Re: Changes in Melbourne

[Mick Stock <mzs@eastwood.apana.org.au>]

On Thu, 15 Jan 1998, Daniel Bowen wrote:

> Chris Gordon <c.gordon@ugrad.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:
> >With the new timetable for all surban lines in Melbourne coming in on Feb 8th,
> >when do you get your Working timetables?
> 
> So what's changing? Surely we're not getting the Officially Government Policy
> "Saturday timetable all weekend" change this much time before the next
> election??
> 
> Daniel

On the Lilydale and Belgrave lines (i.e. beyond Ringwood), that would be a
bad thing. At present, during the day there are trains only every 40 mins
on these lines (no shuttle services).  After about 6:30pm, the service
improves - trains every 30 mins (more or less - city bound don't run at
regular intervals. Some are 25 mins apart, others are 35 mins).

On Sundays however, we get a better service during the day than on
Saturdays - trains every 30 mins!  I've brought this up with MET personel
on several occassions during the last year or two, but it's too hard for
them to understand.... although I must admit that one customer service
officer I spoke to about it DID understand the problems with the
timetable. He took notes & said he'd pass on the info to the relevant
section - this was nearly 2 years ago.

So, going to a Saturday timetable for the whole weekend is actually a bad
thing, unless it means that the first train from Ringwood -> city on
Sundays will be leaving before 7:48am (I start work at 7am Sundays).

What we need on the Lilydale & Belgrave lines during the weekend is as
follows:

    Saturday:  Keep current timetable until about 7:45am, then use
existing Sunday t/t until about 6:30pm, then revert to current Sat t/t for
the rest of the night, OR new timetable after 7:45am - same as weekdays,
but without peak period extras??  Considering that most trains on Sat are
packed, this would be a good thing! Better still, run 6-car trains all
day. 

    Sunday:    Use current Saturday t/t until about 7:45am, then old Sun
t/t for the rest of the day/night.

    This will give travellers on both lines a regular 30 min daytime
service (as we currently get on weekdays), plus the extra trains for early
Sunday mornings.  

Mick.

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