Re: [NSW] Automated "Stand clear, doors closing"

[Hugh McGuinness <hughm@lucent.com>]

The Railway Rasputin II wrote:
> 
> I often catch a train that comes in on platform 17 at Central.  I want
> > to get to a train on platform 16, but usually the platform 16 train
> > comes in about 20 seconds before mine and the guard blows the whistle
> > just as our train is about to stop, and by the time our doors open the
> > doors on the other train are open.  Since there is a 10 minute gap
> > between trains is it any wonder that people try to get on after the
> > doors have started closing?
> >
> > Why aren't the trains synchronized?  Surely it's not difficult to have
> > them both leave at the same time.  OK, maybe it takes an extra 20
> > seconds, but there arn't many stations where the trains pull in side
> > by side like that.
> >
> > hugh
> > --
> > Hugh McGuinness               e-mail: hughm@lucent.com     _--_|\
> > Lucent Australia              Telephone: +61 2 9935 5555  /      \
> > 16 Smith Street               Facsimile: +61 2 9417 3862  \_.--._o
> > Chatswood 2067 NSW Australia                                    V
> > One ring to bind them all and in the darkness find them
>
> Yes it is.
> "Connections" cause more grief and slow the system down further.
> 
> rgds
> 

Proof, please.  If the trains all ran on time this would be easy.  OK,
it's not a perfect system so this will go out of whack but I would
think a reasonable proportion of the abuse guards get is due just to
this.  I can be up to 30 minutes late for work because of a 10 second
gap like this (I catch a train, then another train, then a bus to get
from Canterbury to Chatswood) and it's incredibly annoying.

And while I'm at it.....  what exactly is the law regarding smokers on
the platofrms?  It looks like the drivers waiting at the north end of
platforms 16/17 have been stopped from smoking; there is a sign
telling 'staff and visitors' that smoking is not allowed.  Does this
cover passengers?  Smoking seems to be explicitly banned from the
underground stations (but it's never enforced, except for an
announcement once in a blue moon).  Surely it would be easy enough to
run an automated message every 90 seconds (say).

rant diminishing.... must take little green pills...

hugh 

--
Hugh McGuinness               e-mail: hughm@lucent.com     _--_|\  
Lucent Australia              Telephone: +61 2 9935 5555  /      \ 
16 Smith Street               Facsimile: +61 2 9417 3862  \_.--._o 
Chatswood 2067 NSW Australia                                    V  
One ring to bind them all and in the darkness find them