In January 2014, the Queensland Government awarded a contract for 75 six-carriage electric multiple units to the Qtectic consortium of Aberdeen Asset Management, Bombardier Transportation, Itochu and John Laing under a 32-year public private partnership. They are the first QR electric multiple units not manufactured in Maryborough by either Walkers or Downer Rail. The NGRs are being built in Savli, India. The design is completely new, and the trains are fitted with nose cones to resemble the existing Electric Tilt Trains for improved aerodynamic performance as opposed to the exposed Scharfenberg couplers used by the existing fleet. The body style differs using flat steel panels on the sides, while retaining corrugated panels for the rooftop. The first arrived at the Port of Brisbane in February 2016. The first three entered service on 11 December 2017 on the Airport and Gold Coast lines. By the time of the Commonwealth Games in April 2018, eight had entered service. Because of the NGRs' non-compliance with disability legislation, all platforms they serve are required to be staffed. Initially confined to the Airport and Gold Coast lines, in May 2018 they began operating on the Doomben line, followed by Roma Street to Northgate services in July and Redcliffe and Springfield line services in September. In October 2018, they began operating on the Ipswich and Caboolture lines. In February 2019, they began to operate to Shorncliffe and Cleveland. The same month, the NGRs became the largest fleet of electric trains in Queensland. In March 2020 they commenced operating on the Sunshine Coast line to Nambour. As of March 2020, they operate passenger services across the City network except for the Beenleigh, Ferny Grove and Rosewood lines. NGRs will not operate on Sunshine Coast line services north of Nambour until signalling upgrades to Gympie North have been completed that are required for the operation of Automatic Train Protection fitted on the NGRs. The last NGR, unit 775, entered service in January 2020.
Operation
The NGRs are maintained at a purpose built depot to the west of Wulkuraka station. Once modifications are complete, the new trains will allow all of the Electric Multiple Unit fleet and InterCity Express sets to be withdrawn. The trains increase the size of the fleet by 26%. The NGRs feature high-backed seats, safety straps for bike storage, luggage space underneath the seats unlike the Interurban Multiple Units that have luggage racks, mobility toilet with baby changing table, WiFi Free and CCTV. Each NGR unit comprises two driving motor cars at each end, coupled to two trailer cars and two intermediate motor cars in the middle. The six car configuration are as follows: DMA—TA—MA—MB—TB—DMB As they are permanently coupled six-car units, passengers are able to walk the entire length of the train, consequently eliminating the need to couple with another unit. Guards travel at the rear as opposed to the middle with the existing fleet, where two three-car units couple to form a six-car unit. Utilising the same traction equipment based on Bombardier Aventras as well as being compatible with the European Train Control System, the NGR will be the only train permitted to travel in the Cross River Rail tunnels.
Problems
A series of faults and design problems were identified on the first units delivered. After the first 15 had been delivered, the Queensland Government refused to accept any more until the problems were resolved. The dimensions of toilet modules on each train were deemed to be in breach of the disability legislation by 12 millimetres, so it was announced that only 35 would be fitted with compliant toilets, while the remaining 40 would not have toilet facilities, and were to be confined to Brisbane suburban services. It was later stated that all 75 trains would be refitted with two larger toilet modules in the middle carriages, to allow passengers with mobility devices to access the toilets from both accessible carriages.
Rectification
Work to rectify the non-compliant parts of the trains was performed by Downer Rail's Maryborough facility. After an exemption application to the Australian Human Rights Commission was rejected, in March 2018 disability advocates considered seeking an injunction to have the NGRs removed from service until disability access problems were fixed. The first arrived at Maryborough for rectification work in January 2019. The project is scheduled for completion in 2024. The rectification works consist of:
Reconfiguring some seats in the MB car to allow wheelchairs to travel down the length of the car to the toilet
Reconfiguring the toilet module of the MB car to make it larger and Disability compliant
Completely overhauling the MA car to make it practically identical to the refined MB car which includes the addition of a toilet
Adding more priority seats around the train
Small changes to buttons and signs to make them easier to use/read, including the possibility of guard request buttons for wheelchair users
Incidents
On 19 October 2017, three carriages of unit 715 were derailed while being shunted out of Wulkuraka depot by a towing truck. The front end of carriage 8715 was extensively damaged, with other carriages suffering minor scrapes. Two new carriages were ordered from the manufacturer, and 715 entered service in August 2019.
