Peak hour services will be only partly restored across Brisbane and Gold Coast as of Monday (August 17), Queensland Rail says.
The return of some services comes after some striking staff returned to work to clear a maintenance backlog caused by a protected strike.
Union members went on strike in May which forced SE Qld rail services to revert to a weekend timetable with less carriages which has led to crowding on peak hour services.
Now 135 weekly services will run during peak hours, it says.
Qld Rail says it issued ‘no work, no pay’ notices (and cleared by the Fair Work Commission) to get some workers back to their jobs; 55 services resumed during June-July with 80 more weekly peak services back next week.
FOCUS ON FULL PEAK SERVICES
Queensland Rail’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Nev Conway said the focus remains on a return to full services.
“The reduced timetable is still in place but we added these extra peak services as soon as we could. This represents a step towards a full timetable,” he says.
“Unions are still taking protected industrial action with rolling work stoppages and a ban on overtime.”
Conway says there is still work left to do to negotiate the remaining outstanding deals with unions after agreement was reach on three.
“There’s still progress to be made to get back to a full timetable; that will only come when we can get all union action lifted, work out a deal, and get through the maintenance backlog,” he says.
The extra services have been added to the Journey Planner menu on the Translink website.
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