Nambour and Gympie North railway line

This article is about the Nambour and Gympie North railway line, which is the existing Sunshine Coast Citytrain service. For the proposed railway to Maroochydore, Queensland (CAMCOS), see Maroochydore railway line.

Nambour and Gympie North line
Overview
Termini	Roma Street Gympie North
Website	queenslandrail.com.au
Technical
Line length	0 km (0 mi)
Track length	172.21 km (107.01 mi)
Track gauge	1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) Cape gauge
Operating speed	0 km/h (0 mph)

The Nambour and Gympie North railway line (also known as the Sunshine Coast Line) is an interurban railway line in Queensland, Australia connecting Brisbane with the Sunshine Coast and Gympie. It is the longest line of the Citytrain network.

Overview

The Nambour and Gympie North railway line follows the Caboolture line to Caboolture, then past Caboolture it follows the North Coast line to Nambour and Gympie. The line consists of four tracks from Roma Street to Northgate, three tracks to Lawnton to allow the Nambour and Gympie North express services to pass the local Caboolture services. The line is then double track to Beerburrum.

North of Beerburrum, the line is single track with passing loops at most station. Due to a rapidly-rising population on the Sunshine Coast and in hinterland towns, the annual compounded growth rate for morning peak passenger numbers on the line north of Caboolture is six per cent, second only to the 7.1 per cent figure for the Gold Coast Line south of Beenleigh, to Robina. Due to shared traffic with Traveltrain and freight services, interurban services on this line is limited during the off-peak. As a result, additional rail-bus services operate between Caboolture and Nambour in the weekday off-peak, supplementing the train services. There are two daily return Citytrain services between Brisbane and Gympie North.

Upgrades

In 2001, the Queensland Government started a study for the need to upgrade the North Coast Line between Caboolture and Landsborough. On 29 August 2005, the first stage of the duplication between Caboolture and Beerburrum was approved.^[2]. The second stage between Beerburrum and Landsborough was approved on 14 August 2006, but work is yet to start.^[3] Construction of the first stage to Beerburrum started mid-2007 and was commissioned on 14 April 2009.

The new line to Beerburrum is straight and trains can operate at higher speeds. The upgrade includes the existing straight section of track, creating a third line between Caboolture and Elimbah. The purpose of this is to refuge freight trains operating on the line from delaying the interurban and suburban passenger services. Two upgraded stations have been built at Elimbah and Beerburrum.

The second stage between Beerburrum and Landsborough is currently in the concept stage, with no construction nor completion dates at present.^[1]

There is currently a study into duplicating and straightening the line between Landsbrough and Nambour. It is proposed that two new tunnels and four upgraded stations (Mooloolah, Eudlo, Palmwoods and Woombye) will be constructed.^[2]

Line guide and services

All peak, off-peak and most weekend train services between Brisbane and Nambour run express between Caboolture and Northgate stations, stopping at Petrie station in the off-peak. Trains between Gympie North and Brisbane run express between Caboolture and Bowen Hills station.^[3] Counter-Peak trains and a few selected weekend train services operate as a shuttle between Nambour and Caboolture only, with connecting train services to and/from the City at Caboolture station.

Due to the lack of track capacity between Beerburrum and Nambour, Kangaroo Bus Lines operates weekday off-peak Railbus shuttles between Nambour Station and Caboolture station in addition to the off-peak train services.

Passengers for/from the Caboolture line change at either Caboolture, Petrie or Northgate, Shorncliffe line at Northgate, Airport and Doomben change at Eagle Junction and Ferny Grove lines change at Bowen Hills, and all other lines at Central.

Passengers for Traveston are to board the lead carriage of the Gympie North train, and Passengers for Eudlo are to board the first three cars of any train, due to shorter than normal platforms. Temporary platform extensions has recently opened at stations between Mooloolah and Cooran in November 2009, enabling passengers to board on any carriage at the majority of stations north of Landsborough.^[4]

Nambour and Gympie North railway line showing distance from Central, ticket zone, and connecting or nearby bus services

Beenleigh, Cleveland, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Rosewood, Tennyson lines Exhibition line 0.8 km Roma Street (1) See Roma Street railway station 0.0 km CENTRAL (1) See Adelaide Street Bus Mall 1.3 km Fortitude Valley (1) See Fortitude Valley railway station Exhibition line 2.7 km Bowen Hills (1) 301, 310, 315, 320, 393 Follows Caboolture line 9.9 km Northgate (2/3) 306, 307 Follows Caboolture line 27.4 km Petrie (6) 675, 680, 681, 682 Follows Caboolture line 49.6 km Caboolture (8) 640, 649, 652, 653, 654, 655, 662 Wamuran line (disused) 58.6 km Elimbah (9/10) 649 64.6 km Beerburrum (10) 649 71.8 km Glasshouse Mountains (11) 649 76.9 km Beerwah (12) 649, Australia Zoo bus Maroochydore Line (proposed) 82.5 km Landsborough (13) 605, 615, 649 Dularcha National Park 87.5 km Mooloolah (14) 649 92.7 km Eudlo (15) 649 97.3 km Palmwoods (16) 639, 649 100.7 km Woombye (17) 610, 636, 639, 649 104.8 km Nambour (17) 602, 610, 630, 631, 636, 639, 649 Maroochy River 112.7 km Yandina (19) 631 Bruce Highway 122.5 km Eumundi (21) 630, 631 130.9 km Cooroy (22) 631, 632 139.9 km Pomona (23) 632 145.5 km Cooran (23) 632 150.3 km Traveston (23) Mary Valley Heritage Railway to Imbil Gympie 172.2 km GYMPIE NORTH (23) Gympie Courtesy Bus North Coast Line to Cairns

References

1. ^ "Beerburrum to Landsborough Track Duplication". SEQIPRail. QR Limited. 2007-12-29. http://www.qr.com.au/SEQIP/projects/Beerburrum/. Retrieved 2008-01-15. 
2. ^ "Landsborough to Nambour Rail Corridor Study". Queensland Government. 2009. http://www.landsborough-nambour.com.au/. Retrieved 2009-05-02. 
3. ^ Sunshine Coast Line timetable Queensland Rail retrieved 2011-06-05
4. ^ [1]

• ^ "The green light for Beerburrum to Landsborough rail corridor". Queensland Government Ministerial Media Statement. 14 August 2006. http://statements.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx?id=47844. 
• ^ "Caboolture to Landsborough - Rail Upgrade Study". ARUP on behalf of Queensland Transport. January 2001. http://www.arup.com.au/clrs/index.php. 

External links

• Queensland Rail
• TransLink