Re: Better Sunday Trains (Melb)

["Notagunzel" <notagunzel@bigfoot.com>]

Christopher_Martin GORDON <cmgord@ecr.mu.oz.au> wrote in message
7g06hc$1lu$1@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU">news:7g06hc$1lu$1@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU...
> It is about time.  In Melbourne (as told to me, by Iming about
> 2 months ago) we are going to have two timetables.
> Weekday and Weekend.
> Sundays will be operated by the Saturday Timetable. (inculding
> trams)
>
> That means every train line will have a 20 minute service (expect
> Dandenong-Pakenham/Cranbourne)
>
> Does this mean that Lilydale/Belgrave will be 20 minutes on Saturday
> and Sunday?
>
> A special timetable will operate for Good Friday and Christmas Day
> (the old Sunday timetable)

Don't get too excited, as the devil is in the detail.  AFAIK there will be a
Saturday Timetable and a Sunday timetable, which will be the same after
approx. 1000 hours, but the Sunday mornings will remain as is.  The logic is
simple.  Everybody still goes to church on Sunday mornings, don't they?

Actually beyond Ringwood, the headway becomes slightly ridicules, 30 minutes
before 1000, and 40 after.  This is because on Sundays currently, there is a
30 minute headway out of the city, and every train has a connection at
Ringwood, whereas on Saturdays currently, there is a 20 minute headway, and
trains alternate between LIL/BEG.

You read right, currently we get a better service on Sundays beyond Ringwood
than on Saturday!

Why aren't we getting a true Common Weekend Timetable?  Cash.  To do so
would require more Driver shifts, which means more drivers.....  Management,
or more precisely DOI have decided that the hybridised common weekend
timetable is better.  (for whom?, not the customer beyond Ringwood.)

P.S. before you ask, the centre of the known universe is Beyond Ringwood,
not in NSW |o)

B.  (Direct the centre of the known universe)