Para Opening, Annoucements etc

["Erk" <erk@erkV69.au.com>]

Well I'm back (slightly wet) from Paralympic Park (aka you know where).

Basically things were going pretty smoothly during the build up to the start
of the Opening, Crowds were flowing and not sardine fashion as seen during
the Olympics.

I then went to Central for some food at around 1930 (I even appeared on
radio live from the train to Central). By this stage, most people were at
Paralympic Park. The crowd control barriers are in place again (including in
front of platforms 1-3) and there were suburban trains everywhere. Around
2100, trains to the Park were running regularly but roughly 10-15 minutes
late. ST1 Melbourne XPT left 17 late at 2100 having appeared to have arrived
late ex Meeks Road. There seemed to be no reason for the delay as the
passenger numbers were low that I could see with the possible exception of
no clear path through the yard to the main line without blocking services to
you-know-where.

There were also no announcements about the late running XPT that I could
hear from my vantage point near 1/2 platform (where Sonia was very hard to
understand). Speaking of Sonia, she is moving to Olympic Park soon (Glenn
and Paul especially take note) from what I hear. Can you imagine how long
her "Trains to Central and Strathfield depart from platform (super long
pause as Grant sounds like he is making up his mind) 1" that Grant does now
will be? There was also some announcements to take care in the wet (even
when the rain had stopped and the place was dry) and an unknown female voice
that is presumably heard all around the venue areas saying "Sydney Olympic
Park is now closed. Please make your way to the transport terminals".

Upon leaving Central and returning to you-know where around 2130, staff were
preparing for the crowds to return from the Stadium. Crowds were thin
(departure end) to medium (middle) until I left around 2340. I heard off a
staff member that the crowd was only around 52,000 but I have not heard an
official attendence yet.

As noted in another post in this thread, dedicated services ran Central -
you know where and Blacktown - you know where like the Olympics from around
1600 with Sprint services ex Lidcombe before that. On my way home from you
know where, I noticed a train in the Sprint platform despite the dedicated
trains operating. The trains were operated by most types of suburban sets
except C sets. I don't recall seeing a Garbage on the Central shuttle but if
there was some run, there wasn't very many.

I noticed that the signage is not as good at some of the larger stations
(including Central, it has to be said) as it was during the Olympics. The
good news for us who care is that the usual gunzel spot at the end of the
departure platform at ground level is easily accessible (I had that area to
myself!).


Pics soon.

--
Eric
www.erk.au.com
erk@erkV69.au.com
(Remove the V69 to reply)

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