[Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

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Daniel
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[Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by Daniel »

O'Farrell announces daily rail service to Sydney
PREMIER Barry O’Farrell has announced a daily commuter rail service will run between Bathurst and Sydney starting from October.
The initiative is being made possible thanks to a $7 million upgrade of a diesel Endeavour train.

It is expected the service will cost $1 million a year to run and will provide 200 seats with carriages fitted with toilets and a dedicated space for luggage.

Current CityRail ticket prices and concessions will apply to the service, including pensioner excursion tickets.

The train will depart Bathurst at 5.40am and arrive at Central at 9.25am. A return service will leave Sydney at 5.55pm and arrive in Bathurst at 9.30pm.

The premier is in Bathurst today to attend a community cabinet at Mount Panorama
Get excited tonyp!
http://www.westernadvocate.com.au/news/ ... 78847.aspx
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by tranzitjim »

That is great news.

Q1, would the Endevour still be an Endevour. Clearly would not be upgraded to an Xplora set.

There seems to be enough time in that timetable, to run a lunchtime return back to Bathurst. The outbound PM service is just on 3 hours and 35 minutes in journey time, and you have 8 and a half hours between trips at Sydney Central.

You would get 30 minutes turn around at Bathurst, as well at Sydney Central in both AM and PM
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by kypros1992 »

Great news !

Suppose there will be no changes to the current Lithgow - Bathurst bus and what's with only 2 services?
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by Fleet Lists »

tranzitjim wrote: There seems to be enough time in that timetable, to run a lunchtime return back to Bathurst. The outbound PM service is just on 3 hours and 35 minutes in journey time, and you have 8 and a half hours between trips at Sydney Central.

You would get 30 minutes turn around at Bathurst, as well at Sydney Central in both AM and PM
Would patronage warrant that? Let us see how this service goes before trying to increase it.
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by Daniel »

Exactly right. I suspect it has been designed to allow that in future if needed however without major changes. Very cluey, tranzitjim!
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by boronia »

$7M to put a toilet in a train ?? :shock: :shock:
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by Ben_Daui »

boronia wrote:$7M to put a toilet in a train ?? :shock: :shock:
Endevours have a toilet in the TE car:
Image
Unless if they are going to fit a toilet into the LE car, I don't see why Railcorp would fit another toilet as standard practice is 1 toilet per set:
Image
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by BroadGauge »

tranzitjim wrote:You would get 30 minutes turn around at Bathurst, as well at Sydney Central in both AM and PM
If there's only one train set for the service perhaps the only time it could visit a maintenance centre would be while it's in Sydney during the daytime, which is why such a thing might be impractical.

I assume the train would have to return to Lithgow for overnight stabling, hence they could make the positioning trips take passengers? Like potentially it could depart Bathurst at 9:40pm and connect with the last Lithgow - Central (i) electric service if that was re-timed.
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by boronia »

The promise of 200 seats suggests that the 3+2 seating will be retained. The actual current capacity is shown as 190, and there already seems to be "dedicated space for luggage".

Forgot they already have toilets, so makes the $7M even more mysterious.
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by boronia »

kypros1992 wrote:Great news !

Suppose there will be no changes to the current Lithgow - Bathurst bus and what's with only 2 services?

The service appears to be designed for Bathurst residents to spend a full day in Sydney, which it does admirably.

The XPT and bus services seem to cater well for travel from Sydney during the rest of the day.

Perhaps things will change under NSW Trains operations ?? :idea:
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by gilberations »

perhaps it will become a 3 car explorer? $7m makes sense then
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by boronia »

A 3 car Xplorer without a buffet may get close to 200 seats.

I may be a pessimist, but I can't see 200 people travelling on this service, unless it picks up in electric territory.
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by Newcastle Flyer »

boronia wrote:$7M to put a toilet in a train ?? :shock: :shock:
Perhaps they are adding a middle car or cars, and replacing with Countrylink style seats. And don't forget a buffet of some description. But which area would lose the Endeavour set?
But then again, it says CityRail fares, so it could well be a 2+3 seat 2 car set, with so called more comfortable seats. But if it's just to add a buffet/modify the toilet and/or add a toilet, $7 million??

PS: Is Bathurst in a marginal seat?
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by swtt »

There is probably no loss of Endeavour sets anywhere. Remember the spares created when all the Hunter Railcars went into service?
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by simonl »

Newcastle Flyer wrote:PS: Is Bathurst in a marginal seat?
lmgtfy!

http://www.abc.net.au/elections/nsw/2011/guide/bath.htm

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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by Newcastle Flyer »

simonl wrote:
Newcastle Flyer wrote:PS: Is Bathurst in a marginal seat?
lmgtfy!
That's what I thought, a key seat.

Almost forgot, how many times will it be a Lithgow <-> Sydney train, or should I say need a coach to Lithgow, and then interurban train due to trackwork?
Last edited by Newcastle Flyer on Mon Jun 04, 2012 7:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by tranzitjim »

Question

Why can they not use an Xplora set, or at least upgrade this set to an Xplora set?

That should solve the issue of it being an odd set. Wonder if they may trial this new design on this route?

I am somewhat rusty on the Explorer set fleet at the moment, that was before the recent changes over recent years.
Could someone refresh my memory. How many do they have, and how many do they need?

Just some ideas of mine

I would be all for them getting a few more Hunter cars, operate all services in the Hunter Valley, perhaps the South Coast. Keep a few Endevours for the Main South to Gouburn. And improve services over the Mountain in some way.

By upgrading to an Xplora set would avoid the issue of having an 'odd set'.

As for converting all Explorers over to Xplorers, would there be enough demand on current North Coast XPT trains to warrant them to run a short working to say Kempsy, or improve Griffith/Broken Hill services to something that is better?
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by boronia »

Endeavours are designed as only 2 car sets, there are no "middle" cars. So you would have to cannibalise a second set to get a third car and remove its drivers cab. Alternative is to steal an Xplorer car, but are there any spares??

One Xplorer set has previously been converted from Endeavours, how was this done ??
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by crimsontide »

Given the track condition and layout of the track West of Lithgow, it is going to be a crawl to/from Bathurst.
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by Ben_Daui »

If the Vlocoity's were based on the Endevour/Xplorer, surely a trailer car can be manufactured to make a 3 car Endevour set. This could be an example of a new standard for Bazza's term "NSW Trains".

I would like to see the original seating cleaned up, re upolstered with the material that is used on the exG sets as with the Oscar style of seating is too hard.
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by Glen »

Daniel wrote:
The train will depart Bathurst at 5.40am and arrive at Central at 9.25am. A return service will leave Sydney at 5.55pm and arrive in Bathurst at 9.30pm.
Well the locals have wanted that a long time.

Hmmm... wait a minute ....this all sounds familiar .... oh yes ...... I remember the "Bathurst Day Return Train" being introduced in June 1981 IIRC. Loco hauled in those days. Well, I wonder how long this version will last.

I note the travel time is about 10 - 15 minutes slower than Australia Wide's coach.
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by stupid_girl »

I think it's more cost effective to provide a full day Endevour shuttle between Lithgow and Bathurst.

Bomaderry(Nowra) is served in the same way without much trouble.
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by CityRail »

stupid_girl wrote:I think it's more cost effective to provide a full day Endevour shuttle between Lithgow and Bathurst.

Bomaderry(Nowra) is served in the same way without much trouble.
I agree with you. And it will emit less Carbon gas into the atmosphere as well.

In a mid-longer term I'd love to see another other of Hunter Cars to introduce more services to the Mid-West. In particular a possibilty to have a more frequent disel cars to run between Bathurst - Mount Victoria. Currently there are only 1 train per 2 hours that go to Lithgow on average (more frequent during peak), which looks non so economical to run and maintain electric trains till there.
Last edited by CityRail on Tue Jun 05, 2012 1:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by Skindog the Hawk »

CityRail wrote:I agree with you. And it will emit less Carbon gas into the atmosphere as well.
Everyone forgive me for feeding the troll, but how do you reason this?
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Re: [Western Advocate] Bathurst to Sydney rail service

Post by Daniel »

Perhaps he thinks electric trains are squeaky clean and green?
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