The Spirit of Queensland is a

Queensland Rail Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...

long distance passenger rail service. It is operated by a diesel powered

Tilt Train The Tilt Train is the name for two similar high-speed tilting train services, one electric and the other diesel, operated by Queensland Rail. They run on the North Coast line from Brisbane to Bundaberg and Rockhampton (electric) and Cairns (d ...

that runs five times a week on the North Coast line between

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

and

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

, a distance of 1,681 kilometres. At the start of 2015, it replaced the diesel-hauled train ''

The Sunlander ''The Sunlander'' was a long distance passenger rail service operated by Queensland Rail on the North Coast line between Brisbane and Cairns in Queensland between June 1953 and December 2014. It has been replaced by the ''Spirit of Queenslan ...

''.

History

In October 2010, the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended fr ...

awarded a contract to

Downer Rail Downer Rail is a business unit within the Downer Group. As well as manufacturing and maintaining railway rolling stock it holds maintenance contracts to maintain rail infrastructure. The head office is located in North Ryde. History The EDI ...

for the construction of a new

. The two existing diesel tilt trains used on the Cairns service were also refurbished and extended in size, with the inclusion of first-class sleeping carriages. Known as the 'Sunlander 14' project, a total of 25 carriages would have been acquired: * two new power cars and 12 new carriages to create a third train set. * one spare power car (later two), * 10 new carriages to expand the two existing train sets to a 14-car consist, * refurbishment of 14 existing carriages from the existing train sets By expanding the train length from nine to 14 carriages, three 'luxury' sleeping carriages, one 'first-class' lounge and one restaurant car could be included in the consist, replicating the services provided on ''

''. The construction of four new power cars allowed for the inclusion of the most up-to-date safety features in the driving car of each train, as well as minimising the risk of disruptions in case an incident occurred while a second power car was undergoing heavy maintenance. The resulting project was costed at $195 million and allowed for the operation of five services a week, with a total capacity of 1320 seats. However, costs had risen by 2012, and the Queensland Auditor-General reported that the eventual cost would be from $358 to $404 million, because Queensland Rail had failed to take into account the requirement for upgraded maintenance facilities, as well as en route provisioning. The Auditor-General also believed Queensland Rail had overestimated how popular the new service would be, and had a mistaken belief that the 'luxury' component of the train would attract more high-paying customers. In 2013, the project was scaled back, with the train length being reduced to nine cars by removing the luxury sleepers and restaurant cars. That resulted in a revised project cost of $204 million. In October 2013, the first refurbished Tilt Train entered service on the existing Brisbane to Cairns service. With the introduction of the Tilt Train, which has a maximum speed of 160 km/h, the journey time was reduced to 24 hours 55 minutes.Spirit of Queensland factsheet
Queensland Rail

Rolling stock

Spirit of Queensland train at Gordonvale, 2016

Each Spirit of Queensland train consists of: * two power cars to drive the train and supply power to the carriages, * two 'railbed' sleeper cars with airline style lie-flat seating, * three premium economy sitting cars, * one luggage / staff carriage, * one lounge / galley / club car.

Notes and references

External links

{{Commons category, Spirit of Queensland
Queensland Rail - Spirit of Queensland
Named passenger trains of Queensland 2013 establishments in Australia Railway services introduced in 2013 Transport in Cairns Transport in Townsville Night trains of Australia

History

Rolling stock

See also

Notes and references

External links