Train services to be fully restored as QR finalises pay deals with unions
Queensland Rail has finally struck a pay deal with the last group of workers after months of strikes and industrial action that reduced passenger services across the state’s south-east.
Unions have been bargaining in the Fair Work Commission since May, and services were cut to the equivalent of a Saturday timetable to allow QR to cope with a maintenance backlog.
From July, the government has periodically been announcing deals struck with some of the unions. But as of August, it was still in talks with network and rollingstock employees, and about a proposed electrical-only agreement sought by the Electrical Trades Union.
Transport Minister Brett Mickelberg said the last of seven agreements had been reached just after lunch on Friday.
He added that services would be restored as soon as possible – with 91 per cent restored by October 12, and a full timetable after that.
Some agreements will be backdated to June, while others will be backdated to the start of September.
He made the announcement at Central Station on Friday afternoon, a day before major track closures on the Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines would begin.
The track closures are timed to coincide with the school holidays and will allow for track works including a pedestrian overpass installation at Moorooka, work on the new Loganlea station, and a section of the Logan and Gold Coast Faster rail project.
Beenleigh and Gold Coast passengers will be forced onto rail replacement buses for the next three weeks, with other timetable and travel changes on the Airport, Cleveland, Doomben and Ferny Grove lines.
“Much of this work can only be completed safely when trains are not running, which is why these temporary closures are necessary,” Translink head Dean Helm said in a statement on Thursday.
More to come.
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