The Premier has criticised Queensland Rail for its handling of another major transport meltdown as delays continue to mount.
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Queensland Rail was warning of delays of 45 minutes for the Gold Coast, Airport, Beenleigh and Ferny Grove Lines five hours after a train breakdown triggered a chaotic morning.
A track fault at Yeronga soon after compounded the issue, extending the delay to as much as an hour for many commuters.
At 10.30am, passengers heading outbound from South Brisbane and South Bank were being forced to travel north to Roma Street and take a secondary loop to reach their destination after a third incident.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Queensland Rail, under fire after a shortage of drivers saw more than 100 trains cancelled in a single October day and forced a modified timetable into play, should have been more proactive in communicating the problems.
"Track maintenance issues, it's up to them to come out and explain it and I believe they should have been more forthcoming with their explanation to commuters this morning and frankly it's not good enough," she said.
"This is nothing to do with train issues. This is to do with track maintenance issues, so I'll let Queensland Rail explain that."
She said QR would also have to explain reports trains were overcrowded and passengers were forced to get off.
Shortly after 9am, Translink media manager Miguel Holland told the ABC he hoped things would be "back on track" within an hour but at 10.30am the problems were still in full flight.
A QR spokeswoman said a train breakdown between Kuraby and Trinder Park about 5.30am was responsible for the bulk of the issues.
She said that wasn't cleared until 7am, causing hour-long delays on the Gold Coast and Beenleigh lines, with corresponding delays on their northside equivalents of Airport and Ferny Grove.
She said an overhead power fault at South Brisbane just after 9am halted all services and forced trains onto the Tennyson loop through Moorooka and Yeerongpilly.
Northbound services resumed just before 10am but at 10.30am southbound trains were still skipping the major stations.
That meant any passengers at those stations first had to travel north to Roma Street before the Tennyson loop took them the long way to Park Road.
- With Felicity Caldwell
EARLIER
Rail passengers are facing hour-long delays on some lines after an earlier track fault.
The fault at Yeronga occurred just before 6am, halting trains on the Gold Coast and Beenleigh lines for about half an hour.
Two trains have been cancelled as rail provider Translink tries to fix the problem with more individual services experiencing significant delays.
About 7.45am, Translink announced trains were up and running again but inbound commuters on the Gold Coast and Beenleigh lines could face delays of up to an hour as residual delays eased.
A spokesman warned Airport line trains would also face delays of up to 60 minutes with Ferny Grove trains delayed up to 30 minutes.
Shortly after 9am Translink media manager Miguel Holland told ABC Radio Brisbane commuters were "through the worst of it" and he hoped services would be "back on track" within an hour.
At roughly the same time, Translink warned two more train lines had been affected, with Cleveland commuters forced to wait up to an hour and Springfield travellers delayed 10 minutes.
According to RACQ, passengers on a Ferny Grove line train were told they wouldn't fit on the next service to the city.
A broken down train between Trinder Park and Kuraby about 6am further added to the problems.
