>A final thought as a result of a late running ST1 last week. Due to a
>"locomotive change", the set didn't dock until 21.00 and departed at
>21.20. Another 15 mins and we'd have had a good connection from Brisbane.
>Then I thought, why can't ST1 depart later? If ST1 departed at 21.55, it
>would get to Melbourne at 8.15 (not unreasonable). If ST4 then departed
>Melbourne at 9.45, it would get to Sydney at about 20.30. This is not
>overly late and it wouldn't be missing any connections.
I think that this is a recipe for disaster. With the cars off NT2 being
provided by NT1, there is too much potential for NT2 to be delayed, with the
consequent costs of missed connections to be borne by the railways. I would
like to see ST1 and 2 routed via East Hills, with ST2 scheduled to arrive
Sydney at 0711 (or thereafter) thereby deliberately avoiding connections
onto NT3 and WT27 - there are, after all, other services later in the day to
all points served by these trains (with the possible exception of the
far-west coach services!) I truly believe that the early departure times of
these services leaves too little times to provide a connection. WT27's
departure could (and probably should) be put back, maybe 45mins, thereby
giving a more reliable connection, but there is no way that NT3 could be
made to depart later.
Regards
David "The Doctor" Proctor
daproc@spamsux.bigfoot.com
(remove the "spamsux" to reply)