Queensland Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe has resigned after a review of a driver shortage and timetable failures at Queensland Rail.

Queensland Rail (QR) has been in disarray since the opening of the new Redcliffe line last October, which revealed a litany of errors and missteps resulting in over 100 services being cancelled due to a severe driver shortage.

So far the issue has led to the resignations of QR CEO Helen Gluer, QR COO Kevin Wright, and now the Transport Minister.

Consultant Phillip Strachan - who has been appointed chairman of QR – conducted a commission of inquiry which found complacency, unwillingness to report bad news and an “unwieldy” management system led to the rail service disruptions.

The report made 36 recommendations, including overhauling the Queensland Rail executive board, cutting layers of bureaucracy from the chief executive to frontline workers to improve the flow of information to spot potential problems earlier.

“The findings of Mr Strachan demonstrate that no minister or government could have foreseen [the] driver shortage issue due [to] Queensland Rail mismanagement,” Mr Hinchcliffe said in a statement.

“I'm pleased that following a rough slog we have been able to begin to turn this issue around and today marks a line in the sand on the matter.

“At the Premier's request I shall remain Leader of the House and will be recontesting the next election to continue as the Member for Sandgate.”

The report focused in particular on the amount of time it takes Queensland Rail drivers to complete their training – 18 months versus 11 months for their counterparts in Sydney.

With close to 120 extra drivers needed for QR to run its full timetable can, the Strachan report suggests delays will continue until late 2018.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union secretary Owen Doogan blamed the former state government for cuts to the drivers' training centre in 2014.

“One of the main reasons why we can't get enough drivers out there, is that it takes 18 months to train drivers. The reason for that is simply they're sitting about in their rooms waiting to get trained,” he said.

“It's a disgrace that we have people sitting about waiting to get trained because they don't have enough trainers.”

But the Strachan report found crewing rules, which were agreed upon by Queensland Rail and unions, created a decline in productivity from January 2014 to December last year.

It said compulsory rest periods and Sunday working restrictions were behind some of the widespread cancellations.

Mr Strachan said the union, Queensland Rail and the State Government should welcome changes to the system.

“I've got some ideas about how there might be some further improvements made and we just need to get further efficiencies back into the organisation and get more train drivers into the organisation as well,” he said.

The full report is accessible here.