CBD & South East Light Rail

[CityRail]

Considering how packed these services are these days at UNSW, how can they ensure social distancing is possible?
If social distancing is not possible, if one person has Coronavirus, then it will risk the entire NSW into Stage 4 lockdown, especially when we are facing the more contagious UK strain.
I think we should reinstate 891, 893, 895 and 898 for the time being until most people are vaccinated and borders reopen, so that social distancing can be maintained, and the probability of Coronavirus outbreak is kept at minimum.

[boronia]

Why not just run some extra tram services, terminating at Central?

[Swift]

Considering how packed these services are these days at UNSW, how can they ensure social distancing is possible?
If social distancing is not possible, if one person has Coronavirus, then it will risk the entire NSW into Stage 4 lockdown, especially when we are facing the more contagious UK strain.
I think we should reinstate 891, 893, 895 and 898 for the time being until most people are vaccinated and borders reopen, so that social distancing can be maintained, and the probability of Coronavirus outbreak is kept at minimum.

That makes a tonne of sense. It seems public transport operators function in a parallel world here.

[tonyp]

Why not just run some extra tram services, terminating at Central?

The system is designed for twice as many services as are run now. Whether Transdev can manage that without headways going pear-shaped is another matter. They'd be running two minutes apart to Kensington Junction then four minutes apart along each branch. Not sure how many spare trams there are in the fleet during peaks.

[boronia]

The biggest challenge might be how good their controllers are at turning trams around at Chalmers St without disrupting other services. Transdev don't seem interested in maintaining headways or schedules. so more trams shouldn't bother them.

[moa999]

Probably because the UNSW trams are busy 8-9.30, which is exactly when trams are needed over the city section.

And masks are compulsory on PT for that exact reason - to make it safer if distancing is limited.

We haven't had a local case for 20+ days.
And the UK strain is at worst 20-30% more infective.. still something that can be controlled. 3+ times or 300% might have you worried.

And if we do get a breakout then I expect Unis will quickly revert back to online learning as they did last year.

[Scott4570]

As of 12 months ago, with a frequency of 8 minutes on both L2 and L3, in both directions, the Timetable called for the following number of Rosters out of a Fleet of 60 units:-
Randwick 10 coupled Units (20 units), Kensington Juniors 10 coupled Units (20 units). 40 units required for the Service.
Leaving 10 coupled Units (20 units) Spare or for Repair and Maintenance.

[Aurora]

33% is quite a lot to have for maintenance.

Sydney Trains generally has around 10% (depending on train type).

[Passenger 57]

Well, they are French trams after all so they probably respect the 35 hour week.

[boronia]

I think they over-ordered in anticipation of increased need in the short term.

[Swift]

Unlike the Inner West Slight Fail!!

[Qantas94Heavy]

CSELR real time data is now live (on AnyTrip)! Predictably, services are late as usual

[boronia]

Live on Next There too. L3s running up to 18 minutes late.

[tonyp]

I use the map on Anytrip. They're mostly on time at the moment (1350 om 24/02/21). It would be nice if they listed trams as a special vehicle so you can see them under the swarm of buses!

[Glen]

Likewise visible on TripView.

Interestingly trams can be seen as 'last reported' up to 2 hours in advance. I didn't think buses normally go that far?

[Jurassic_Joke]

Awesome news all round, this should make a very clear difference to the passenger experience. There was an incident on the network a week or two ago close to the end of service that really disrupted it all and real time information would have been helpful to let people know - glad we will have it now!

[boronia]

Likewise visible on TripView.

Interestingly trams can be seen as 'last reported' up to 2 hours in advance. I didn't think buses normally go that far?

On Next There, it goes to over 3 hours. At 15.40 it is reporting all services as far ahead as 18.24, with a couple of random journeys beyond that to 19.15. It is reassuring to know at 16:00 that the 19:30 L3 from ES Marks to CQ is running 5 minutes late.

It is continuous monitoring; I think buses and trains reset at the end of each trip.

[hornetfig]

Interestingly the set numbers are available too. Anytrip will show you which LRVs make up the set.

[tonyp]

Still running more or less on time this evening (1937), but I'm just watching with fascination three L1 trams closely following each other through Annandale, all heading towards the single track Dulwich Hill terminus. Running commentary:

Righto, they've held two for a prolonged time at stops around Leichhardt while the first rushes down to the terminus. That must be wonderful for the passengers held.

Now the first has left DH heading north again and the following two are on the move. Everything is shown as on time or early. There's obviously some science at work here.

The third one is now being held at Hawthorne while number two moves ahead.

Now number two is stuck at Lewisham. They move like slugs.The line is empty of trams between Parramatta Rd and Pyrmont. They're all bunched at either end.

Number two is inching towards DH. Number three is one stop behind it all the way.

Hooray, number one has reached DH, number two is stuck at Dulwich Grove. This is why a two track terminus or loop is needed at DH.

More than five minutes later, number three is still waiting at Dulwich Grove, number two has switched off.

Finally number two has left northwards and number three is in the terminus having lost over 5 minutes. This has all been happening over about 20 minutes. The management of the second generation Sydney system would be rolling in their graves. They would have been envious having a line that ran almost entirely in its own grade-separated ROW.

[Merc1107]

Now come on Tony, be reasonable, the system is still bedding in and we're supposed to watch in amazement (or struck-out, 'with our jaws dropped') as they reinvent the wheel!

[tonyp]

Now come on Tony, be reasonable, the system is still bedding in and we're supposed to watch in amazement (or struck-out, 'with our jaws dropped') as they reinvent the wheel!

My observations related to L1 (inner west) which opened in 1997. They've had 24 years to get that right and still haven't. By contrast L2 and L3 seem to have been relatively orderly today.

[Merc1107]

My observations related to L1 (inner west) which opened in 1997.

My bad!
As you point out though, that's actually even worse than the line(s) I thought I was poking fun at.

[Qantas94Heavy]

When did they remove the traffic lights near the Surry Hills stop? Must have been in the last week or two unless I was particularly inattentive. Now traffic cannot travel through Marlborough St to Devonshire St and vice versa.

[boronia]

Only fairly recently I think. They have been an annoyance because they always seemed to delay outbound departures from the stop. I did notice mid last week that my service did manage to not be delayed, but I never particularly looked at/for the lights.

[boronia]

I notice from TripView that the L3 is now timetabled at 33 minutes CQ to Juniors. But looking at RTD, nearly all services are predicted to be at least 5 minutes late arriving, even one hour or 2 ahead. And that is on top of accumulated previous delays.

I got off an outbound service at Kensington a short time ago, and the following service was pulling up behind.