I need to rant about how frustrating our trains are, as someone who recently started commuting by train after being a bus or bike commuter for the last decade.

Why is it so damn hard to know which train to get?

There’s different lines making different choices about which stations they stop at, when they run on the same track (e.g. Redcliffe line & Sunshine Coast line, between Petrie & Northgate, or Shorncliffe line & those other two between Northgate & EJ), but that on its own would be fine.

But then even on the same “line”, you get trains that inexplicably do different things.

The Redcliffe line, southbound, in the AM some terminate at Milton, some continue all the way to Springfield Central, at seemingly random intervals. Through the middle of the day, all go to Springfield. But then in the afternoon some go to Springfield, precisely one service turns off and go to Ipswich (wtf??), and some stop at Roma Street (why not at least Milton to match those early short-cut trains??).

Northbound, one morning train comes from Rosewood (not Ipswich, to match the southbound), but most come from Springfield. Then in the early afternoon, all of a sudden many of them start at Roma Street (again, why not Milton?), and the rest start at Ipswich, apart from one which starts at Rosewood. Then in the evening it switches back to mostly being Springfield.

And that’s just that one line. Don’t even get me started on “Sunshine Coast Line” (which is both Nambour and Gympie North) vs “Caboolture Line”.

On a bus, I just catch the bus with the number I want, and it goes where it says. I never get blindsided. The confusion and amount of planning required just to get where you want to go just adds to the problem our trains already have with incredibly low frequencies. The one thing trains are supposed to be universally better than buses at is clarity! They just follow the tracks! Urgh!!!