Thousands of seats will be added to Cleveland Line servicing Manly, Wynnum and other East Brisbane suburbs with the rollout of new six-car units on 193 Queensland Rail services.
From Monday, 3 December 2018, new six-car services are replacing three-car trains, increasing the rail service capacity by more than 46,000 seats a week across the network.
Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said that commuters will immediately see the difference on Cleveland, Beenleigh, Shorncliffe, Ferny Grove, Northgate and Doomben lines.
“Queensland Rail has focused on upgrading Monday to Friday services rather than at weekends when fewer people travel,” he said.
“Of the 193 services where capacity will be doubled, 40 are classified as high patronage where average seated capacity occupancy rates are more than 80%.”
The Cleveland Line, which passes through the eastern suburbs and heads to Bowen Hills, Doomben and Shorncliffe, will have 36 services upgraded from three-car to six-car units from Monday to Thursday.
Mr Bailey hopes that the additional 46,000 train seats across the Southeast Queensland network will lead to better comfort for the passengers during weekdays.
Around 6% of the weekday services use three-car units, but with the upgrades, only 3.21% or 171 three-car trains will remain.
“The popular 6.54am Shorncliffe to Central, 6.55am Ferny Grove to Park Road and 4.18pm Bowen Hills to Cleveland services will be upgraded, doubling the number of seats on these services,” Mr Bailey said.
The minister also noted that a few three-car units will still be required to run during morning and afternoon peaks due to existing operational restrictions. However, each three-car trains will be preceded and followed by a six-carriage train to assist with customer loading.
Services to be upgraded from three-car to six-car trains.
| Line | Upgraded Services per day | Total Services per week upgraded | |
| Monday to Thursday | Friday | ||
| Beenleigh | 8 | 6 | 38 |
| Shorncliffe | 6 | 0 | 24 |
| Ferny Grove | 8 | 6 | 38 |
| Cleveland | 9 | 0 | 36 |
| Northgate | 3 | 0 | 12 |
| Doomben | 10 | 4 | 44 |
| Ipswich/Rosewood | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 44 | 17 | 193 |