Since the start of rolling cancellations on Queensland Rail trains shone a light on driver shortages and an unsustainable reliance on overtime, only 66 net new drivers have been recruited.
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That is about one new driver every 12 days from October 21, 2016, until February 1 this year, taking into account natural attrition.
Of those, 20 are working as tutors or train operator inspectors, but are available to drive trains when required.
The Strachan inquiry into Queensland Rail's woes recommended 200 new drivers and 200 guards be hired to restore reliability to the timetable.
At the current rate, it would take 1691 days – or until September 19, 2023 – to reach the goal of 200 new drivers on the network.
However, those 200 drivers were supposed to be qualified by June 30, 2019, according to the Strachan report.
In March last year, Queensland Rail chief executive Nick Easy told the ABC he was confident they would reach their driver target by late 2019.
On October 21, more than 100 trains were cancelled across south-east Queensland due to a shortage of train drivers following the opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula Line, with rolling cancellations highlighting serious issues within Queensland Rail.
Queensland Rail introduced a new, reduced timetable to cope, and during last year's estimates hearings, Mr Easy was unable to say when services would be restored.
LNP transport spokesman Steve Minnikin said the current number of new drivers was "woefully short".
"We need 200 drivers to fix rail fail but so far Labor has only managed to recruit 46," he said.
Mr Minnikin said it could take six-and-a-half to seven years to restore the timetable with the current train driver recruitment rate.
Since the driver numbers were revealed following an LNP question on notice, Transport Minister Mark Bailey said there was now a net gain of 69 drivers and 101 guards since October 2016.
Under the Palaszczuk government, 131 drivers and 273 guards had completed their training and were now operating on the Queensland Rail network.
An external recruitment drive from August 2017 had attracted more than 10,000 applications.
Mr Bailey said last year, more guards and drivers were in training than were trained the entire time the LNP was in government.
"It was on the LNP's watch that driver training was cancelled in 2014, and driver recruitment suspended," he said.
"Right now, there are 81 drivers currently in training and a further 35 external offers have been made to commence driver training this year.
"Additionally, training time frames for drivers has decreased from 18 months to an average of 13.45 months."
Meanwhile, commuters have increasingly been left stranded on platforms.
A total of 528 services skipped at least one station in the past seven months, compared with 201 services during the same period in 2017-18.
That was an increase of 163 per cent.
LNP leader Deb Frecklington said station skipping allowed drivers to meet punctuality targets but caused chaos for customers. Services which skip stations can be recorded as on-time.
"This is not a good way to treat the commuters of Queensland," she said.
But Mr Bailey said only a very small number of services skipped one or more stops.
"Just 0.17 per cent of services skipped one or more stops in January 2019," he said.
"These figures represent a tiny fraction of the number of stations trains stop at in the 7828 services delivered by Queensland Rail every week."
Mr Bailey said Queensland Rail generally only ran a service express through some stations if the next service was fewer than five minutes away to minimise disruptions.
"In most cases, changes to stopping patterns only affect one to three stops.
"These decisions are not about meeting on-time running targets but about achieving the best possible outcome for customers and the network overall."
