NSW Railway Observations - July to December 2018

[sd1800]

Not sure if it's been mentioned (apologies if it has) but a few interesting observations with the new North Shore timetable.

Morning peak Wyong to Central via Gordon services no longer stop at Asquith, but they do in the afternoon...? However on the upside there are now 15 minute all stops services during morning peak between Hornsby and Berowra, but also not in the aftermoon. These morning services are a godsend for those of us commuting from Mt Colah or Mt Kuring-gai who have previously been having to do deal with services only every 30 minutes - even in peak! Shame we still have to deal with 19th Century frequency in the afternoons.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

[Jurassic_Joke]

Also another new interesting observation, if I read correctly last night coming home, but there’s actually been a reduction by stealth in North Shore trains late at night.

During the day, the former ECRL trains terminate at Lindfield or Gordon, fine fine extra trains, but late at night, it’s North Sydney instead. So at 10pm approx, after North Sydney towards Chatswood, you only have one train every 15 mins fixed, Hornsby via Gordon. So that’s 4x an hour (4x Hornsby via Gordon) instead of 8x in the old timetable (4x to Hornsby via Gordon, 4x via Macq Uni).

Not pleased about this...cost cutting to the max. And of course, in NSW Liberal fashion, do it as stealthily quiet as possible. Hurry up March....

[BroadGauge]

Not pleased about this...cost cutting to the max. And of course, in NSW Liberal fashion, do it as stealthily quiet as possible. Hurry up March....

You could try living in quite literally any other city in this country, none of which has trains that run more often than 30 minutely at that time of night.

And of course, in NSW Liberal fashion, do it as stealthily quiet as possible. Hurry up March....

Perhaps the best thing would be to revert to the mid-2000s timetables when Michael Costa, former NSW Labor Transport Minister cut back everything to the bone. Because clearly one political party stands for running lots of trains and the other one doesn't

I remember in those days you'd often be stuck waiting 14 minutes for the next train to Milsons Point in the middle of the day if you missed one.

[andy_centralcoast]

Not sure if it's been mentioned (apologies if it has) but a few interesting observations with the new North Shore timetable.

Morning peak Wyong to Central via Gordon services no longer stop at Asquith, but they do in the afternoon...? However on the upside there are now 15 minute all stops services during morning peak between Hornsby and Berowra, but also not in the aftermoon. These morning services are a godsend for those of us commuting from Mt Colah or Mt Kuring-gai who have previously been having to do deal with services only every 30 minutes - even in peak! Shame we still have to deal with 19th Century frequency in the afternoons.

There’s also big changes to the Central Coast timetable but the only information on transportnsw.info service alert is:
“There are more express services to Central via Strathfield to support the new Sydney Metro Northwest coming in the second quarter of 2019.”

In the morning and afternoon peaks there are no longer any direct trains via Epping/Strathfield for the smaller stations between Gosford and Hornsby. The only trains stopping at stations like Hawkesbury River or Berowra are the ones via the North Shore and those trains now take an extra 10-15 minutes.

[swtt]

I remember in those days you'd often be stuck waiting 14 minutes for the next train to Milsons Point in the middle of the day if you missed one.

Yeah, originally the Shore line prior to 2005 had 6 tph Central to Hornsby (4 from West, 2 from Hornsby via Strathfield) but at uneven intervals.

That 2005 TT killed everything - 4 tph Nth Syd to Hornsby (all originating from the West) as the off peak frequency. Every off peak train was packed.

Costalot was his nickname. Everything was cut. Buses were cut, trains were cut. Nothing was restored until at least 5 years later in 2009/2010 when the metrobuses came along. By that time, Obeid & Co had siphoned off so much $$$ there was nothing left for anyone, let alone public transport.

[idontknow556]

I've noticed that there has been a lot more Tangaras on the T1 since the ECRL shutdown.

[boronia]

I got a shock this morning to see the down Canberra XPL going out from Central with a near fully seated load in all three carriages.

Must be the first time I've actually seen anybody in the rear car.

[Scott4570]

I've noticed that there has been a lot more Tangaras on the T1 since the ECRL shutdown.

From September 30, the Weekdays Timetable calls for an additional 3 x 8T set Rosters to operate T1 services.

The additional sets have been made available as follows:-
2 x 4T sets South Coast Rosters (Shuttles: Waterfall - Port Kembla) altered to 2 x 4H sets.
4 x 4T sets released due to a reduction in the Maintenance Cycle.

[swtt]

Wow - 4 min late on departure from Sydney Terminal and could still run on time by its destination. So much fat built into the TT!

Capture.PNG (46 KiB) Viewed 5638 times

[J_Busworth]

Wow - 4 min late on departure from Sydney Terminal and could still run on time by its destination. So much fat built into the TT!

Capture.PNG

I was speaking to an ex-General Manger Timetable Development who was there back in the CityRail days (now working on Sydney Metro). He says he is shocked by the amount of cushioning that the new timetables have in them. He says that ever since the influx of British "experience" the timetables have become worse, with ridiculous decision regarding layover and running times between stations slowing down trains, as well as privatisation of slow trains over fast trains.

[Fleet Lists]

I was speaking to an ex-General Manger Timetable Development who was there back in the CityRail days (now working on Sydney Metro). He says he is shocked by the amount of cushioning that the new timetables have in them. He says that ever since the influx of British "experience" the timetables have become worse, with ridiculous decision regarding layover and running times between stations slowing down trains, as well as privatisation of slow trains over fast trains.

Privatisation??? or do you mean prioritising?

[andy_centralcoast]

The new Central Coast timetable has a lot of dwell time built in. Have seen trains arrive at Epping 5 minutes early. If running on time, the via North Shore trains also now have extra dwell at Berowra, Hornsby, Gordon and Chatswood in the morning. Journey time is about 10 minutes longer as a result of the changes.

Unrelated, observed an interesting move tonight heading towards Hornsby at North Sydney. Train was diverted to platform 3 then departed as normal but stopped a few meters into the tunnel while another train overtook us on the adjacent track from platform 4. And no announcement prior to give people the opportunity to swap trains.

[andy_centralcoast]

Also another new interesting observation, if I read correctly last night coming home, but there’s actually been a reduction by stealth in North Shore trains late at night.

During the day, the former ECRL trains terminate at Lindfield or Gordon, fine fine extra trains, but late at night, it’s North Sydney instead. So at 10pm approx, after North Sydney towards Chatswood, you only have one train every 15 mins fixed, Hornsby via Gordon. So that’s 4x an hour (4x Hornsby via Gordon) instead of 8x in the old timetable (4x to Hornsby via Gordon, 4x via Macq Uni).

Even more frustrating, after terminating at North Sydney, some actually run as empty to Hornsby (eg 116U)

[Frodo]

Speaking of dwell time, the 7.54am Wyong to Central service arrived at Hornsby at 9.13am on Wednesday (9 min late) as the Berowra to city service was prioritised. It still managed to arrive at Central on time, at 9.44am.

[andy_centralcoast]

Speaking of dwell time, the 7.54am Wyong to Central service arrived at Hornsby at 9.13am on Wednesday (9 min late) as the Berowra to city service was prioritised. It still managed to arrive at Central on time, at 9.44am.

Prior to this week, that run was timetabled as 10 minutes from Hornsby to Epping. It's now timetabled as 15 minutes.

[rogf24]

Yet that trip only takes 2 minutes longer overall, some strange travel time shifting going on. Maybe travel times between other stops was "cut".

[Scott4570]

From Tuesday, October 2, the 0754 hours Wyong Service has to follow the Local from Hornsby to Epping, it then doesn't stop at Eastwood.

[andy_centralcoast]

Also read this today:

Between Waverton and Artarmon, the medium speed aspect of signals is being removed, thus lowering the speed of trains. It is believed that this is because the headways in the Waverton area are too close to the theoretical minimum to avoid a system collapse should even a minor thing go wrong.

[andy_centralcoast]

Anyone know what's going on this morning? Over 100 services cancelled but absolutely nothing on the travel alerts and not a peep out of the official Twitter accounts!

[Daniel]

50+ buses are being called in for Leppington, Campbelltown, Lidcombe, Bankstown etc.

[Campbelltown busboy]

Due to a operational issue on the network this morning there are a lot of cancellations when I checked the T8 line on TripView I saw this

Then I got this when I clicked into the little symbol beside the 0629 city via airport service from Campbelltown

And this when I taped the same symbol beside the 06:37 city via Sydenham service witch is diverted to all station via Revsby and the airport



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[boronia]

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/syd ... 508b4.html

[andy_centralcoast]

It's amazing the SMH can publish a news article before Transport NSW can publish a service alert.

[Bjwh86]

Lots of staff off sick today apparently


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jurassic_Joke]

Mmmm, they probably got sick of the LNP out of fear they'll be made to promote gambling / The Everest at stations or on trains over the intercom s/