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This article is about the Nambour and Gympie North railway line, which is the existing Sunshine Coast Citytrain service. For the proposed proposed railway to Maroochydore, Queensland (CAMCOS), see Maroochydore railway line, Queensland.

Nambour and Gympie North Line

From Brisbane central business district To Gympie Length 172.21 km (107.01 mi) Mapping colour       Green Number of stations 25 History 1888 Opened Brisbane to Caboolture 1891 Opened to Gympie 2009 Caboolture to Beerburrum realigned Operations Owner(s) QR Operator(s) Citytrain Fleet EMU, ICE, IMU 160/120/100, SMU 200/220

The Nambour and Gympie North railway line (also known as the Sunshine Coast Line) is an interurban railway line in Queensland, Australia connecting Brisbane with the Sunshine Coast and Gympie. It is the longest line of the Citytrain network.

Overview

The Nambour and Gympie North railway line follows the Caboolture line to Caboolture, then past Caboolture it follows the North Coast line to Nambour and Gympie. The line consists of four tracks from Roma Street to Northgate, three tracks to Lawnton, then double track to Beerburrum to allow the Nambour and Gympie North express services to pass the local Caboolture services.

North of Beerburrum, the line is single track with passing loops at most station. Due to shared traffic with Traveltrain and freight services, interurban services on this line is limited during the off-peak. As a result, additional rail-bus services operate between Caboolture and Nambour in the weekday off-peak, supplementing the train services.

Upgrades

In 2001, the Queensland Government started a study for the need to upgrade the North Coast Line between Caboolture and Landsborough. On 29 August 2005, the first stage of the duplication between Caboolture and Beerburrum was approved.^[2]. The second stage between Beerburrum and Landsborough was approved on 14 August 2006.^[3] Construction of the first stage to Beerburrum started mid-2007 and was commissioned on the 14 April 2009.

The new line is straight and trains can operate at higher speeds. The upgrade includes the existing straight section of track, creating a third line between Caboolture and Elimbah. The purpose of this is to refuge freight trains operating on the line from delaying the interurban and surburban passenger services. Two upgraded stations have been built at Elimbah and Beerburrum.

The second stage between Beerburrum and Landsborough is currently in the concept stage, with no construction nor completion dates at present.^[1]

There is currently a study into duplicating and straightening the line between Landsbrough and Nambour. It is proposed that two new tunnels and four upgraded stations (Mooloolah, Eudlo, Palmwoods and Woombye) will be constructed. ^[2]

Future plans

The duplication and realignment of the North Coast Line from Caboolture to Landsborough is the pre-requisite to implement the CAMCOS corridor branching from Beerwah to the Sunshine Coast centres of Caloundra and Maroochydore.

Existing services to Nambour will be upgraded with the replacement of suburban trains with newer interurban trains. This will be followed by an increase of service frequencies, made possible by duplication north of Caboolture Station and the recently completed triplication south of Petrie

Service frequency

Typical service frequency on the Nambour and Gympie North railway line to Nambour are one train per two hours, increasing to two trains per hour during peak hours. After the track upgrading is complete, service frequency is expected to improve to two trains per hour in off-peak, and four trains per hour in peak hour.

• All peak hour and most off-peak trains run express between Caboolture and Bowen Hills, stopping at Petrie and Northgate in the off-peak
• There is only one daily Citytrain service to and from Gympie North Monday to Friday, with two services southbound on Saturday and northbound on Sunday
• There is a twice-daily Nambour to Caboolture shuttle which operates during the off-peak and weekends. Passengers travelling on those services are required to change at Caboolture for their connecting service to/from the City

Line guide and services

All peak services and most off-peak services run express between Caboolture and Bowen Hills stations, stopping at Petrie and Northgate stations in the off-peak. In addition, an off-peak train shuttle operates twice-daily between Nambour Station and Caboolture Station, with connecting services at Caboolture Station. The Nambour-Caboolture train shuttle also operates some services on the weekend.

During weekday peak hours, some services may not stop at Petrie and Northgate stations. The weekday afternoon outbound Gympie North service stops at Caboolture on request to pick up northbound passengers only.

Due to the lack of track capacity between Caboolture and Nambour, Kangaroo Bus Lines operates weekday off-peak Railbus shuttles between Nambour Station and Caboolture station in addition to the off-peak train services.

Passengers for/from the Caboolture line change at either Caboolture, Petrie or Northgate, Shorncliffe line at Northgate, Airport, Doomben and Ferny Grove lines change at Bowen Hills, and all other lines at Central.

Passengers for Traveston are to board the lead carriage of the Gympie North train, due to the short platform at Traveston Station. Temporary platform extensions has recently opened at stations between Mooloolah and Cooran in November 2009, enabling passengers to use all 6-cars of the train.^[3]

Nambour and Gympie North railway line, Queensland showing distance from Central, ticket zone, and connecting or nearby bus services

Beenleigh, Cleveland, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Rosewood, Tennyson lines Exhibition line 0.8 km Roma Street (1) See Roma Street railway station 0.0 km CENTRAL (1) See Adelaide Street Bus Mall 1.3 km Fortitude Valley (1) See Fortitude Valley railway station Exhibition line 2.7 km Bowen Hills (1) 301, 310, 315, 320, 393 Follows Caboolture line 9.9 km Northgate (2/3) 306, 307 Follows Caboolture line 27.4 km Petrie (6) 675, 680, 681, 682 Follows Caboolture line 49.6 km Caboolture (8) 640, 649, 652, 653, 654, 655, 662 Wamuran line (disused) 58.6 km Elimbah (9/10) 649 64.6 km Beerburrum (10) 649 71.8 km Glasshouse Mountains (11) 649 76.9 km Beerwah (12) 649, Australia Zoo bus Maroochydore Line (proposed) 82.5 km Landsborough (13) 605, 615, 649 Dularcha National Park 87.5 km Mooloolah (14) 649 92.7 km Eudlo (15) 649 97.3 km Palmwoods (16) 639, 649 100.7 km Woombye (17) 610, 636, 639, 649 104.8 km Nambour (17) 602, 610, 630, 631, 636, 639, 649 Maroochy River 112.7 km Yandina (19) 631 Bruce Highway 122.5 km Eumundi (21) 630, 631 130.9 km Cooroy (22) 631, 632 139.9 km Pomona (23) 632 145.5 km Cooran (23) 632 150.3 km Traveston (23) Mary Valley Heritage Railway to Imbil Gympie 172.2 km GYMPIE NORTH (23) Gympie Courtesy Bus North Coast Line to Cairns

References

• ^  "The green light for Beerburrum to Landsborough rail corridor". Queensland Government Ministerial Media Statement. 14 August 2006. http://statements.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx?id=47844.  
• ^  "Caboolture to Landsborough - Rail Upgrade Study". ARUP on behalf of Queensland Transport. January 2001. http://www.arup.com.au/clrs/index.php.  

External links

• Citytrain
• TransInfo

Major public transport infrastructure in South East Queensland Commuter rail (QR Citytrain) Northern services: Airport Line · Doomben Line · Exhibition Line · Ferny Grove Line · North Coast Line (Caboolture Line • Nambour and Gympie North (Sunshine Coast) Line) · Shorncliffe Line South/Western services: Beenleigh Line · Cleveland Line · Corinda via South Brisbane Line · Gold Coast Line · Ipswich Line · Rosewood Line Planned or under construction: Kippa-Ring (Redcliffe) Line · Maroochydore (CAMCOS) Line · Springfield Line Commuter bus List of TransLink services · Bus upgrade zone (BUZ) Busway South-East · Inner Northern · Boggo Road Planned or under construction: Eastern · Northern Ferry (Metrolink) CityCat · CityFerry