Re: Three CityRail questions

["Dave Proctor" <daproc@spambait.ozemail.com.au>]

"Bradley Torr" <truenorth@one.net.au.NOSPAM> wrote in message
3a9b50f5_1@news01.one.net.au">news:3a9b50f5_1@news01.one.net.au...
> (1) Why are many down trains on the Bankstown line that are scheduled to
> proceed to the City Circle via Lidcombe timetabled to stand at Bankstown
> station for around twelve minutes, while trains scheduled to proceed to
> Liverpool don't have such a lengthy standing time?

Those doing the loop are generally locked into a circular route - and as the
Bankstown Circle takes just under two hours, the twelve minute waiting time
is there so as to put the train onto a regular interval service (every 30
minutes, I believe).

> (2) At Parramatta station, is there a pattern to which train uses which
> platforms, e.g. which down trains use Platform 2 and which use Platform 4;
> and which up trains use Platform 1 and which use Platform 3? Or is it
> random?

No pattern, apart from drug-links using 3/4. Blue Mountains services
generally use 1/2 though.

> (3) Why is it that, while travelling along in a train (particularly the
> pre-Tangara sets), ocasionally most of the lights and the air conditioning
> will cut out for a short period, and then suddenly start back up again?

An air-gap in the o/h wiring - it is a section insulator, used so that they
can switch off the power in one part of the OHLE without affecting other
lines (used for maintenance purposes) - this is mainly when the pantograph
hits one of them. You can see them in the OHLE, mainly near junctions.

Dave