CBD & South East Light Rail

[grog]

Thanks for the heads up. The report is located here: https://sydneylightrailactiongroup.file ... eleted.pdf

[Swift]

Don't expect to see tram priority at Alison/Anzac for instance - Sydney's not ready for that. Why else do IWLR trams have to wait for green at Hay/Darling?

Sydney isn't ready?? It's an individual location that has had a major life changing project everyone knows about open and they expect it to work the same as before?!
Does all of Sydney collectively get their meat cut up for them as well? Make them adapt to this new reality!
Is that the earth opening up to make way for the sky?

[Frosty]

There are some obvious intersections where trams won't get traffic light priority Anzac & Allison Rd it be interesting with the future CFI, Cleveland St & Lang Rd, around Central Station and maybe South Dowling St.

[tonyp]

The long traffic light cycles typical in Australia are also a problem with this sort of operation. Many tram operations in Europe with headways down to 60, even 30 seconds, run without priority, yet without bunching and on time because of the short cycles. It keeps traffic moving along evenly without the fits and starts waves we get in Australia, which are only an annoyance for motorists but disastrous for street public transport operations. I don't see any propects of reforming the science of traffic light management in Australia any time soon, so it has to be prioritisation. Gold Coast was a great breakthrough in that regards, but our "move cars not people" RMS will be a stubborn one.

Hopefully the new type of intersection at Anzac and Alison will improve things there though. I don't think CSELR will be at capacity either. It has a design capacity of double the startup headways.

[Swift]

There are some obvious intersections where trams won't get traffic light priority Anzac & Allison Rd it be interesting with the future CFI, Cleveland St & Lang Rd, around Central Station and maybe South Dowling St.

In willing to bet South Dowlers won't be one of them as it serves as an alternative to a toll road, so anything additional that hinders it will please the toll operators.

[grog]

Recent commentary in the media suggested that the CBD moved to 90 second light cycles in Jan, and the report mentions that many of the intersections will run on a double cycle, bringing this down to 45 seconds. This is a good start, but doesn’t apply to enough intersections (none of the major ones) and obviously is still not as good as full priority.

The worst delays from the report are CBD south, Surry Hills and Anzac/Alison. Hopefully the recent stories about the project receiving priority are further developments since that report to improve delay.

[boronia]

There are some obvious intersections where trams won't get traffic light priority Anzac & Allison Rd it be interesting with the future CFI, Cleveland St & Lang Rd, around Central Station and maybe South Dowling St.

In willing to bet South Dowlers won't be one of them as it serves as an alternative to a toll road, so anything additional that hinders it will please the toll operators.

South Dowling St should be easy to do because it is remote from other traffic lights and does interfere or involve pedestrian crossings. Even the Darling Drive crossing on the IW line has low competing traffic levels and no immediate co-acting lights, so should be instantaneous using approach detectors.

For major intersections like Anzac/Allison/Dacey, tram priority should , at least, be available at a phase change. Same for current B lights, rather than buses having to wait through a full cycle.

[Frosty]

The issue might be South Dowling is to co-ordinate with Cleveland St & currently is a two part pedestrian crossing. Also Darley & Allison Rd it depends if LR gets priority over all or Darley Rd or none.

[moa999]

I guess the proposed diamond intersection will help.

Any LR priority also needs to be smart - eg. If it detects one tram approaching, but there is also one in the other direction that is 20 secs behind, then hold for 20secs to ensure both LR vehicles can proceed through at the same time - minimising the overall wait for both cars and LR

This sure doesn't happen on the current CDH line. I've often waited 60sec at Darling Dr (stupid given the general lack of traffic on that road anyway), only to proceed across the intersection and see a LR vehicle on the other side just missing the cycle.

[boronia]

Alison Rd will be complicated because the trams will have also to negotiate the crossing of south bound Anzac Pde traffic.

[hornetfig]

I guess the proposed diamond intersection will help.

At 8 minute headways, it really shouldn't be an issue if this is the one "unresolved" intersection until it is reconstructed. (And it's not the Alison-Anzac junction itself that's the delay source, it's the separate intersection that skews the track from the side to the centre of Anzac Pde)

The next biggest concern should be queuing over the tracks. There's a number of interestingly shaped intersections with limited sight distances and severe congestion. If they can't produce a through flow leading up to amber/red, then there will be queuing problems that only persistent draconian enforcement will beat out of drivers.

[Frosty]

I guess the proposed diamond intersection will help.

At 8 minute headways, it really shouldn't be an issue if this is the one "unresolved" intersection until it is reconstructed. (And it's not the Alison-Anzac junction itself that's the delay source, it's the separate intersection that skews the track from the side to the centre of Anzac Pde)

The next biggest concern should be queuing over the tracks. There's a number of interestingly shaped intersections with limited sight distances and severe congestion. If they can't produce a through flow leading up to amber/red, then there will be queuing problems that only persistent draconian enforcement will beat out of drivers.

Or people using tram tracks as an express lane along Anzac Parade. Vehicles queuing over tracks will be very problematic in the CBD particularly Park St & Market St maybe Lang Rd in Moore Park.

[gascoyne]

Most commentators agree that the light rail will be heavily loaded from Day 1. Expansion plans should have been announced already but haven't.

The minister announced yesterday that the NSW government would call for proposals to develop the St James tunnels into tourist attractions of some kind - restaurants etc etc.

Couldn't the tunnels, or at least the platforms and the Hyde Park tunnels stretching to about the latitude of Bathurst St, be used to make a 2nd CBD terminus for the light rail? That would ease the George St capacity constraint. Run the trams under Liverpool St somehow and connect at Surry Hills.

[tonyp]

Most commentators agree that the light rail will be heavily loaded from Day 1. Expansion plans should have been announced already but haven't.

The minister announced yesterday that the NSW government would call for proposals to develop the St James tunnels into tourist attractions of some kind - restaurants etc etc.

Couldn't the tunnels, or at least the platforms and the Hyde Park tunnels stretching to about the latitude of Bathurst St, be used to make a 2nd CBD terminus for the light rail? That would ease the George St capacity constraint. Run the trams under Liverpool St somehow and connect at Surry Hills.

That was Rob Caldwell's scheme from 1958. The department told him that the CBD stops would then be too far apart for convenience, which is true.

CSELR's design capacity is twice what it starts out at - i.e. it's capable of trams every 2 mins on the core and 4 mins on the branches, but a lot of serious resolution of traffic light priority is also required to realise that. Also, don't forget that during events it will already be running at 2 min headways between Chalmers St and Moore Park/Racecourse. That's 13,500 pphpd, seriously far more than buses can move.

The government has already floated the notion of extension to Maroubra Junction.

[gascoyne]

30 tph each way between Chalmers St and Moore Park will certainly require traffic signal priority. That would be 60 tph crossing Elizabeth St and 60 tph crossing Southern Cross Drive. Co-ordinating inbound and outbound trams would ease things for the cross traffic but would delay trams. Also, the sidings at Moore Park and Chalmers St would both have to turn a tram every 4 minutes in crowded conditions, Have a look at IWLR trams loading at Central in peak hour and decide what's feasible with CSELR trams.

30 tph to Randwick Racecourse would quickly overload the Alison/Anzac/Dacey intersection, with or without tram priority.

And 30 tph each way through Surry Hills, drawing up to 2MW per set, would be a challenge. There'd have to be a substation at Ward Park and probably another at Moore Park.

[grog]

Why would 30tph to Randwick Racecourse be a problem given that branch avoids the Alison/Anzac/Dacey intersection? (Besides the fact that 7.5tph would still need to serve the Kingsford branch so it would actually be 22.5tph to Randwick Racecourse, but I know that 2 min headway to the racecourse was mentioned in the previous post)

[tonyp]

Why would 30tph to Randwick Racecourse be a problem given that branch avoids the Alison/Anzac/Dacey intersection? (Besides the fact that 7.5tph would still need to serve the Kingsford branch so it would actually be 22.5tph to Randwick Racecourse, but I know that 2 min headway to the racecourse was mentioned in the previous post)

Yes of course, my previous post was misleading in that the 2 minute headway won't apply south of Kensington Junction as the regular service along the Randwick branch is only half the frequency of that on the core.

The IWLR operation shouldn't be regarded as a precedent as the trams don't have enough doors for the work they have to do. The CSELR trams will. Also it's quite possible that they may use relay drivers on the event trams to hasten the shunts. The operation has some similarities to line 4/6 in Budapest which is also run by very long trams at 2 min headways.

[hornetfig]

Why would 30tph to Randwick Racecourse be a problem given that branch avoids the Alison/Anzac/Dacey intersection?

Further, there's no shortage of terminal capacity either - both Centennial Park (centre storage road/turnback) and Randwick (dual platform, scissors) available.

[boronia]

Racecourse has a single island platform with central turnback road (which reconnects with the down track) beyond.

[moa999]

Will be interesting whether they actually use these turnbacks for special events given they've shown a complete disinterest in turnbacks on the DH-Central line

[boronia]

The only alternative at racecourse would be to go all the way to PoW

[tonyp]

Telegraph:
Transport Minister Andrew Constance has accused the Sydney light rail contractor of understaffing



THERE is less than 600m of track left to be laid on the troubled Sydney light rail project — a figure Transport Minister Andrew Constance seized upon as he unleashed on the Spanish contractor steering the troubled project.

Mr Constance accused Acciona of understaffing the project as he revealed details of the construction work remaining while arguing this meant it should be completed early next year.

Once construction is completed the disruption in the city will cease with street barriers removed as testing of the light rail begins.

Testing is expected to take as little as four months in each zone meaning the entire project could be open by the end of 2019.

“Despite ALTRAC - the lead contractor on Light Rail - saying just last week there was no ‘go-slow’ on this project, I’m still not seeing enough crews working to finish the project,” Mr Constance told a transport business lunch.

“There should be hundreds of people working on this site and there isn’t.”

The project is being delivered by ALTRAC and their contractor Acciona, a Spanish building company.

Mr Constance’s spray comes in the wake of Acciona Australia managing director Bede Noonan telling a parliamentary inquiry last week he expects the project won’t be completed until May 2020.

“For starters that is not his date to announce – it’s ALTRAC’s program and that’s not the date when ALTRAC expects Acciona’s civil construction works to be finished. It is now time to question this claim properly,” Mr Constance said.

Mr Constance said information on outstanding civil construction work, provided to him by Transport for NSW, showed there was “not actually too much left to do”.

“For example - Acciona has less than 600 metres of track to lay and the track slab is done. Last year Acciona delivered 600 metres of track in a week. So there is no reason this can’t be completed in a month,” he said.

“Of the 817 pole foundations – 481 have been completed and if delivering 100 a month – again - this work could be completed by the first quarter of next year.”

“Acciona need to complete five of 10 substation buildings to hand over to Alstom to install systems and energise. Again that work is scheduled to be completed within three months.”

“Acciona has 19 largely prefabricated stop structures to install – these are similar to bus stops. So far 5 have substantially been done.”

He also said the remaining paving can be completed within months.

“I’m not a builder or engineer but I think – as I am sure many of you do too – that it shouldn’t take as long as they’re saying. I was advised by transport for NSW yesterday that it should be done by the first quarter of next year.”

“Claims by Acciona Australia’s managing director that it will take until May 2020 to deliver this project is laughable, put out to anger the community unnecessarily.”

Mr Constance said all utility work in the track area was complete as is underground drainage.

“In my view any serious construction company that’s not playing games could have this work done by the first quarter of next year.”

The government is currently locked in a legal battle with Acciona over the light rail project.

[boronia]

Grisly find to further delay late-running Sydney light rail project

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/gri ... 50cqh.html

[tonyp]

I was shocked when I visited High St yesterday and saw the forest of massive heavy-rail stanchions, hell it's one of the most hideous things I've seen on a tramway anywhere. Compare these neanderthal tie-off stanchions in the heritage precinct at the end of the line:



with this tie-off stanchion on a new line in Konya, Turkey for example:



I also saw the depot stub at the Ascot St end and agree with Brian that it would now be a dead simple matter to extend it to Anzac Pde to allow trams to run to and from the depot to Kingsford. There's absolutely no thinking outside the square on this project (indeed they don't even fill the already-known square).

[Swift]

Even Turkey is light years ahead of us and no doubt didn't cost them in billions of dollars. Not to mention probably completed in months rather than years for the same length of line.