Re: [NSW] Train failure at Como

["Chris Downs" <cvdowns@ozemail.com.au>]

Como Bank as with other notable banks such as Denistone, Cheltenham,
Normanhurst - Hornsby, Loftus, Cowan and to a lesser extent Hawkmount and
Fassifern have always had problems with freights (and passenger trains)
failing on the grade.

Denistone is far less of a problem as long as the last vehicle of the failed
train clears West Ryde there is an alternative track.

Cowan now has bidirectional signalling.  This same solution should have been
applied to each of these banks (or at least the suburban ones) decades ago.
Its not a panacea but up and down trains can use the single line in convoys,
ideally in convoys of 2 or 3, to improve the efficiency of the single line.
With several suitable gangways stored at a station at the base of the bank
the use of a parrallel train to retrieve passengers and keep them moving in
their desired direction would be ideal.

Nevertheless, the Como and Cheltenham incident timings were bad but these
were not exceptional incidents.

CityRail desperately needs an Olympics where things are handled efficiently
and they need to be proactive in dealing with the media when there are
delays (as would occur anywhere where daily loads are up 150 - 200%)).

Chris

<eikkert@my-deja.com> wrote in message 8lrp3c$85n$1@nnrp1.deja.com">news:8lrp3c$85n$1@nnrp1.deja.com...
> A train failed circa 16:00 at Como today, apparently on the down
> illawarra (as opposed to the como on some other line...).
>
> Passengers weren't let off again due to safety concerns. The passengers
> seemed rather disgruntled at that, preferring to be run over by a train
> going in the other direction.
>
> It made a pretty important slot in the news. In my opinion CityRail
> have dug themselves a rather big hole that'll be very hard to get out
> of. The media and politicians are scrutinising every small event in the
> operation of CityRail. A simple train failure which would have attracted
> but a small column in the paper and nothing in the TV media, now it
> attracts a full story on the news. This further detracts from Cityrail's
> reputation, placing further pressure to perform. Unless CityRail runs a
> completely seamless operation CityRail are torn apart by the media and
> MPs. The level of service the media demand is just too high for
> CityRail.
>
>
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> Before you buy.