NSW Railway Observations - July to December 2018

[boronia]

Noticed this 4 car XPL set on the Dubbo XPT service recently.

DSC02978 (Small).jpeg (132.38 KiB) Viewed 8030 times

Fist time I can recall noticing an XPL with the couplings faired over like this. Looked through some older photos and could not find any.

[Geoff]

When I rode the Explorer back from Broken Hill recently it had those covers fitted. They protect the coupling device in case of an animal strike.

[andy_centralcoast]

Crew relief issues again playing havoc with the network tonight. Reports of trains at stopped at platforms for 20-30 minutes waiting for drivers.

With a couple of events at SOP tonight, hopefully there will be still be enough trains running later to get people home.

[J_Busworth]

I was on one of the special T7 Central to Olympic Park services earlier. It was over an hour from Central to Olympic Park with long periods stationary. The train was over 40 minutes late to begin with as they couldn’t find a driver for it earlier.

Crowd at the Sydney Derby isn’t too big (only 18000) so trains later hopefully won’t be too problematic.

[Frodo]

Not an observation as such, but information about services and trackwork over the Christmas and New Year period is now up
https://transportnsw.info/news/2018/sum ... -transport
https://transportnsw.info/alerts#/train

Key trackwork over the christmas period:
- Trackwork between Lidcombe and Strathfield on the holidays/weekends (26, 29, 30 Dec) with passengers heading to the city advised to catch a T3 train via Bankstown as there will be extra express trains (which are not yet showing on trip planner).
- T1 north shore line trackwork between Hornsby and North Sydney/Wynyard from 3-6 Jan inclusive - will be interesting to see how this holds up on 3-4 Jan which are work days (although many people will be taking the first 3 days off I assume)

[andy_centralcoast]

Not much detail at all in that summer holiday timetables page.

Looks like some Western Line trains will be diverted north to Rhodes during that trackwork period.

[boronia]

Blue Mountains rail line gets $75 million upgrade

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/blu ... 50mxn.html

[Engineering]

Not much detail at all in that summer holiday timetables page

IMHO the page is misleading

https://transportnsw.info/news/2018/sum ... -transport Only contains info on routes that are running to a reduced summer timetable. For example, it does not mention the north shore closedown, which is on a separate page at https://transportnsw.info/alerts/details#/6028003, because that is a complete track work closedown, rather than a reduced summer services.

You would forgive a well intentioned commuter who looks at the summer timetable page who believed the north shore trains are running as normal that week.

Trust the replacement bus service demand prediction learns from the chaos of Gordon - Hornsby closedown at a similar time last year.

[boronia]

That is "confusion", an art which ST/TfNSW have honed to its finest levels.

[RickyT]

Spotted this morning at Waverton station was Waratah A44 displaying 'Merry Christmas' on its destination board.

Also caught a B set on a North Shore line service in the morning earlier this week which was a rare sighting AFAIK.

[Jurassic_Joke]

Also caught a B set on a North Shore line service in the morning earlier this week which was a rare sighting AFAIK.

Interesting, I never even knew they had done testing there (or that they were ever intended for the north shore, which already has the most A sets)

[Aurora]

Also caught a B set on a North Shore line service in the morning earlier this week which was a rare sighting AFAIK.

Interesting, I never even knew they had done testing there (or that they were ever intended for the north shore, which already has the most A sets)

Testing is done on most lines in the network, even if not usually operated on by that type of train.

[Stonesourscotty]

Heavily graffitied b set next to Flemington depot.

[moa999]

Services suspended to Olympic Park station (greatly impacting crowds at Big Bash tonight) due to police operation.

News reports it's due to major cracking in the 30-storey Opal building
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/opa ... 50o4b.html

[sunnyyan]

https://transportnsw.info/alerts/details#/6028616

08:30 Melbourne to Sydney XPT service
This service has been delayed due to speed restrictions.

What kind of speed restriction can cause the XPT to be almost 30 minutes late at Wagga according to Anytrip?

[Xplorer]

notice the plural, so probably multiple restrictions

[boronia]

Speed restrictions are usually caused by poor track conditions, which have been quite regular on that part of the line. Dosen't take much slowing down to get that far behind over that distance.

[Stonesourscotty]

8141 is hooked up to a massive rake of s car carriages looks like it's about to leave Flemington now.

[Newcastle Flyer]

What stupid NSW(1) government decides to have trains run based on a weekend timetable, yet buses run to a weekday timetable?

Should be weekday timetables for all public transport when not a public holiday.

At Sunnyyan, looks like the XPT was diverting via Bankstown.

8141 is hooked up to a massive rake of s car carriages looks like it's about to leave Flemington now.

Please don't tell me their going to where I think their going! (PS: I don't say we should keep all current S-Sets either.)

(1) Oops, answered my own question.

[mandonov]

Not sure when this happened exactly, but in the last month or so real time train location data has finally been rolled out to the CCN north of Gosford.

This was always quite annoying when you could see all the diesel trains that go north, including the Hunter Line, already live via GPS.

[Aurora]

Not sure when this happened exactly, but in the last month or so real time train location data has finally been rolled out to the CCN north of Gosford.

This was always quite annoying when you could see all the diesel trains that go north, including the Hunter Line, already live via GPS.

Been live for a couple of weeks along with the South Coast. However some black spot areas along the line remain.

[andy_centralcoast]

Not sure when this happened exactly, but in the last month or so real time train location data has finally been rolled out to the CCN north of Gosford.

Just randomly started showing up in the apps about 2 weeks ago. I was surprised there wasn’t any press release to local media or news announcement about it on transportnsw.info. They normally love to promote stuff like this. But I think it was the week of some pretty major delays so maybe they were trying to completely avoid any attention.

Nothing in the service information in the apps to announce it either, meanwhile they still have the totally misleading thing from October about “more express services to support the metro”

[Transport Buff]

Blue Mountains Line - Sydney Trains/NSW TrainLink Orange Station Sign Upgrade Update - December 2018

From Emu Plains:
Emu Plains
Lapstone
Glenbrook
Blaxland
Warrimoo
Valley Heights
Springwood
Faulconbridge
Linden
Hazelbrook
Wentworth Falls
Leura
Katoomba

I have not been further west than Katoomba, as yet.
Only stations between Emu Plains and Katoomba that don't have the upgrade yet, are Woodford, Lawson, Bullaburra.

Hope this is of interest to viewers and readers. Happy New Year to all, also.

[andy_centralcoast]

Tripview is reporting Major Delays on T1 and T2 this evening due to severe weather conditions at Central. Did I miss a storm or something?

[boronia]

Haha. There has been a bit of rolling thunder out here in the east for the last hour so, but no noticeable lightning or rain. Don't know what is happening in the city, but "live" TV reporters haven't mentioned anything.