TOP TABLE TALK – QR CITYTRAIN TIMETABLE DISARRAY the Report of the Commission of Inquiry Chaired by Quickly
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AUSTRALASIAN TIMETABLE NEWS No. 295, March 2017 ISSN 1038-3697, RRP $4.95 Published by the Australian Timetable Association www.austta.org.au TOP TABLE TALK – QR CITYTRAIN TIMETABLE DISARRAY The report of the Commission of Inquiry chaired by quickly. “The Citytrain Response Unit will in effect be a Phillip Strachan, former President and CEO of Rio watchdog for QR, ensuring it stays on track and on Tinto Bauxite and Alumina, into the driver shortages time in delivering these vital reforms. We will also be following opening of the Kippa-Ring line on 4 October meeting rail unions to determine what additional 2016, was provided to the Queensland government on measures can be taken to accelerate driver 3 February 2017. Notwithstanding that the report found recruitment and training even further. That means he was not responsible for the failings, on the following talking about external recruitment and allowing drivers weekday, 6 February, the Minister for Transport to qualify more quickly on a single sector of track.” Stirling Hinchliffe, resigned. This is believed to be the The Strachan Report found demand for train crews first resignation of a government minister in was rising as supply fell, and was first identified by Australia because of a railway timetabling issue. Queensland Rail in 2013. The Inquiry identified a The Deputy Premier, Jackie Trad, is the new Minister range of factors responsible for the driver shortage for Transport. Mr Hinchliffe’s resignation followed the including: earlier resignations of Queensland Rail’s Chairman, QR’s Chief Executive and QR’s Chief Operating A QR preference to operate with a 5-10% Officer, over this issue. undersupply of train crews and consequent over-reliance on overtime; The author of the report, Phillip Strachan, was Restrictions on the external recruitment of appointed the new Chairman of Queensland Rail. The crew; Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said he had A 12 month halt of driver training from “undertaken a comprehensive review of Queensland February 2014; and Rail, interviewing senior staff of the organisation and Driver training taking 18 months on average. gaining a thorough understanding of its culture and practices. He has made wide-ranging The Report found that passengers can expect ongoing recommendations to ensure QR has sufficient drivers train cancellations until at least the end of 2018, with and a reliable pipeline of training to deliver the services no new drivers out of the 200 promised fully trained. that Queenslanders will need into the future. “Phillip This could put at risk services to the 2018 Gold Coast Strachan is uniquely placed to lead the organisation Commonwealth Games and cause further issues through what will be a significant transition to focus on during school holiday periods. its customers – the travelling public.” The recommendations to address these issues The Premier said that State Cabinet had endorsed all include: 36 recommendations of the 300 page report. She said, Developing a five-year rolling monthly forecast “The people of Queensland 7have been badly let down of crew demand and supply; by Queensland Rail’s inability to maintain an effective Moving from intermittent recruitment timetable, and my Government is very sorry and I campaigns to ongoing recruitment; apologise for that. The problems that led to driver Assessing the sustainability of the current 23 shortages from October 2016 were many years in the January timetable to ensure stable services making, but my government takes the responsibility, can be provided; and is firmly resolved to fix them.” She said the Opening driver and guard positions to external Strachan Inquiry report reveals a culture of “relying on applicants, including those with no previous intuition, complacency and being reluctant to share experience; and bad news” within QR’s Operations team. It Implementing ‘sectorised’ train crew recommends better and shorter lines of deployment and accelerating average crew communication within Queensland Rail, so that training from 18 months to 9. problems can be identified and addressed much more 1 Cabinet has also directed Queensland Rail to Late 2018, assuming 10% overtime, provide a high-level response plan within 30 Mid to late 2019, assuming no overtime. days. Until such time, QR will continue to operate with The Premier said the Citytrain Response Unit will be reduced services and high levels of overtime (page established for an initial period of 12 months, and will 22 or Report). monitor, audit and report on the implementation of the It is claimed by the Courier-Mail that outdated and inquiry’s recommendations and Queensland Rail’s response and recovery plan. “This will include a clunky IT systems used to set rosters for Queensland rigorous assessment of service levels under the Rail drivers made it impossible to respond swiftly to the current timetable to enable stable, reliable services timetable meltdown. QR staff faced with unplanned and sufficient training capacity to facilitate the long- train driver absences had to key in roster changes manually, but the time involved and complexity of term return to full service levels,” she said. union-agreed work rules meant alterations took “days, The Commission had found that neither the board of not hours”. It left staff ill-equipped to warn commuters Queensland Rail, nor the Chief Executive Officer nor of problems, including the horror Christmas Day responsible Ministers - the Minister for Transport and collapse when more than 200 services were cancelled the Treasurer – were appropriately informed of the risk without notice. of a train crew shortfall prior to the opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula Line on 4 October, nor of the The Commission of Inquiry Report recommended magnitude and longevity of the issues faced from speeding up a long-planned software solution to QR’s October 2016. rostering problems. Initiated in 2009, the project has a completion date of 2017-18. The Premier said other recommendations were designed to: It is understood QR outsourced its systems in 2012. Until then, it had rostered crews on an Excel implement regular reporting on train crew spreadsheet. The inquiry found QR may have demand, supply and shortfall initiatives to accepted “overly restrictive crewing rules” imposed by Queensland Rail’s Executive Leadership Team unions because it outsourced modelling and “could not and the responsible Ministers. readily determine” the rules’ impact. “Significant implement transparent and timely reporting to manual intervention is required to remove and TransLink and the public regarding operational reallocate train crew job cards when train crew issues that are affecting, or may affect, service unavailability arises,” the report found. “This is not delivery, to enable customers to plan conducive to being able to identify affected services in alternative travel arrangements. This a short time frame, which inhibits the provision of information is to be available in real time at timely notice to customers in relation to service stations, online and through call centres. cancellations.” ensure that negotiations with train crew unions focus on best practice rules regarding A briefing from QR on its Christmas Day fiasco continuous working time and other crewing described its rostering system as “aged and heavily practices to alleviate overtime pressure on dependent on manual intervention”. Understaffing had train crews. made it more difficult to change rosters. “The work with the train crew unions regarding integration between the various train scheduling and introducing modern competency-based rostering systems is sub-optimal and where changes training arrangements. The new training are required to roster arrangements or timetable regime will shorten the average training time services, a high degree of manual intervention is for new recruits without compromising safety. required,” acting QR chief executive Jim Benstead wrote in the brief. It took clerks six months to write job On 7 February it was announced that a Brisbane- cards for train crews, which were then subject to two based change management specialist with extensive months union consultation before settling on a master international experience, Jacqui Walters, would lead roster. the CityTrain Response Unit. Its immediate priorities include: On 11 February QR finally advertised for new drivers – Overseeing the implementation of a closely but did not follow the Commission’s recommendation integrated public transport service; to accept applicants who did not have prior Advising on the composition of the experience. Queensland Rail Board; The Report and its Annexes contain a huge amount of Defining Queensland Rail's long-term data about Queensland Rail’s operating practices and industrial relations strategy to improve management practices. The Report can be accessed workplace flexibility and culture; and at https://www.strachaninquiry.qld.gov.au/ Addressing systemic organisational issues identified in the Strachan Inquiry. In a forthcoming edition of our sister magazine, the Times, Gordon Dudman will offer an insight into driver The Commission of Inquiry reports that rostering from a UK perspective. Queensland Rail calculates that it will have train crew to deliver full timetables services by: 2 RAIL AND TRAM NEWS Connectivity between Parramatta and Sydney Infrastructure Australia assessment CBD On 25 February Infrastructure Australia (IA) released a Cranbourne & Pakenham rail lines upgrade Vic revised Infrastructure Priorities list.