Re: Loco hauled suburbans in Brisbane

["Michael Walker" <walker@hotkey.net.au>]

>Sure. So they don't need to provide a service to and from Epping itself.
>The people at (say) Reservoir would welcome a service even if the people
>at Epping are deprived of it. [NB for anyone in doubt - we are talking
>about Epping in Melbourne, not in Sydney, London or on the moon.]


>From memory, a lot of trains went only as far as Lalor in the past up to (I
think) the early or mid-80s (I think it may even have been half, ie only
every second train went to Epping), there's no reason why you couldn't have
a train leaving Epping Maintenance Depot and run as a service from Lalor.

>> Also, if
>> things are a bit late at Clifton Hill (the junction of Hurstbridge/Epping
>> lines) the empty car set can use the centre road (no platform).


What's the point of that? As far as I can see, unless the empty set is to
overtake a normal service at Clifton Hill, it could equally as well use the
platform and then be a revenue service.

>The point of converting these empty car movements into FAST passenger
>services is that they do not need to stop all stations.
>
>> - Less running time. For a spark, you add roughly 1 minute for each
station
>> stopped at to the running time (for decelerating, waiting for passengers
>> and accelerating). I imagine that this would be more with the loco hauled
>> stock (especially diesel). From Epping, that is about an additional 19
>> mins.
>
>Again, the point is NOT to stop them all stations - especially in
>Melbourne and Brisbane where the tendency to stop almost everything all
>stations needs to be broken down quite independently of the empty cars
>matter.
>
On this basis, you could run a train Lalor, Thomastown, Keon Park,
Reservoir, Preston, Clifton Hill, Flinders Street and add only 6 minutes to
it's schedule, hardly going to make much of a difference. If I could be
bothered getting out the WTT, I could tell you exactly what the comparison
is. Plus it's an extra service that people could use for shopping, Preston
Market, etc. Then again, it wouldn't fit in with changing the system to a
circus...8^)

In seriousness, aren't there a few trains in the latest timetable that are
like this ie trains previously run empty to go to suburban yards now are
available to the public as an express service? I shall have to dig out the
WTT after all, now which box did I pack it in again...