| Type | government-owned corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Rail transport |
| Founded | 1865 |
| Headquarters | Brisbane, Australia |
| Key people | John Prescott AC, Chairman Paul Scurrah, CEO |
| Services | railway network access, freight, logistics, commuter, long-distance |
| Revenue | A$3.97 billion (08/09)[1] |
| Operating income | A$724 million (08/09)[1] |
| Profit | A$298 million (08/09)[1] |
| Employees | 15,852[1] |
| Website | www.queenslandrail.com.au |
Queensland Rail, also known as QR, is a government-owned railway operator in the state of Queensland. Under the control of the Queensland Government, Queensland Rail operates the inner-city and long-distance passenger services, as well as some freight operations and gives railway access to other rail businesses.
Contents |
Queensland Rail started business in 1865[2] with the first service carrying school children and dignitaries on the first rail line in Queensland running from Ipswich to Grandchester.[3]
Queensland Rail, in partnership with TransLink, provides Urban and Interurban rail and bus services throughout South East Queensland. These rail services operate on eleven rail lines including Beenleigh, Caboolture, Cleveland, Doomben, Exhibition, Ferny Grove, Gold Coast, Gympie North, Ipswich, Rosewood and Shorncliffe lines. Queensland Rail provides train serices on these lines with its rolling stock of electric railcars, which includes the Electric Multiple Units (EMU), the Suburban Multiple Units (SMU), the Interurban Multiple Units (IMU) and the InterCity Express (ICE).
Due to low patronage, lines such as the Pinkenba line have been closed and replaced by bus services known as a RailBus. During some times of the day trains on the Gympie North line and Doomben line are also replaced by the RailBus.
Queensland Rail aims to operate 99.75% of peak services and to have 93.77% of those services running no longer than four minutes late.[4]
Queensland Rail provides long range passenger rail services throughout Queensland. Its flagships are the electric and diesel Tilt Trains, servicing Brisbane to Rockhampton and Brisbane to Cairns respectively. Queensland Rail also operates diesel-locomotive-hauled services between Brisbane and Cairns as The Sunlander, Brisbane to Longreach as Spirit of the Outback, Townsville to Mount Isa as The Inlander and Brisbane to Charleville as The Westlander.
Traveltrain's annual patronage is approximately 969,000.[5] Whilst proportionately smaller than other regional rail services, relative to population, this is largely as Traveltrain caters to a touring market more so than other operators. In 2007–08, the subsidy for the Brisbane-Cairns route was $130 million, or $900 per passenger. In 2001–02 it was $270.[6][7]
Queensland Rail runs tourist trains between Normanton and Croydon as The Gulflander, Cairns to Kuranda as the Kuranda Scenic Railway, and Cairns to Forsayth as The Savannahlander.
As of September 2011 the Queensland Rail fleet consists of the following trains:[8]
On June 2, 2009 the Queensland Government announced the 'Renewing Queensland Plan', with Queensland Rail's commercial activities to be separated from the Government's core passenger service responsibilities, and formed into a new company called QR National Limited.[9][10] The new structure was announced by the State Government on December 2, 2009,[11] and was in place from July 1, 2010.[12]
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||