Re: [Sydney, Cityrail] Friday 17 March. Chaos?

["Bill McNiven" <wmcniven@gunzel.ozemail.com.au>]

aus.rail'ers have had a few free kicks at CityRail in the last week, since
posters went up at some stations advising of service cancellations on Friday
17 March because of special trains run for "Jubilee 2000", an event for
Catholic schools held during the day at Stadium Australia at Homebush Bay.

While the n.g. discussion has extended to the religious affiliations of
Governors General, there has been little mention of RAIL.

The event was reported as attracting around 105,000 school pupils, teachers
and parents.  Around 42,000 people arrived by train.  I am told that 746
special buses were also involved.

This was a major transit event - for the first time (I think) since the 1963
Royal Visit and the 1970 Papal Visit, Sydney's Public Transport was given
the task of moving 100,000 kids to a central venue on a normal working day.

The event also provided some interesting workings such as trains terminating
at Campsie and at Redfern platform 9.

Fortunately, school outings can be planned much more rigidly than football
crowds, so CityRail had detailed plans based on their passengers being
* 8000 from stations between Sefton, Fairfield and Liverpool
* 7700 from stations North Sydney, Milsons Point, St. James and Bondi Jct
* 7700 from stations between Engadine, Cronulla and Arncliffe
* 6900 from Bankstown Line stations
* 6700 from stations between Lewisham and Flemington
* 2600 from stations between Bardwell Park and Riverwood
* 1600 from stations between Meadowbank and Eastwood

There were NO special trains for passengers from south of Liverpool and
Engadine, west of Granville or north of Epping and North Sydney.  I guess
these areas were covered by buses.

Some general observations:

Forward rail traffic involved 33 trips operated by 31 different trains,
including five 8-DDIC sets that would normally run empty to Flemington.
There was ONE additional suburban set 'from "Spare and Repair" ' to form an
08:42 extra from Cronulla.  (one wonders about opening the Airport line!)

The significant cancellations (one Cronulla, two East Hills) were regular
trains hijacked to take full loads to Olympic Park.

The routes taken to Olympic Park were varied.  Some Illawarra trains
reversed at Sydenham to travel via Regents Park; some reversed at Sydney.
One East Hills train was tabled to run non-stop (?) via Circular Quay.
There were two through trains from Bondi Junction via Regents Park.
Surprisingly, no trains ran via the Goods lines from Meeks Road to
Flemington and the route via Glenfield was not used for East Hills line
trains.

The return traffic showed that loading school groups (with teachers and
parents in charge) onto trains is much simpler than loading football fans.
The trains were identified as "Train 1" to "Train 30" and each school group
was booked on a specific train.

Train loads were assembled between Stadium Australia and Olympic Park
Station and marched up to the station just in time for their departure.
CityRail staff in green reflective vests seemed to lead each marching group
to wait at the top of the entrance stairs for the preceding group to depart.
This worked very well (except in the one case where trains arrived out of
order).

Loading children is slow.  School groups have to stick together, and small
children aren’t used to boarding trains.  At times, groups went from one end
of a platform to another seeking a car with space available.  As a result,
there were delays.

The return program was based on 30 trips, using 18 suburban sets, one “G”
set and three Inter-City sets (and some trains attempting three trips).
This did not work perfectly.

I watched the 30 return departures from Olympic Park between 13:00 and
15:19. Some details are at the bottom if anyone is interested – I must
emphasise that because these are casual observations, there may be some
errors in matching the theoretical timetable to what I saw.  In particular,
I’m not really sure that the G set went to Fairfield.

One unfortunate cancellation that was not well advertised was that of the
"Olympic Sprint" shuttle between 12:59 and 15:19.  The four buses provided
did not match the sudden demand at 13:00, and the fleet grew to about 12
buses by 14:30.

Given that the kids were very well organised, and given the benefit of
hindsight, it would have been possible to run an irregular "Sprint" service
using the centre platforms (2 and 3) as well as the specials.

The other annoying, and avoidable, cancellations were the gaps left in the
Illawarra service during the day. There may have been justification for
hijacking the 08:36 ex Cronulla because Cronulla is some distance from the
city on a branch with single track sections.  There was no apparent reason
for cancelling the subsequent trips 09:40 ex Bondi Jct., 11:13 ex Waterfall,
12:20 ex Bondi Jct. and 13:36 ex Cronulla.

Not being a "westie", I'm not sure of the impact of Cumberland Line
cancellations.  I did notice the 12:13 Blacktown - Liverpool at Parramatta
at 12:28 with fewer than 50 passengers.  Maybe these trains are an "optional
extra".

Overall the rail operation was a great success. Sure, the afternoon trains
ran late and some of the tricky "return to Olympic Park for another load"
workings didn't seem to work out.  But everyone was transported.

Despite the whinges, the principle of hijacking outer suburban trains for
kids works well.  The alternative is to mix the kids with the "regular"
passengers.

As a footnote, I can't reconcile 42,000 by train plus 746 buses (say 38,000
passengers) with the claimed attendance of 105,000.  I don't think kids
drive themselves to Olympic Park.  Any info?

Rgds

Bill

DEPARTURES FROM OLYMPIC PARK, FRIDAY 17 MARCH 2000

 Run plat. due actual   planned
   dep. dep. Composition load
 99EG 3 12:57 12:59 R34
   Lidcombe "Sprint"

1 54-K 1 13:00 13:06 S+S  1498
   (VIA ENFIELD!) Dulwich Hill, Sydenham
   (x Sutherland), Erskineville, then Quay

2 56-R 4 13:05 13:10 S+S  1605
   Regents Park, Marrickville, then Redfern
   plat. 9 to reverse and take another trainload
   to Bardwell Park, Kingsgrove, then empty
   Campbelltown

3 13-N 1 13:08 13:20 S17+S?  1304
   (Sydney Terminal), Sutherland, Engadine,
   (Waterfall)

4 7--M 4 13:11 13:22 S1+S?  1557
   (Sydney Terminal), Gymea, Miranda, Caringbah,
   Cronulla

5 26-K 1 13:14 13:26 T15+T?  1191
   Redfern, then Quay. (x special from platform
   10 to Hurstville, x Caringbah, Cronulla)

6 96-L 4 13:16 13:28 K99+K? 1421
   Lidcombe, Auburn, (reverse Clyde,
   return for 13:51)

7 145M 1 13:18 13:33 R34  1211
   Flemington, Strathfield, Croydon,
   Summer Hill, Lewisham, North Sydney

8 Y3AC 4 13:21 13:34 T32+T?  1609
   Strathfield (return for 13:53)

9 10-S 1 13:24 13:38 S15+? 7 CARS! 1376
   (Sydney Terminal), Arncliffe, Kogarah,
   Penshurst, Sutherland, (Waterfall)

10 108N 4 13:28 13:42 R8  1272
   Regents Park, Bondi Jct

11 180D 1 13:31 13:43 S5+S?  1475
   (Sydney Terminal), Kogarah, Mortdale,
   Engadine, (Waterfall)

12 79-E 4 13:34 13:48 K71+K?  1397
   Ashfield (return for 14:21)

13 51-S 1 13:37 13:50 S47+S?  1084
   Auburn, Fairfield (return for 14:33)

15 98-K 1 13:43 ? ?  1306
   Redfern, (Sydney Terminal) (x Kingsgrove)
   (return for 14:51)

14 H548 4 13:40 14:04 8 car V set 1654
   Burwood, Sydney (x Bondi Jct & Kogarah)

16 21-P 4 13:45 14:12 K94+K?  1457
   Sydenham (then empty via Quay to
   Illawarra Jct). (x Bondi Jct)

17 29-D 1 13:48 14:13 S86+S?  1254
   (Circular Quay), Bardwell Park,
   Beverly Hills, Riverwood, empty to
   Glenfield, pass. to Macarthur.

18 96-N 4 13:51 14:23 G32+G20 1565
   Fairfield (return for 14:47)

19 Y3AD 1 13:53 14:25 T28+T?  1644
   Regents Park, Sefton, Villawood, Cabramatta,
   (Campbelltown)

22 218D 4 14:04 14:28 K91+K?  1628
   (reverse Strathfield), Concord West,
   Meadowbank, Eastwood, (Hornsby).

20 H254 4 13:55 14:33 V2+V44  1250
   Lewisham, (Sydney Terminal)

21 53-M 1 13:57 14:35 S38+S?  1609
   Liverpool

23 81-G 1 14:18 14:39 S79+S?  1222
   Milsons Point, North Sydney

24 79-G 4 14:21 14:42 K92+K?  1584
   Ashfield, North Sydney

25 51-U 1 14:33 14:47 S72+S?  1598
   Punchbowl, Campsie (reverse at Campsie)

29 H558 1 14:53 14:53 V67  885
   Sydney (x St. James)

27 145P 1 14:49 14:56 R34  1122
   Milsons Point, North Sydney

26 96-R 4 14:47 15:00 R32  1251
   Liverpool

28 98-L 1 14:51 15:12 S60+S?  583
   Lidcombe (x Punchbowl)

30 98-N 1 15:09 15:17 S73+S?  1656
   Lakemba, (North Sydney)

 99EX	3	15:19	15:19	L11
			Lidcombe "Sprint"