Re: [NSW] Airport Line Timetable Query

["Gnome 412" <gnome412@hotmail.com>]

Dave Proctor wrote in message ...
>Assuming that this is going to be the standard off-peak timetable (always
>dangerous to assume, I know) the intervals do not look that crash hot. From
>Central, trains to the airport at XX11, XX18, XX28, XX41, XX48, XX58, etc.
>Intervals of 7mins, 10mins, 13mins, 7mins, 10mins, 13mins in the hour. Why
>couldn't they make it nice and simple and have it every ten minutes? The
one
>to move would have been the XX11 and XX41 back three minutes, since this is
>only going to Turrella, the only place it would clash with the rest of the
>system is the City and on departure from Central (I bet tey wished they
>hadn't made that layout at the end of 22/23 the way that had).


Mmmm.....

The plan seems to have been "fix the Airport Line, without changing anything
else".

In a "sample hour", Bankstown trains leave Central (suburban platforms)
platform 22 at 12:08 (to Regents Park and Lidcombe), 12:23 (to Liverpool via
Sefton), 12:38, 12:53 (as in the previous timetable).  This seems to have
been handled as an incremental change to what is basically the 1988
timetable.

Given the experiences of Cit-yra-il and its predecessors with revolutionary
all-new timetables in 1975 and 1996, maybe that's the safest course of
action.

I agree that, given different junction arrangements, the xx:11 train could
have been handled as arrive from Circular Quay at xx:05 and depart at xx:08
(taking that long to load all the backpackers from YHA Central) to give a
standard interval at the airport.

As an alternative, the Bankstown trains (with their alternating Lidcombe and
Liverpool destinations) could run at 13/17 minute intervals.  As a real
alternative, the East Hills via Sydenham, Liverpool via Bankstown and
Lidcombe via Bankstown trains could run at 10 minute intervals at a slight
inconvenience to people at stations Marrickville to Birrong.  A regular 5
minute interval service around the City Circle would be great for the people
who are just travelling on the City Circle!

There is a problem with "since this is only going to Turrella".  The
unfinished junction arrangements there mean that a train going to Turrella
either reverses at Turrella (platform 2) very quickly, or runs empty from
Wolli Creek into the dead-end that will one day be the "down relief" without
a platform at Turrella.

On a related topic, somebody suggested on 31/12/99 that printing the public
timetables would be delayed.

But, as aus.rail has been debating for a year, this ain't Heathrow Express,
this is Cit-yra-il (about as exciting, in Airport Link terms, as the Boston
MBTA Blue Line!).

Rgds