[NSW] Olympics observations - Fri 22/09/00

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

I managed to spend some more time last Friday watching the CityRail network
in action.  And damn impressive it was.

Sydney Terminal was crawling with media as well as CityRail head honchos
(inc. Simon Lane) at 0630.  Passengers loads were obviously lower that
desired this early however, down SOPs between 0630 and 0710 were leaving the
city with average loads of about 250 passengers.  The routing of OP bound
passengers through the Devonshire Street tunnel was worked perfectly for
crowd separation from what I saw.

17 down SOPs passed through Flemington between 0826 and 0927.  Average load
looked to be about 1,500 passengers.  Two exceptions had loads of around 700
suggesting they did not take on passengers at Syd Term.  With 17 trains in
just over the hour some queuing at OP was obvious from Flemington at 0915.

Platforms 1 & 2 at Olympic park were performing well after 1600.  Each train
appeared to both offload 1,000+ passengers and than take on another 1,000+.
SOPs were maintaining 5 minute headways (per the 'table).

In the evening SOPs were carrying 1,000+ passenger loads from well before
2200 until 0015.  15 SOPs/hour was maintained with no dramas.  Trains
weren't being overloaded - average loads appeared to be about 1,300.  Crowd
behaviour was excellent and the upbeat mood was maintained by the abundance
of street entertainment.  BOP loadings were about the same per train at
around 1,300 but only 12 trains/hour were in action.  BOP loadings fell
right off at 2340.

Some other items:
An 8 car S-set put in an impressive 4 car overshoot on the up at
International Terminal station at one point.  Of course an 80m reversal was
required.
A guard scared the shit out of themselves as their train arrived on the down
at Green Square station.  The guard's left foot was dangling from the
doorway and caught the end of the platform at about 30km/h.  No obvious
injury (the train left about 20s or so after stopping).
The first up North Shore trains after the 15minute 'tabled break were crush
loaded mid afternoon.
Punctuality was exemplary.
Generally the trains I saw except for some early am Saturday all carried
very health loads.

On Saturday night at 2300 Penrith station car park (south side) was 90%
full.  Blaxland station Car park was 75% full.  If only this was always the
case.

Chris