Rail replacement software for
Queensland railbus work

Load the railbus shift file, get draft duties from Able AI™, and put the route on your drivers’ tablets. For operators running Queensland Rail track closures.

Minutes, not days
From the railbus shift file to draft duties
From the government
Railbus routes and timetables from the Queensland Government’s data feeds
Turn-by-turn
The railbus route on the driver’s tablet
Every bus tracked
Live map, on-time running and the Shift Trip Matrix

The closure is planned. The extension is not.

Queensland Rail publishes closures twelve months out, so on paper you have a runway. Then industrial action pushes an Easter closure out by days, or an incident adds a corridor, and the schedule you built is not the schedule you are running.

Every change arrives as another PDF of driver shifts, and keying it in by hand does not fit that window. The railbuses still run, but on a plan nobody has caught up with, with drivers on a corridor none of them know.

What Queensland throws at you, and what Busable does about it

The closure is Queensland Rail’s. The operation is yours.

The railbus work reaches you as a PDF shift file, laid out for a driver to read rather than for a system to import.
Able AI reads it, takes your shifts, leaves out the standby shifts and any other operator’s shifts, and drafts the duties with their dead runs for you to confirm.
The railbus routes and timetables are planned by the government, not by you.
They come into Busable directly from the Queensland Government’s data feeds, with route shapes, stops and times, so nobody keys in a timetable.
A single closure usually runs both express and all-stops railbuses along the corridor.
Able AI matches every trip on the shift file to its railbus route, express and all-stops alike, and builds your copy of each route variant.
Closures get extended at short notice — industrial action, incidents, weather.
Run the revised shift file through the same way and reissue the duties to drivers the same day, instead of rebuilding them by hand.
The state owns the replacement bus fleet. What it is short of is the operation around it.
Roster drivers against vehicles you do not own, with every duty checked against the fatigue limits before it goes on the roster.
A railbus corridor is invented for one closure, along streets no bus normally runs.
Driverable™ gives drivers turn-by-turn directions along the railbus route, planned for a heavy vehicle, with their trips in front of them and BOAS checks before they move.

What Busable does for a track closure

From the shift file to the drivers in the seats and the report at the end.

The shift file, read for you

Able AI reads the railbus shift file, matches every trip to the government’s railbus timetable and drafts the duties. Nothing is created until you confirm it, and a fatigue check runs across every duty.

Shift file to draft duties

Duties and allocation

Put a driver and a bus on every railbus duty on the roster board, with any gaps flagged before the roster is published, and reshuffle on the day when a driver calls in sick.

Gaps flagged before you publish

Drivers on the road

The duty in order, the pre-departure check and turn-by-turn directions along the railbus route on the tablet, with on-time status at every stop.

Turn-by-turn on the tablet

Tracking and reporting

Every railbus on the live map against its trip, on-time running by route, day, stop and driver, and the Shift Trip Matrix with kilometres and hours for every shift.

Every railbus tracked

See it end to end: our QLD railbus guide follows a 46-page shift file through Able AI to 26 draft duties, checked against the fatigue limits, and on to turn-by-turn navigation in Driverable.

What it looks like

Able AI conversation: a request to import the driver duties for DemoOne QLD from the attached shift file using the QLD SEQ rail replacement data and to check them against the fatigue rules; a preview summary listing 46 shifts on the sheet with 30 selected, the other depot's 16 shifts and four standby shifts skipped, eight draft routes, 134 of 134 trips matched, 20 stops, 26 driver duties and 10 dead runs; then fatigue check results showing all 26 duties compliant against limits of 5.25 hours continuous work, a 12 hour spread and a 15 minute minimum break
A sample railbus shift file with fictional operators, shortened where marked: 30 of 46 shifts taken for the operator, all 134 trips matched, 26 duties written as drafts, and every duty inside the fatigue limits.
Driver duty 31001 in Busable: a map of south-east Brisbane showing the dead run from Eagle Farm Depot and the railbus route down to Beenleigh, beside a timeline with sign-on at 02:41, a dead run from Eagle Farm Depot to Beenleigh station, R589 and R774 railbus trips, and a meal break at Fairfield Park
One duty from that file: sign-on at the depot, the dead run to Beenleigh, then each railbus trip and the meal break in order, with the run on the map.

Integrated modules for Queensland rail replacement

The modules a Queensland closure actually touches.

Able AI – The shift file

Reads the railbus shift file, matches every trip to the government’s railbus timetable and drafts the duties for you to confirm.

Planable™ – Railbus routes and timetables

The railbus routes, stops and timetables from the Queensland Government’s data feeds, with each route on the map to check.

Rosterable™ – Duties and allocation

The railbus duties with fatigue limits checked, and a driver and bus on each before the roster is published.

Driverable™ – The driver in the bus

The duty in order, the pre-departure check, and turn-by-turn directions along the railbus route.

Reportable™ – On-time running and costing

On-time running from the tracking, and the Shift Trip Matrix with kilometres and hours for every shift.

Queensland rail replacement, in detail

Common questions

What is a railbus in Queensland?

A railbus is a timetabled bus service that replaces trains during a Queensland Rail track closure. A closure usually runs both express and all-stops railbuses along the affected corridor.

Who arranges rail replacement buses in Queensland?

The Department of Transport and Main Roads arranges replacement capacity, Queensland Rail schedules and publishes the track closures, and Translink is the customer-facing journey planner and app.

How far in advance are Queensland track closures known?

Queensland Rail publishes planned closures on a rolling twelve-month calendar, though additional works can be scheduled and closures can be extended at short notice.

What is a railbus shift file?

The PDF of driver shifts for a Queensland track closure: sign-on times, the trips each shift runs, standby shifts, effective dates and the dead runs out of and back into the depot. Able AI reads it and drafts the duties for the operator to confirm.

Where does Busable get the railbus routes and timetables?

They are imported directly from the Queensland Government’s data feeds. Every South East Queensland railbus route and timetable comes into Busable with its route shape, stops and times.

How do drivers find their way on a railbus route?

Through Driverable on the tablet in the cab. It has their duty in order and turn-by-turn directions along the railbus route, planned for a heavy vehicle, and shows whether they are on time at every stop.

Can Busable run Queensland railbus work?

Yes. Able AI drafts the duties from the shift file, the roster board puts a driver and a bus on each, Driverable guides the driver along the railbus route, and the depot tracks every railbus with on-time running and the Shift Trip Matrix.

Terminology

Railbus

The Queensland term for a timetabled bus service replacing trains during a track closure, run as express or all-stops along the corridor.

Track closure

Closing a section of rail line to passenger trains so engineering or project work can be done. The rough equivalent of a NSW possession.

Shift file

The PDF of driver shifts for a track closure: sign-on times, the trips each shift runs, standby shifts, effective dates and the dead runs out of and back into the depot.

TMR

The Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, which arranges rail replacement capacity and owns the dedicated replacement bus fleet.

Queensland Rail

The operator of the South East Queensland train network, which schedules and publishes the track closures.

Got a shutdown coming up?

Bring us the plan you were handed and we will walk you through it.

Or read how QLD railbus shift files become driver navigation and see rail replacement across all states.

Talk to us about a shutdown