Sun to set on a state icon

FROM MY CORNER .... with ANN BRUNSWICK

As you read this it is certain that the outpouring of public grief that began earlier this week is continuing, and will no doubt continue for some days, weeks, or even months and years to come.

In scenes reminiscent of the mass hysteria that followed Princess Diana’s sudden death, Queenslanders have been weeping enough to fill Wivenhoe Dam in the past few days. Yes, the shock news of the death of the Sunland passenger train triggered waterfalls of tears among those of us who love rail travel.
Premier Anna Bligh has announced a $189 million project for Queensland Rail to build two new Tilt Trains. The project will also upgrade the existing two Tilt Trains. Unfortunately, the news was also accompanied by the announcement that the Sunlander services would be coming to an end after serving our state valiantly for the past 45 years.
Premier Bligh said the Sunlander would be replaced by the new Tilt Train services which in the process would reduce travel time between Brisbane and Cairns by five hours. She also made the observation that the Tilt Trains are the fastest in Australia, travelling at up to 160km an hour.
Did you catch those key words “up to”. Yes indeed, the Tilt Trains may travel at “up to” 160 clicks, but they are far from fast trains as they are known in many European and Asian countries.
It is a point this column has made once or twice before. A check of Queensland Rail’s own website reveals the facts. The Tilt Train takes 23 hours and 55 minutes to travel the east coast between our state capital and the far northern sub-tropical city of Cairns. That‘s a distance, as Queensland Rail itself points out on its site, of 1691 km.
Now my trusty calculator tells me that means the Tilt Train has an average speed of 70km an hour.
Wow! If you are on board don’t forget to protect your neck from the whiplash and muffle your ears from the sonic boom as it rockets along and reaches mach 0.12. It is indeed a tragedy that our iconic Sunlander must bite the dust. It has been so much a part of our history. As a young girl living at Bald Hills I would often pedal my Malvern Star to the nearby local station just to watch that morning’s Sunlander trundle past having left Roma Street Station on its way north. It was always an occasion to wonder who was on board and where and why they were travelling in what seemed to be such luxury. Then it was time to pedal back home in time for dinner before it got dark.

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In making her announcement about the Sunlander and the new Tilt Trains, Premier Bligh said the investment in the new trains had been possible only because of asset sales, including the current public float of the QR National mineral haulage business, and the creation of a separate rail company dedicated to passengers.

Having had to squeeze on to trains at most times of the day it makes me, and no doubt other passengers, wonder why that suburban passenger rail company doesn’t come anywhere near breaking even or making a profit.
And of course now that the profit-making coal haulage business is being sold off, there will be no opportunity to use those profits to offset losses on passenger services or to improve services by adding extra carriages to reduce crowding. No, such improvements, if they ever come, will need to be achieved by higher fares.