NSW Railway Observations - July to December 2018

[boronia]

cost-blowout-delays-dog-new-control-centre-fortress-for-sydney-trains

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/cos ... 5090y.html

[Bjwh86]

They are connections for the Blue Mountains Line trains starting/terminating at Blacktown.

I’m told some guards are allowing passengers for Penrith to stay on and opening the doors at Penrith.

How would a regular passenger know the train even goes through Penrith?

The H sets were displaying all the stopsof that particular service.

Eg: all stops to Mt Victoria.


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[andy_centralcoast]

I've seen similar when Western Line trains are diverted North during trackwork, they are told to terminate at Strathfield and run empty to Epping/Eastwood/Rhodes, but often the onboard display lists Epping/Eastwood/Rhodes after Strathfield, and some guards just go with it instead of clearing the trains at Strathfield (which causes delays as it's on a through platform with services following behind).


On Sunday, for at least one of the services the guard announced it as terminating at Penrith instead of Blacktown. Apps like NextThere also showed the runs continuing to Penrith if you clicked through to view the full stopping pattern. Not sure what happened when the train got to Blacktown if CSA's tried to clear it. They weren't going to a yard so shouldn't really be necessary to clear.

[sunnyyan]

Delays this morning on the Bankstown line into the city during the morning peak. From what I've seen, the K set on what used to be run 15-G (don't know the new run num) broke down at Regents Park. However, I think it must have broken down closer to Birrong considering that trains from Liverpool were not coming through. At Campsie, I had to wait around 20 minutes for a train, but people at smaller stations would have had to wait 30-40 minutes as the previous train was an express.

[Frosty]

I've seen similar when Western Line trains are diverted North during trackwork, they are told to terminate at Strathfield and run empty to Epping/Eastwood/Rhodes, but often the onboard display lists Epping/Eastwood/Rhodes after Strathfield, and some guards just go with it instead of clearing the trains at Strathfield (which causes delays as it's on a through platform with services following behind).


On Sunday, for at least one of the services the guard announced it as terminating at Penrith instead of Blacktown. Apps like NextThere also showed the runs continuing to Penrith if you clicked through to view the full stopping pattern. Not sure what happened when the train got to Blacktown if CSA's tried to clear it. They weren't going to a yard so shouldn't really be necessary to clear.

More recently Airport Line trains trackwork west of Turrella trains use to terminate and then run empty from Wolli Creek at least now all those trains start & end at Turrella.

[boronia]

How would a regular passenger know the train even goes through Penrith?

The H sets were displaying all the stopsof that particular service.

Eg: all stops to Mt Victoria.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/quote]

No doubt this is another failing of the PIDs which are based on the run timetable rather than the actual service. Same as trains passing through Central only show stop info up to Central.

In this case, the run "terminates" at Penrith, so this appears on the displays?

[Stonesourscotty]

B1 is at Parra about to form the next service out of p4 has it been reported in service yet

[sunnyyan]

^ Yes I saw it on Monday in service. It was reported by Boronia in the B set thread that it went into service on Saturday.

[mandonov]

Interesting article and video about where all the official stickers and decals are made for TfNSW: https://www.theherald.com.au/story/5710 ... s/?cs=7573

[gld59]

I travelled on B2 and B1 on Sunday afternoon. (I don't even have an app or anything to check what's coming - they just happened to be the next trains that turned up when I wanted to travel.)

[andy_centralcoast]

A truck has somehow ended up the tracks at Tuggerah. Buses are replacing electric services between Gosford and Wyong (XPT and freight are managing to pass). There's a reduced service frequency running between Central and Gosford, and between Wyong and Newcastle Interchange. Line is expected to reopen to all trains by 4pm.

[boronia]

The 16:50 Central to Newcastle service was still at Central at 17:00 with only a small number of people on board.

[mandonov]

A truck has somehow ended up the tracks at Tuggerah. Buses are replacing electric services between Gosford and Wyong (XPT and freight are managing to pass). There's a reduced service frequency running between Central and Gosford, and between Wyong and Newcastle Interchange. Line is expected to reopen to all trains by 4pm.

Yeah that didn’t happen. At about 3:30 from Broadmeadow we were told to either catch the all stations train to Wyong and change for a replacement bus to Gosford, or get an express bus to Wyong and do the same. Most chose the latter.

At Wyong we got the bus to Gosford where we were to continue by train. All good.

On arrival at Gosford it’s announced that no trains will be going south and about 200 people are guided to the other side of Gosford Station to meet buses to Hornsby. At least T1 is still normal because I’m still on it en route to Central four hours after beginning my journey. The most frustrating thing was seeing the parked V sets at Gosford that could have gone south.

[Fleet Lists]

Was there staff available for the V sets?

[Stonesourscotty]

Waratah 45 on T7 this morning from Lidcombe and Waratah 48 was on Liverpool-Richmond last night.

[sunnyyan]

On run 34-G/H (8K, Liverpool service) today, the driver put the train in emergency just after departing from Central. I think it was emergency as I heard air being released. However, the train was able to start moving again within a few seconds. Is it possible to stop the air from being lost on a K set if the driver releases the brakes immediately?

[boronia]

Sounds like the driver has tripped through a signal based train stop?

[boronia]

Secret report reveals gaps in Sydney Trains' emergency readiness


https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sec ... 507bu.html

[Scott4570]

On run 34-G/H (8K, Liverpool service) today, the driver put the train in emergency just after departing from Central. I think it was emergency as I heard air being released. However, the train was able to start moving again within a few seconds. Is it possible to stop the air from being lost on a K set if the driver releases the brakes immediately?

As the train was just commencing to depart Central, the Driver may have, momentarily, lifted his hand off the Master Controller, the train immediately commenced to apply the Emergency Brakes. If the Driver is quick enough and moves the Controller to off, that's sometimes enough to reset and release the brakes to once again apply power.

[mandonov]

A very interesting comment on SSC:

Train patronage

In the 2011-2012 financial year, CityRail (Sydney Trains + NSW TrainLink combined) recorded 303.5 million passenger trips (P25, https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/sites/ ... -final.pdf - NSW Long Term Transport Master Plan , 2012).

The NSW Long Term Transport Master Plan projected rail patronage would grow by 26% to 382.4 million passenger trips in 2031.

In the 2017-18 financial year, Sydney Trains + NSW TrainLink recorded 386.9 million passenger trips (https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/data-a ... ly-figures - Train Patronage for July 2017-June 2018). This exceeds the 2031 forecast by 4.5 million passengers, 13 years earlier than planned.

In this time, only the South West Rail Link has opened, adding two more stations to the rail network (Edmonson Park and Leppington).

On current projections, Sydney Metro Northwest, Sydney Metro City and Southwest, Sydney Metro West and Sydney Metro Western Sydney Airport will all be completed by 2031.

Bookmark this post so we can refer back to it in 2031 and see how much patronage ended up growing by

[boronia]

Secret report reveals gaps in Sydney Trains' emergency readiness


https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sec ... 507bu.html

THis appears to be an update on the earlier article:

'Overwhelmed': shambolic response to Central Station fire revealed

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/ove ... 509wn.html

[rogf24]

A very interesting comment on SSC:

SMH from 2011 said 391 million by 2021.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nor ... 1mi4u.html

[tonyp]

SMH from 2011 said 391 million by 2021.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nor ... 1mi4u.html

Getting within reach of topping patronage of the Sydney trams for the first time ever - it has only taken 140 years! Opening of the Sydney Metro should actually succeed in this, if one counts commuter railway systems in Sydney as a whole.

The Sydney Trains system must be creaking at its capacity limit by now but the metro will take the lid off. I would think that the first single metro line has the design capacity to carry at least the patronage of the entire Sydney Trains system when unlocked to its full capability on a 24 hour basis. Likewise the design capacity of the CSELR tram line is capable of moving more than half State Transit's present entire Sydney patronage on a 24 hour basis. Full credit to the unfairly-criticised Liberals for making this huge additional capacity available to Sydney's capacity-starved transit systems at a time when its population is surging up towards 8 million. Labor never achieved anything like this, to the contrary slaughtering the capacity of the street transport system when it closed the second generation tram system. Labor really needs to come up with a transport policy that seriously addresses Sydney's capacity crisis, rather than just negative reactionary stuff.

[swtt]

A very interesting comment on SSC:

SMH from 2011 said 391 million by 2021.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nor ... 1mi4u.html

In fact quite unbelievable how even as of before 26/11/2017 there were still many train lines that ran at a 30 min weekend frequency.

More Trains More Services is what is says - actually more trains. Unlike the diabolical 1996 TT which shoved more trains but halved the number of carriages on those services into 4 car trains

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[neilrex]

You can tell it is election season when the plan for fast train to Canberra gets wheeled out again on the ABC