Extra Covid 19 services

[Fleet Lists]

https://transportnsw.info/news/2020/inc ... s#homepage

Increased services for trains and buses
Monday 01 June 2020

More than 3,300 extra services will be added to the public transport network across Sydney to temporarily increase capacity for physical distancing and provide more options for customers.

Key changes

Buses: more than 3,100 weekly services added
Sydney Trains: more than 250 weekly services added

The extra weekly services will be added to the network from today to help customers continue to make smart travel choices and practice physical distancing on all modes.

There has been a slight increase in peak hour travel in the past two weeks and as part of our proactive and adaptable approach we want to provide customers with more information and options throughout the day to help flatten the peak travel curve.

Almost 800 extra weekly services have already been added across buses and light rail in the last month.

This next step in the COVIDSafe Transport Plan will see 100,000 extra spaces across the network each week to support people returning to jobs and kids getting back to school.

The majority of extra services have been designed to increase capacity outside the traditional peak where they are needed most.

Based on current physical distancing requirements, these extra services will help provide more than 59,000 extra spaces on trains and more than 37,000 extra spaces on buses across each week.

Our Marshalling Response and Support Teams are helping customers move safely across the network. Increased cleaning is also continuing across all modes, with buses and trains now being cleaned up four times a day.

Our advice remains that if you are not already using public transport during the peak times, please do not start now. We also ask for you to consider driving, walking or cycling whenever you can and continue to working flexibly if possible.

[J_Busworth]

It certainly will help to have the extra services. Its a shame that they aren't advertising exact which routes have the extra services, but I guess there would be a good reason for that.

From what I could deduce, the following routes have some extra services;
STA - B1, 202, 246, 247, 285, 309, 309X, 324, 372, 373
TSA - 423, 431, 440, 442, 504, 804, 817, T80
The services seem to be a mixture of short workings and full length services.

Didn't look at any of the other operators

[rogf24]

Hoping they become permanent afterwards.

[Fleet Lists]

I would not think so.

[boronia]

TV news reports seemed to indicate extra services would be in the outer suburbs.

[Daniel]

TfNSW has been chartering additional overflow/standby buses. For instance CDC’s WSU branded Hino Ponchos waiting at Hurstville for overcrowding on 970/971s etc

[boronia]

How many complying pax can you get in a Poncho?

[Campbelltown busboy]

How many complying pax can you get in a Poncho?

That would be impossible to sort out the number of passengers a capacity reduced Hino Poncho could carry as they have the same seating capacity as a DDA compliant lift equipped Toyota Coaster or Mitsubishi Rosa

[BroadGauge]

I noticed one of these extra train services operating yesterday, being the 9:50am Macarthur to City via Sydenham, running with a K set, which looks to be the only extra morning inbound service on the T8 line.

It makes for a very frequent service out of Campbelltown for a brief period, with inbound services leaving Macarthur at 9:42am (Intercity), 9:45am (via Airport) and 9:50am (via Sydenham).

The 9:45am ex-Macarthur that precedes the extra service is never particularly busy anyway, as it has the Endeavour from Goulburn 3 minutes ahead of it, which picks up most people at Macarthur, Campbelltown and Glenfield going to the CBD who would otherwise use it.

[tonyp]

How many complying pax can you get in a Poncho?

One - on the outside.

[boxythingy]

What's incredibly amazing is how there is NOT a single extra service added between 8:00a.m to 9:00a.m departing from Campbelltown.

Why is this amazing? The line essentially operates at the off-peak frequency 4 trains per hour every 15min whilst customers are charged peak fares

This is probably the worst hour of the entire whole T8 timetable for both weekdays and weekends because people are rushing to work and there's a chance a service operated by a K(rap) Set will encounter a mechanical failure or some other track or signal failure will occur resulting in a worse service frequency than in the off peak!

[swtt]

What's incredibly amazing is how there is NOT a single extra service added between 8:00a.m to 9:00a.m departing from Campbelltown.

Why is this amazing? The line essentially operates at the off-peak frequency 4 trains per hour every 15min whilst customers are charged peak fares

Are the earlier trains that reach the city able to return to C'town for a second peak trip?

Otherwise, I don't think there are enough trains! During the peaks, all carriages that can be used up and not in maintenance, are probably used up.

Not to forget as well: that 8:13 am train ex C'town doesn't arrive Central until after 9 am. It's starting to be a very late peak service - the high peak for C'town would start earlier as well, when compared to Hornsby.

[boxythingy]

Example footage from on board a service operating between 8am to 9am ex Campbelltown after a service was cancelled. Passengers struggling to board from Minto Station onwards onto already cooped up carriages due to at least two services worth of passengers already boarded at Macarthur, Campbelltown and Leumeah

[Aurora]

There are five extra services to the City in the shoulder peak on that line. Four start from Revesby.

[boronia]

Are the earlier trains that reach the city able to return to C'town for a second peak trip?

Otherwise, I don't think there are enough trains! During the peaks, all carriages that can be used up and not in maintenance, are probably used up.

Not to forget as well: that 8:13 am train ex C'town doesn't arrive Central until after 9 am. It's starting to be a very late peak service - the high peak for C'town would start earlier as well, when compared to Hornsby.

Not only enough physical trains, but there wouldn't be many spare paths to run them?

Perhaps a ploy to encourage staggered work hours?

[boxythingy]

but there wouldn't be many spare paths to run them?

Hence the Airport tunnel signal upgrade works, but perhaps this shows that peak hour fares shouldn't be imposed on a uniform basis throughout the entire Sydney Trains network, as the peak hour varies on the NSW TrainLink network

[crimsontide]

Surprisingly some extra Covid services, have made their way to Transdev North with 595 picking up additional services.

[pgt]

I've noticed off peak there are short running route 144 buses between Spit Junction and RNS Hospital (St Leonards), running about every 15-30 minutes on top of the normal route 144 buses, which I have seen pre COVID-19 get quite full during the day - even when the rare articulated bus operates that service around lunch time towards Chatswood.

Assuming there haven't been any extra peak period 144 buses, then it's a higher frequency off-peak service (albeit for only part of the route) than peak period.

[boronia]

I usually catch a 391 service from Kensington to Central which is due around 06:48. This morning I noticed there were two 391 services listed on the app about 1 minute apart, both were on time and leapfrogged each other along the remainder of the route. Pre-Covid this service was about 50-60% loaded; in the last couple of weeks there has been only half dozen or so on board, so it is hard to understand why a duplication was necessary.

At Central this morning, I was chatting to the guard on the Canberra XPL. I joked about the small number of passengers on board, and he stated that only 32 passengers are carried and any overflow are carried in coaches.

[Stu]

TSA additional services this Saturday & Sunday.
420 Rockdale - Sydney Airport (Domestic).
440 Leichhardt - Railway Square.
526 Strathfield Station - DFO.

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... ions-ease/

[swtt]

TSA additional services this Saturday & Sunday.
420 Rockdale - Sydney Airport (Domestic).
440 Leichhardt - Railway Square.
526 Strathfield Station - DFO.

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... ions-ease/

According to the Trip Planner, it's Route 525 that's getting the extra services. Runs from Olympic Park Station to Strathfield Station every 30 min from approx 1430 hrs in that direction.

Earlier today, it was Strathfield Station to Olympic Park Station, in that direction, every 30 min.

[stupid_girl]

I usually catch a 391 service from Kensington to Central which is due around 06:48. This morning I noticed there were two 391 services listed on the app about 1 minute apart, both were on time and leapfrogged each other along the remainder of the route. Pre-Covid this service was about 50-60% loaded; in the last couple of weeks there has been only half dozen or so on board, so it is hard to understand why a duplication was necessary.

At Central this morning, I was chatting to the guard on the Canberra XPL. I joked about the small number of passengers on board, and he stated that only 32 passengers are carried and any overflow are carried in coaches.

I think it's probably more cost effective to carry all passengers to Canberra by coaches.

[boronia]

I also noticed yesterday afternoon that the train stabling yards around Auburn had been emptied of PM starters earlier than usual.

[BroadGauge]

At Central this morning, I was chatting to the guard on the Canberra XPL. I joked about the small number of passengers on board, and he stated that only 32 passengers are carried and any overflow are carried in coaches.

Running overflow coaches only seems to be something that has been put on for the Queens Birthday weekend. On other days, it seems to be the case that ones the socially distanced capacity of the train is booked out, too bad.

I'm surprised that the Canberra Xplorer isn't booked out on every single trip yet, given that both of the Murrays and Greyhound coach services are still suspended between SYD - CBR. Apart from driving yourself, the only options between those cities are the Xplorer, or the 5x weekly QantasLink Dash 8 service that runs from SYD - CBR - MEL.

[BanksfielderIdiot823]

From what I could deduce, the following routes have some extra services;
TSA - 423, 431, 440, 442, 504, 804, 817, T80
The services seem to be a mixture of short workings and full length services.

A late comment from me; I was supposed to mention this last Thursday, but yeah; whoever made the call to throw in a package of Fairfield-Bonnyrigg short-workings on the 804 is a bloody legend who has just saved that route from disaster. In fact, yes some of the extra services are full-length but I cannot see why for the life of me that those short-workings are not in the permanent timetable. Yes, the 817 is busy and so is the T80, but if you want to see 'busy' in the Fairfield area, look at the 804 across the afternoon. That Fairfield to Bonnyrigg via Hamilton Rd section in particular is at times cramped.