Re: [NSW] THE Airport Line Opening

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

Chris Downs wrote in message ...
>1755 and no comment on the opening of THE Airport Line yet?
<snip>
>I just caught Sydney's Channel 7 news.  The story dealt with the opening
but
>cast criticism on lack of dedicated trains (Bruce Baird [Federal Minister
>for what???] was whinging about this)and that the service is integrated
with
>the East Hills/Macarthur lines and escalator problems - there were some
>breakdowns today.
>
>Its a shame CityRail did not use Tangara (G-set) rolling stock for the 1st
>day trains.  The S & C sets in use (all 8 car) had there share of grime and
>graffiti and a cracked window in one car - there was no special scrub.
>Notwithstanding this some of the cars had opening windows in the door
giving
>a better view of tunnel running.


I just caught the Bruce Baird whinge on ABC Radio News. His points were
*    No dedicated rolling stock
*    Cronulla (that's his present federal electorate) trains don't connect
at Wolli Creek in peak hours
*    Most peak-hour services are existing commuter trips that won't have
much spare space
ABC pointed out that Mr Baird was the state Liberal Transport Minister who
signed the deals with Transfield etc.

The same story had a brief response from Scully about the Airport being part
of the integrated network.

There was another political whinge on ABC this morning that costs had
escalated from $400M to $700M since project commencement.

No doubt Mr Baird will tell us soon
*    how his administration came up with the junction arrangements that
allow no flexibility (see another post on today's working; see many previous
posts on impossibility of one-way City Circle working)
*    how his administration would have built four platforms at Wolli Creek
(High) to allow everything to stop
*    how his administration committed SRA to build a railway without
committing anything to rolling stock with which to work it

It's interesting that SRA/CityRail did little to make the opening a GRAND
EVENT like the ESR opening in 1979 and just left it to the Station Operator
to arrange.  (The ESR opening involved free travel, mostly brand-new rolling
stock and packed 8-car trains for a whole weekend.)  Maybe the whole
organisation has "Special Event Fatigue"?  Maybe there's a political fear of
the "station access charges"?  Maybe there's "Bad Press Fatigue"?

Rgds