CBD & South East Light Rail

Sydney / New South Wales Transport Discussion
gascoyne
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by gascoyne »

They were carrying stacks of sandbags to Central and back today. No hi-vis passengers at all and no action in George St.
matthewg
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by matthewg »

gascoyne wrote:They were carrying stacks of sandbags to Central and back today. No hi-vis passengers at all and no action in George St.
Apparently the lifeguards have been bottoming out in some places. They will be collecting data so they can come up with a proper solution. The suspension will behave differently from unloaded to loaded., so load the tram up to full load with sandbags and run tests.

Avignon's 205s and our 305s are the first 'double-front door' Citadis Alstom has made. The Avignon route is short and flat, so them beating us to the first operator of the Citadis X05 series may not have picked this up. The extra length from the leading wheel to the nose has possibly contributed to making the tram more sensitive to a change of grade than expected.

After many years of absence, the trip and drop gate lifeguard has made a comeback, but by nature, the trip gate isn't far off the road and if for some reason your nose dips....
Linto63
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by Linto63 »

tonyp wrote:I hope they're introducing full priority for the trams and even for the buses too.
Appears not, at least so far on George St. While it is a bit hard to quantify with tram making dummy stops and at what point they are actually ready to go, but it doesn't appear that the phasing of the lights changes when a tram is present. Maybe it is currently operating in a more 'safety first' mode, but even when the parallel road is signalled green and with no interface with road traffic to be factored in, the tram signals are still set to red and it is only after the tram has arrived and stopped that it changes to white.
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by boronia »

Along the shared sections of Anzac Pde there are separate B and T lights for the tracks. The white B lights generally mimic the normal corresponding green traffic lights, but the T lights remain red., presumably demand activated.
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matthewg
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by matthewg »

boronia wrote:Along the shared sections of Anzac Pde there are separate B and T lights for the tracks. The white B lights generally mimic the normal corresponding green traffic lights, but the T lights remain red., presumably demand activated.
It looks like the T lights do not activate until they see a transponder on the trams. This is just based on observation. I have no real idea of what technology has been deployed. It's almost like someone in the control room has to see the tram sitting there waiting and manually trigger the T light.
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by J_Busworth »

matthewg wrote:
boronia wrote:Along the shared sections of Anzac Pde there are separate B and T lights for the tracks. The white B lights generally mimic the normal corresponding green traffic lights, but the T lights remain red., presumably demand activated.
It looks like the T lights do not activate until they see a transponder on the trams. This is just based on observation. I have no real idea of what technology has been deployed. It's almost like someone in the control room has to see the tram sitting there waiting and manually trigger the T light.
As far as I can tell, the light are pretty quick to change for the trams, usually as such that they barely have to slow before the light goes white. It is only at the very large intersections that the trams need to wait for lengthy periods. They must have a signalling or transponder system installed.
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Linto63
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by Linto63 »

Walking up George St I was passed by a tram just north of Rawson Place and was nearly at Bathurst Street before it overtook me again. It seemed to spend a couple of minutes at each of Hay, Liverpool and Park Streets.
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by Swift »

Did you adhere to crossing lights? If so, you are in the minority. Cops should be fining transgressors even more incredibly stupid than they are.
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by Linto63 »

Have seen both uniformed and plain clothed operations in recent weeks.
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by STMPainter2018 »

J_Busworth wrote: As far as I can tell, the light are pretty quick to change for the trams, usually as such that they barely have to slow before the light goes white. It is only at the very large intersections that the trams need to wait for lengthy periods. They must have a signalling or transponder system installed.
I can't attest to this as well. Every time I've been along George St recently, the lights have changed relatively quickly and the tram continues on as normal. The only exception to this is last week, when I noticed trams heading towards Central, were stuck at Town Hall stop for 8 minutes, whilst waiting for the lights at Bathurst St intersection to give the all clear. Didn't seem as bad for trams in the other direction, but I really hope this was a fluke and it'll be sorted out. Otherwise, it seems they are progressively developing the traffic light patterns as they go along, and now with RMS out of the picture (at least in terms of being it's own organisation that sabotages public transport), I'm cautiously optimistic that we will have priority for trams. But it might be worth asking the Light Rail people again just in case
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by Transport Buff »

Just wondering of there are any updates as to the opening of the CSELR - L2 Circular Quay to Randwick, and if Saturday 7 December still the proposed opening? :)
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moa999
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by moa999 »

When it's official I'm sure it will be widely reported .

And much like the Metro and Newcastle LR will probably only happen a week before.
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by marcnut1996 »

Sydney Metro opening was announced on 5 May, three weeks before its opening.
Newcastle LR opening seems to be announced in late January, also around three weeks before its opening.
WestConnex was a mere 3 days before opening.
If L2 is to be announced this week, then I will assume the opening date is 3 weeks later, on 14/15 December 2019.
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by Fleet Lists »

It normally is two full weeks plus at least a few days which, if it is announced this week, could still make it 7/8 December but 14/15 seems more likely by now. This allows all the timetable software, etc to be put in place.
WestConnex did not have such timetabling restrictions so is an exception to this.
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by aussiedrum »

I have been making a few YouTube videos of the light rail tram testing some of you may find interesting, my latest upload is Part 7, Walking from Central along Devonshire Street towards the tunnel at Moore Park and finishing up along Anzac Parade near the Sydney Cricket Ground. If you Enjoy watching this video please consider leaving a thumbs up on YouTube it allows me to gauge if people are interested in the content I make. I also have parts 1-6 of the tram testing taken over the last few months on my youtube channel some of you may enjoy.

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGr0PeIWH9k

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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by marcnut1996 »

https://sydneylightrail.transport.nsw.g ... operations
Changes to tow away areas will be introduced in the CBD and Randwick from Sunday 1 December prior to CBD and South East Light Rail passenger services starting in early December.
Seems to suggest 7/8 December opening, since 14/15 December would generally be considered mid-December.
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matthewg
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by matthewg »

marcnut1996 wrote: Seems to suggest 7/8 December opening, since 14/15 December would generally be considered mid-December.
It's fairly safe to say their target is the 7/8th of December, but they are leaving their options open at this stage.
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by mubd »

Eastgardens to Kingsford is a 1-2 section fare.
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boronia
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by boronia »

In that video, the traffic lights have turned red for the pedestrian crossing just as the tram approaches. Not a good look for coordinated priority.
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by boronia »

marcnut1996 wrote: Seems to suggest 7/8 December opening, since 14/15 December would generally be considered mid-December.
On one of their recent FB posts they mentioned the original line opened "late December (1899)" when in fact it opened on 7/8 December. And don't forget they consider a train 10 minutes late to still be "on time" and that a 20 minute service frequency is "frequent".

It appears they don't have a good grasp of "time", and so don't get your hopes up. :lol:
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by STMPainter2018 »

So seeing as the topic of traffic priority has come up again recently, I thought I'd try and ask Sydney Light Rail themselves. I got this response:
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boronia
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by boronia »

Sydney's light rail bill soars to at least $2.9 billion

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/syd ... 53d88.html
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by Swift »

I can't imagine it having cost that much more to "finish off" the ESR and convert it to metro like the former ECRL.
Just look at how the NW metro is going.
The savings alone in time, money avoiding the labyrinth of utilities under the streets alone, would have made it worthwhile without mentioning the inconvenience to people during construction and the end result.
This is a disgrace to the nation and an embarrassment worldwide if the world took much notice of Sydney -which it doesn't and never will.
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by moa999 »

But that wouldn't have solved the city issue.

No-one takes the train from Wynyard to Town Hall, whereas some used to use the bus.
That changes with surface light rail.

But agree a 5km conversion of Central - Bondi, and a 5km Bondi - Kingsford line with say 2 stops would likely be in the $3bn range, assuming for inflation and higher property resumption costs in the East, but a crapload more if you had to do the rest of T4

But it wouldn't replace buses in the same way the LR will, and you wouldn't have had the branches, or the same number of stops
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boronia
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Re: Light rail gets the green light: stage 1 UNSW to CBD

Post by boronia »

Have you ever considered how deep a station to serve PoW and the upper UNSW campus would have to be if the ESR was extended?
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