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| Richlands Station Source: NearMap |
Richlands will be served by trains from 5:40am on Monday 24th January (assuming the weekend engineering works do not overrun). Whilst the draft Richlands timetable is pretty good, with peak trains every 12 minutes, this timetable will not be in action until at least March 2011, and possibly later. This means that the Richlands Line will have to operate on a temporary interim timetable for at least few months. Due to having to fit around the existing Ipswich Line timetable and the half-baked Corinda to Darra infrastructure improvements, this interim timetable is likely to be rather sub-optimal. Again, this will not help in attracting passengers to the new station. As of Thursday 6th January, the interim timetable has not been announced. Nor have the timetables for the connecting bus services to Richlands. Just to confuse passengers further, these new bus services will also need a new timetable when the draft timetable comes into action.
Unfortunately, it seems that TransLink have not learnt from past incompetence when it comes to opening new public transport infrastructure.
Update 10/01/2011
The interim Richlands Line timetable has been announced here. Most peak services require a change at Darra, and peak frequency is 50% less than than in the draft 2011 timetable. Weekday off-peak services have been extended from Corinda as expected. At least direct services have been added to Richlands at weekends. A few feeder bus services have thankfully been added too.
Update 17/01/2011
Richlands opened a week early on 17th January to help with the flood recovery efforts. The "opening day without trains" on 23rd January has now been postponed.
"Why do SE Queensland commuters have to continually put up with such mediocrity when it comes to public transport? Such incompetence would not occur anywhere else in the world!"
ReplyDeleteGot to agree with this. Isn't it about time the axe fell?