Fast Rail in South East Queensland

The Council of Mayors (SEQ) has been a strong advocate for a genuine and tripartite investigation into Fast Rail in South East Queensland since the release of its SEQ People Mass Movement Study.

The Council of Mayors (SEQ) has been a strong advocate for a genuine and tripartite investigation into Fast Rail in South East Queensland since the release of its SEQ People Mass Movement Study.

The benefit of Fast Rail is more than just connecting point A to point B – the benefit extends along the corridor of each Fast Rail link and generates economic uplift across the transport system more broadly. 

Fast Rail will be able to bring people, jobs and services closer together, thereby providing a catalyst for greater investment in South East Queensland as well as alleviate traffic congestion pressures across the region. 

Fast Rail offers the opportunity to promote the integrated development of cities and regions by improving access to employment, education and services as well as more affordable housing and lifestyle amenity.

Currently, many regional CityTrain services run at relatively slow speeds due to track limitations. For example, the average speed between Brisbane and Sunshine Coast is less than 60 km/hour. 

Upgrading rail networks across key regional corridors can allow for significantly faster average journey speeds and reduced travel times, in some cases by as much as half. This may also deliver improved network reliability and more services, if some existing “express” services that have been converted to Fast Rail are re-allocated across the network as “all stops” services. 

Faster average speeds and journey times could also support regional population growth and allow more people to access affordable housing, jobs and services. Fast Rail connections in particular can make rail a more attractive choice for commuters travelling into capital cities from surrounding regions. 

The speed and comfort of rail lends itself to transport over long distances, allowing for more productive time than would otherwise be the case in a private vehicle. This outcome also helps support the increasingly flexible nature of work.

Fast Rail connections in South East Queensland will create broader economic benefits at station precincts and across the region, increasing the demand for local services and attracting businesses and industry to local areas within the catchment of Fast Rail services. 

Provision of Fast Rail to regional centres within South East Queensland can accelerate both their economic and population growth, as has been demonstrated in comparable regions across the world. 

To better align future population growth with long term infrastructure investment, the Australian Government has developed a 20-year plan for a Faster Rail Network as defined in their “Faster Rail Plan”. The Faster Rail Plan is centred on delivering faster, more efficient and reliable journey times along strategic corridors that link our major capital cities and growing regional centres.

From this, the Australian Government has funded the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane North Coast Connect business case as well as committed $8 million to fund the exploration of Fast Rail from Brisbane to Gold Coast. This joins an additional commitment of $15 million to investigate passenger rail services from Brisbane to Toowoomba.

The opportunity for South East Queensland is to leverage these commitments into a regional and tripartite approach to advancing these business cases and making a regional case for the introduction of Fast Rail. 

The challenge for the region is ensuring this critical funding is not misemployed through the delivery of business cases that do not exploit the full range of expertise available across the three levels of government and industry in South East Queensland. 

Potential options for Fast Rail 

While the Council of Mayors (SEQ) supports the vision of a 45-minute region for South East Queensland, it also recognises that the level of investment needed to support this vision may be considered as a barrier to entry for the Queensland Government. 

Therefore, two potential options have been explored to show the costs and benefits of both of 45-minute region and a 60-minute region version of a South East Queensland Fast Rail Network. Both options represent a significant improvement on the current Citytrain offering. 

The differences between the 45-minute region and the 60-minute region relate to a number of aspects including, but not limited to, gauge of track, rollingstock, alignment and corridors – all having a direct impact on potential travel times and costs. 

The options presented in ConnectedSEQ are not definitive but do demonstrate the need for a thorough and collaborative approach to business case development to ensure all options are formally considered. 

The 45-minute region option is based on the established world standards for Fast Rail, a standard that is mature and well tested across the globe. Traditionally, Fast Rail makes use of standard gauge rail and the use of standardised rollingstock commonly used around the world. 

Typically, this rollingstock can reach a top speed of 240 km/hr and average speeds of around 125 km/hr. This option requires some easing of curves in the network and removal of open level crossings. In some areas, it may also require tunnelling to bypass bottlenecks and provide a more direct route. 

While the current Citytrain network is narrow gauge, it is possible in some parts of the network to allow for three rails to accommodate both narrow and standard gauge services at the same time.

The 60-minute region option does not achieve the same travel time benefits but can be based on the current narrow gauge network with an upgraded set of rollingstock improving on the current New Generation Rollingstock. 

These upgrades relate primarily to providing tilt capability to allow the trains to take current curves and corridors at greater speed. There is also a need for upgrading of the rollingstock to gain more speed.  These upgrades would increase the current maximum speed to 180 – 190 km/hr and improve the average travel speed from the current CityTrain services from 60 km/hr to 95 km/hr.

This option would not require as much tunnelling as the 45-minute region option, but would still depend on the removal of open level crossings and some realignment of corridors. 

There are other options available to achieve these outcomes and a coordinated approach to business case development should be undertaken to ensure a thorough review of international experiences and the best possible outcome based on appropriate budgets.

Fast Rail versus Citytrain and High Speed Rail

The existing travel speeds offered by the current CityTrain network are more conducive to local rail travel rather than regional rail journeys. 

The CityTrain offering is therefore not a realistic competitive alternative to private vehicle travel for regional journeys in South East Queensland. However, the CityTrain network does provide public transport connectivity for shorter journeys within an urban environment as appropriate for an urban passenger rail network. This is why a Fast Rail speed is needed to facilitate the level of regional connectivity required in South East Queensland. 

Fast Rail is not High Speed Rail. High Speed Rail, or “bullet trains”, achieves travel speeds more than 250km/h, making it comparable with air travel when you compare door-to-door travel time. 

High Speed Rail journeys are best suited to longer distance trips, often hundreds of kilometres in length and often connecting very large population cities or mega cities with limited (if any) intermediate stopping opportunities. 

Several countries have built High Speed Rail networks to connect major cities including Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Netherlands, Morocco, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Russia and others. 

The application of High Speed Rail in an Australian context between the major capital cities of Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne has been considered in the past. High Speed Rail is generally considered to be more appropriate for interstate travel, rather than regional connectivity. 

Fast Rail is better suited to the travel distances between South East Queensland’s regional centres which typically vary, between 40km (eg: Ipswich to Brisbane) to 100km (Nambour to Brisbane). Fast Rail aims to achieve travel speeds more than 160km/h which is more than double the average speed of CityTrain on some corridors, and below the rail speeds typically deemed as High Speed Rail. 

The faster the rail speed, the straighter and flatter the geometry required. In South East Queensland, Fast Rail would require the removal of level crossings and curve easing in some locations, but it can be designed to largely remain within the existing rail corridors – this is a huge advantage. 

High Speed Rail would require a new corridor that is separate to existing corridors to achieve the desired speeds and would have significantly higher impacts on cost (property and infrastructure), communities (if it was to serve existing and emerging centres) and the environment. 

The table below summarises the differences between urban passenger rail (such as the existing CityTrain service), Fast Rail and High Speed Rail. 

Differences between Urban Passenger, Fast Rail and High Speed Rail

Station SpacingTypical Operating SpeedScaleCorridor
Urban Passenger Rail1.5 – 3km80-100km/hIntra City TravelUses Existing
Fast Rail5 – 20km160km/h +Intra-Regional TravelCan use existing, with some curve easing, level crossing removals
High Speed Rail15 – 100km250km/h+Inter-Regional TravelRequires new separate corridor

Fast Rail provides a solution to delivering the desired outcomes for South East Queensland while balancing the potential impacts on both the social and natural environment. 

Connecting Fast Rail and Citytrain 

Currently, rail is failing to fulfil its strategic role in South East Queensland’s transport system. This is because the CityTrain network, which is an urban passenger rail network, is being expected to perform two functions, namely a local urban function and also a regional role connecting Brisbane to the Gold Coast, Ipswich and the Sunshine Coast.

As an example, the existing North Coast Line does not fulfil its potential as a core mass-transit spine. A step-change to the public transport system is required, which balances the demand across all public transport modes and allows each travel mode to perform its function, thereby resulting in a more efficient transport system. 

Transport demand across South East Queensland will continue to grow in line with population and economic growth and this cannot be sustainably met through private vehicle trips. The south-east needs to be able to move people more efficiently with an appropriately structured public transport network.

The implementation of a South East Queensland Fast Rail Network is an opportunity to review the wider rail network to allow CityTrain to deliver network efficiencies and integration benefits across passenger and freight. 

This is similar to Queensland Government’s planning to reconfigure the urban passenger rail network to incorporate Cross River Rail. Further planning could also consider how the rail network would be able to deliver local, all stops and intra-regional services across South East Queensland thereby promoting efficiencies across the network as a whole system. 

A Fast Rail network would enable the existing CityTrain service to focus on providing an urban passenger rail (local) function rather than providing longer distance (intra-regional) services. The CityTrain network cannot effectively achieve a regional function because it is limited by the speed of the existing rollingstock, operational parameters and track alignment.

With Fast Rail in place, there is an opportunity to reconsider the existing rail operational model. This is because a distinct two-tier system would be able to leverage the possible efficiencies that would exist when running a faster intra-regional passenger service alongside a local urban rail service within each area such as Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Ipswich. 

In particular, in the longer term, there is potential for a two-tier rail operating model with Fast Rail and CityTrain services in South East Queensland. The existing CityTrain urban passenger rail network would likely benefit through the better use of crew, stabling and maintenance facilities for each region and the better use of existing rollingstock that better matches capability and function. These changes may result in operational cost reductions, improved on-time reliability, reduced road network congestion, increased rail network capacity and an improved customer experience. 

There is also opportunity to improve attractiveness and public transport mode share for areas near Fast Rail stations – through a review of feeder services to respond to Fast Rail delivery and improve access to and encourage interchange with the Fast Rail services as part of an integrated public transport network. 

For example, Caboolture West, Ripley or the Yarrabilba / Flagstone high growth areas are examples of emerging urban areas. Providing frequent, reliable and direct feeder services to support trunk public transport such as Fast Rail services will be key in decreasing car reliance and capturing a high public transport mode share as these emerging communities grow.

Fast Rail will be able to deliver a range of economic, social and environmental benefits as summarised below. 

Benefits of Faster Rail Regional Connectivity for SEQ

SocialEconomicEnvironmental
Caters for regional and urban growth Increased regional connectivity and accessibility, with better access to jobs, education and recreational activities Increased quality of life, liveability and amenity in SEQ Reduced travel time encouraging greater movement and activity Supports the release of new land and housing opportunities Improved safety outcomes for transport users across road and rail networksRegional economic growth: connects people to new employment opportunities, increasing economic activity across SEQ Population and employment uplift at Fast Rail stations Evolves the rail network, benefiting the existing urban rail infrastructure and planned upgrades (eg: Cross River Rail) across SEQ Passenger and freight network travel time savings and capacity benefits Improved travel reliability across road and rail networks, boosting productivity Reduced road network congestion Encourages tourism activity Modal shift to rail delaying investment in future road upgradesIncreased passenger transport options, reducing current and future reliance on road transport (which is unsustainable) Reduced reliance on significant and continued regional road upgrades Supports the efficient mass movement of passengers, reduced emissions per capita Encourages uptake of more sustainable modes: public transport, walking and cycling Improves opportunities for infill developments and urban densification, reducing urban sprawl

Case studies have shown that often the social benefits, such as increased liveability and increased amenity, arising from increased rail connectivity can be understated. There are often follow-on benefits for regional centres that can be difficult to predict or quantify, or the benefits are not realised until many years after implementation of the new rail service. 

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