Overview
Months before any athletes take to the track, field, pool and court, everyone's talking about the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. With the event coming to Queensland for the first time since 1982, it definitely won't just be business as usual — shops will be able to operate around the clock, an arts festival will take place across southeast Queensland and now Brisbane's trains will be thrown into disarray.
Unsurprisingly, in order to get folks around the Goldie — and, between Brisbane and the coast too — a large number of trains will be needed. The State Government have just released the relevant travel information for the Games, which includes trains operating 24-hours a day, tripling the number of daily services on the Gold Coast, and running trains every 10 minutes, on average. But, as they've put it, it also features "some adjustments to heavy rail services across the wider SEQ network... due to the unprecedented demand of this world class event."
For Brisbanites, that means services changes not only during the Games period of April 4 to 15, but from March 30 to April 20. Yes, that period runs over both Easter and the school holidays. Most lines will have their services cut to half-hourly in off-peak periods, and hourly on weekends and public holidays, as anyone riding the Caboolture, Cleveland, Doomben, Ferny Grove, Ipswich, Redcliffe, Shorncliffe and Springfield lines will experience.
Those headed to and from the Sunshine Coast might find themselves dreaming of the proposed high-speed option that's been floated — but won't be operational yet — with services running every 90 minutes in off-peak times and every two hours on weekends and public holidays. And everyone along the Beenleigh line won't have trains at all from April 5 to 15, with buses operating instead.
Queensland's railways aren't known for responding well to heavy demand, as anyone who has ever waited for a train that just hasn't shown up or been packed into a carriage on the Gold Coast line well and truly knows. And while the Goldie is certainly going to need all of the trains it can get if the usual crowded services are anything to go by, everyone in Brisbane just going about their regular, non-Games-attending business is going to be in for a significant wait for most of the month.
Image: Ash Kyd via Flickr.