Brissy Train Network Grinds To A Halt After Losing All Contact With Drivers

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Published

June 28, 2017

A bunch of unfortunate Brisbanites have had their afternoons at least mildly ruined after a comms error wreaked havoc on trains leaving the city.

Problems with the northern line have reportedly caused one-hour delays, and the suspension of some train lines across the Queensland Rail network.

The root cause? Apparently the control centre were havin’ trouble getting into contact with the drivers of trains travelling north at about 5pm. They have since tried to move trains out of the city one at a time.

Pls advised we are currently experiencing communication issues between our control centre & network. Delays on all lines of up to 1hr.

— Queensland Rail (@QueenslandRail) June 28, 2017

We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused. Further updates to follow.

— Queensland Rail (@QueenslandRail) June 28, 2017

Executive general manager of city trains for Queensland Rail, Nick King says this hasn’t happened in 20 years:

“What’s happened here is that we’ve lost the communication capability between our control centre and our drivers which are at the front of the train.

“This obviously creates a very unsafe potential situation, so we’ve had to take our protocols, which means bringing trains to a safe position at platforms, which is where we are currently.“

Queensland Rail have even resorted to replacement buses ~shudder~.

The technical fault has since been fixed, according to King, with trains beginning to move again now, but the slight inconvenience is not over: residual half-hour delays are still expected.

Services have resumed but we are continuing to experience significant delays due to the earlier communications issue across the network.

— Queensland Rail (@QueenslandRail) June 28, 2017

We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused this evening.

— Queensland Rail (@QueenslandRail) June 28, 2017

Commuters have of course taken to Twitter with the requisite good humour:

Inside the Queensland Rail train communication centre pic.twitter.com/tCsinzTbMW

— Isobel Roe (@isobelroe) June 28, 2017

Poor #Brisbane . #Queensland #Rail pic.twitter.com/g1CGub9uWZ

— Brendan Pearce (@BrendanPearce19) June 28, 2017

Have you tried smoke signals?

— Andrew Choreographer (@MTVDancer) June 28, 2017

And to think, Queensland Rail’s social media managers started the day with this:

Did ewe lose your little baa-lerina at Central station? It was shear luck she was found & is now awaiting her owner: https://t.co/YdvXY81utH pic.twitter.com/OGU8K8qZ4A

— Queensland Rail (@QueenslandRail) June 28, 2017

Source: ABC.

Photo: Jeff Greenberg / Getty.