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Category: Rail Transport / Public Sector / State Parliament / Urban Development and Planning

QR service delivery chief stood aside over driver shortage

Tuesday, 25 Oct 2016 14:49:48 | Louisa Rebgetz

. (Facebook: Queensland Rail)

Queensland Rail (QR) chief executive Helen Gluer has formally stood aside the head of train service delivery in response to the driver crisis that has prompted service cancellations over an indefinite period.

The move came shortly after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that former Rio Tinto executive Phillip Strachan had been appointed to investigate what went wrong inside QR.

About 40 train services in and around Brisbane have been cut or changed from today, with that number set to rise to 50 on Friday.

The driver shortage came to light shortly after the opening of the new Redcliffe Peninsula line earlier this month.

"I need to know why this issue was not alerted to me and offer my full support to the independent investigation," Ms Gluer said.

"I was advised that we could meet the new timetable and told that the recruitment processes that we were going through were adequate."

'Why hasn't Stirling Hinchliffe been cancelled?'

But shadow treasurer Scott Emerson said it was implausible that Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe did not know the problem was coming.

"Why is Stirling Hinchliffe still Transport Minister?" Mr Emerson, a former transport minister, said.

"The trains have been cancelled, why hasn't Stirling Hinchliffe been cancelled as a minister?

"Annastacia Palaszczuk said heads would roll. Well, heads haven't rolled and the trains aren't rolling either."

Ms Palaszczuk said there were few delays this morning with the start of the reduced QR timetable but that almost every train ran on time.

"I can report that this morning there was 98.6 per cent on-time running," she said.

"I have made it very clear to the Minister and the (QR) CEO that I want their number one focus to be on customer service and delivery."

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said she was advised during her time as transport minister that there would be enough drivers to meet the demand of the new Redcliffe Peninsula line.

"I was fully informed at the time that recruitment had commenced and that that would be sufficient in order to meet the demands of the additional services at the time," she said.

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