Advanced Search

Share Coverage



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

'I want to fix this mess': Transport Minister to stay on after QR bosses quit

Friday, 28 Oct 2016 10:34:58

Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe (R) and QR interim CEO Neil Scales (L) at Roma Street Station. (ABC News: Leonie Mellor)

Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe says he intends to stay in the job to "fix the mess" in Queensland Rail (QR).

The CEO and the chairman of QR resigned yesterday in response to the timetable fiasco that followed the opening of the Redcliffe line and the revelation of a train driver shortage.

The State Opposition has been repeatedly calling for Mr Hinchliffe to quit as well, but he said today he intended to remain.

"No question that this has been a mess and we haven't seen the reliability of service that customers have come to expect," he said.

"What I've been focused on is cleaning up the mess.

"The CEO and the chair independently took the responsibility for these issues and it's my role to make sure that we see continuity of delivery and work on fixing up this mess."

Mr Hinchliffe said he did not ask the pair to resign.

"The Premier has asked me to work closely with the acting CEO and the whole Queensland Rail team to address these issues and make sure that we deliver the reliability that our customers rightfully expect and demand."

Director-general of Transport and Main Roads Neil Scales is the acting CEO of QR, while Nicole Hollows has been appointed acting chair.

Mr Hinchliffe again accused the LNP of cutting driver training positions during the Newman government era.

"We have seen that consequence writ large and come home," he said.

Mr Hinchliffe said under an interim timetable with fewer trains running, 98.6 per cent of Citytrain services were on time in the Tuesday morning peak, 91.7 per cent on Wednesday, 98.6 per cent on Thursday and 96.7 per cent this morning.

In a statement, he said under the new timetable from Monday to Thursday, 30 services would be cancelled and 11 other services would be altered or partially cancelled.

"While we've had some challenges, the interim timetable is largely performing and is providing the certainty and reliability that customers are looking for," Mr Hinchliffe said.

AustraliaPlus


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend