With a wealth of school holiday entertainment and activities, new theatrical productions such as TINA: The Tina Turner Musical (QPAC) and Cost of Living (Queensland Theatre) among others, or many other reasons to visit Brisbane during the school holiday period – be informed that it is worth your while planning any train travel in advance given upcoming rail line closures over the Winter 2024 School Holidays period.
As someone who typically commutes up to Brisbane from the Gold coast multiple times using the train service, for the second school holiday period in a row, major Cross River Rail and new station works are seeing the Gold Coast, Beenleigh and other select lines closed for parts or the entirety of the two week period. This is in addition to some lines being affected beforehand as well.
The currently confirmed extended track closures as of writing include:
| Dates | Lines Impacted |
|---|---|
| 15-16 June | Beenleigh, Cleveland and Gold Coast |
| 17-21 June | Beenleigh and Gold Coast |
| 22-23 June | Beenleigh and Gold Coast |
| 24-28 June | Beenleigh and Gold Coast |
| 29-30 June | Airport, Beenleigh, Caboolture/Sunshine Coast, Cleveland, Doomben, Gold Coast, Redcliffe Peninsula, Shorncliffe |
| 1-5 July | Airport, Beenleigh, Caboolture/Sunshine Coast, Doomben, Gold Coast, Redcliffe Peninsula, Shorncliffe |
| 6-7 July | Airport, Beenleigh, Caboolture/Sunshine Coast, Cleveland, Doomben, Gold Coast, Redcliffe Peninsula, Shorncliffe |
The above is in addition to ongoing late-night track closures in the coming weeks. Fortunately they are not leaving passengers high and dry, but instead facilitating transport between at least select stations via Railbusses, sometimes to your destination, sometimes to nearby destinations, and others sometimes to the next station which allows you to continue passage to your destination.
I raise this because, if you are like me, rely on public transport and have tickets to shows or events you have already paid for – you need to plan in advance. Fortunately, Translink has a nifty Journey Planner that enables you to chart your journey through all modes of transportation to and from, with approximate timings. However, with the added complexity of perhaps a combination of rail, busses and alternate destination stations — plan to ensure you don’t miss out on your show. Typically I have planned an extra hour in the past, but do what is comfortable for you.
As a small caveat to the above though, and here’s hoping the last school holidays closure of the Gold Coast and Beenleigh line, commuting via train will be cheaper come 5 August, with all Translink public transport services around the state having their fares set at 50 cents (Down from sometimes $10+ per travel) as part of a six month trial.
