see what role these services play. Are the upper Hunter towns actually in Newcastle’s orbit?
I suspect the Newcastle rail corridor debate is also a sign of the weakness of local politics, with the developers making poorly disguised attempts to appropriate public property for private gain, and few countervailing forces based locally. At the end of the day, Novocastrians themselves have to want to have a city centre, with local head offices, local high density residential and retail, and a focus for the districts activities.
If they don’t want this, but want ‘exurbia’ focused on Charlestown or Shortland, then they might as well bulldoze the whole thing and be done with it. The city is very ugly if they aren’t prepared to work on it.
I have promoted Rail Passenger Service for 20 years out of my own pocket. Now comes the time we need to go after STIMULUS MONEY the rail groups are asleep—can you say big oil money?
We need projects that will help people in regions and all areas of the state. For over a decade thousands of people have been speaking out wanting rail passenger service in cities that would benefit from the economic boost. In 2007 the state Transportation Department recommended it in a study including St. Louis, Kirkwood, Sullivan, Rolla, Lebanon, Springfield, and Branson. Service should also be considered to Kansas City from Springfield.
http://www.modot.org/othertransportation/rail/documents/MissouriDOT-SpringfieldtoStLouisServiceReport051607WebEdition.pdf
In southwest Missouri we need new jobs. An effort of ten years to bring Technology Jobs http://www.technologypark2006.org is what the people want which is new better paying jobs of the future. Research and development of solar, wind, and other forms of new products of the future can be done at the Technology Park.
The Stimulus money needs to be spent on long term projects the people want not just some road projects to make the auto, concrete, and gas people happy! Remember we are competing for jobs of the future with countries like India and China who are getting the best laugh right now when it comes to the economy!
Sincerely,
Steven L. Reed
1441 South Estate Ave.
Springfield, MO 65804
417-882-2942
Good points, Steven Reed, keep up the good work.
Steven, I’m interested. We’ve been talking about Newcastle, city of half a million. What are the population levels in South West Missouri?
Hi Somebody.
I rode late afternoon Scone service last Saturday from Newcastle to Scone.
The train was a 2 car unrefurbished Endeavour set, which departed 3 minutes after a Dungog service, and was not busy from Newcastle, but fairly heavily loaded from Hamilton (most seats taken). A number of people left the train at Maitland, but I’m assuming that a lot more for Maitland would’ve been on the Dungog service.
Lochinvar and Greta were very quiet, and Branxton while busier was still quiet also. Singleton and Muswellbrook were very busy, each accounting for approx one third of passengers on the train. Aberdeen was another fairly quiet stop, with the dozen or so left on board continuing to Scone. There were also some people boarding at Singleton who left at Muswellbrook.
The train back was very quiet, again Muswellbrook and Singleton were the two busiest stops, after departing Singleton there were probably no more than 20 on board.
My observations were that the service beyond Maitland was very much a “welfare express”, about two thirds onboard were ferals and the remaining first were mainly elderly pensioners. It was among the most feral train rides I’ve ever experienced in my life, and also witnessed a theft occur where a feral lady stole a phone from someone sitting in the seat behind me (they got it back).
Muswellbrook and Singleton definately justify a train service. Singleton is home to the nation’s infantry and as such, cetrain trips get heavily packed by army guys (much like Crib Point on the Stony Point line). Branxton is a growing town which shows no signs of slowing, and while it was a quiet stop it would definately be busier if there was a decent frequency.
I have heard rumours that some local services to Maitland / Telarah may be extended in the future to Singleton.
Anyway, those were my observations.
Thanks Damon, but what were you doing in my state?
I haven’t done the Scone run yet, only because on a weekday you get back to Sydney around midnight. I assume you stayed in Newy?
Dungog was dead when I did it (as mentioned before) but at least the patronage was mostly seniors & schoolkids rather than ferals (this was a weekday).
Would be disappointed if they extended Telarah runs to Singleton, as it would mean Telarah would receive 60-minute gaps in it’s otherwise half-hourly service. But if they don’t have enough sets to run extra trips all the way from Newcastle, it’s better than nothing.
How many people were going to Aberdeen and Scone?
Somebody, I don’t know where your state is, you seem to be everywhere these days, lol. Where are you living these days?
I was on a 620 class tour which was altered to be a CPH tour 3 days before it ran due to mechanical failure. I rode it between Paterson and Bomaderry and return, so have not yet completed the Dungog section in full.
Probably about half a dozen went to Aberdeen and a dozen remaining to Scone, of which myself and a mate, and another guy we don’t know returned on the up train.
Thanks Damo for your insight
It is always too far for me to do from Sydney without devoting the whole day. Dungog is slightly easier and have done it twice.
And when I was much younger, they were always replacing it with buses on account of coal line works. I guess that won’t change!