The top five best-paid Queensland Rail employees all made between $182,422 and $193,507 last year, each racking up between 669 and 952 hours of overtime. Transport Minister Mark Bailey said train drivers and guards were responsible for the safety and wellbeing of up to 1000 customers at any time. "They are required to work weekends, public holidays and shift work and are remunerated accordingly for this time away from family, when most people are at home or enjoying time off," he said. "There is an expectation that they are resilient and adaptive, with the ability to problem-solve during unplanned disruptions, critical incidents and emergency situations, however it is not mandatory to work overtime." Mr Bailey said base earnings for a Citytrain driver last year was $95,351 and the total median remuneration paid to full-time Citytrain drivers was $130,022, including weekend and public holiday penalty rates and overtime.

The average number of overtime hours for Citytrain drivers was 6.45 hours per week in 2016-17, which amounted to an average of $511 per week in overtime pay. Mr Bailey said Queensland Rail's first priority was safety and all rostering arrangements were in accordance with relevant fatigue management requirements. "It is however not unusual for operational work forces such as train crew to operate with a certain level of overtime," he said. "This enables required flexibility in the workforce to meet demand changes associated with special events that occur periodically." LNP Transport spokesman Steve Minnikin said while commuters were being crammed into packed trains or left stranded on the platform, Queensland Rail drivers were counting their cash.

"Some drivers are earning more than $65,000 in overtime alone, with their total remuneration almost reaching $200,000 a year," he said. "Labor's train driver shortage means more overtime for union drivers, paid for by taxpayers." Mr Minnikin criticised progress on external hiring of train drivers. "The unions are blocking external recruitment of drivers so this pay day continues," he said. But Mr Bailey said the government was committed to fixing the trains and was implementing all 36 recommendations from the Strachan inquiry, including hiring 200 drivers and 200 guards.