According to a report into Queensland Rail (QR) prepared by German rail operator Deutsche Bahn, QR’s new trains still have “deficiencies” including door and braking issues and it is likely they will not be ready for the Commonwealth Games in 2018. “At the time of interviewing, there were 140 deficiencies, including door control and brake control, that needed to be rectified in the New Generation Rollingstock commissioning process,” the report said.
The Queensland Government’s New Generation Rollingstock (NGR) project concerns the acquisition of 75 new passenger trains for South East Queensland fleet to meet the growing demand for rail services. So far, 15 trains have been delivered but none are in operation. The report says 18 NGR trains will be needed – but will not be ready – for the Games in April, and pressure on the older existing fleet to meet demand, as well as a lack of sufficient crews, means there is a high risk of delays due to failures.
However Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the report was overly pessimistic and the number of faults had now been reduced to 41, while Transport Minister Jackie Trad said new trains would be running by the end of the year.
Deutsche Bahn’s report also identified tension between Queensland Rail and the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) about the NGRs. “QR considers that they are being pressured to accept the trains whereas in TMR’s view the QR engineers are being overly cautious,” the document said, suggesting the sides “should consider jointly engaging a verifier acceptable to both Bombardier and QR to assist the parties in resolving the remaining deficiencies.”
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