Re: CityRail (Sydney, NSW) diversions (a long gunzel posting)

["trendy rechauffé" <trendy_rechauffe@start.com.au>]

I was on a City bound Illawarra train that Saturday morning. The 4 cars were
crammed from around Rockdale.

This happens on many weekends.

It must put off irregular users who would expect some comfort on weekends.

Why cant we have some six car sets or even eight cars? You only expect to
have to stand during peek hours on weekdays.

Bye tr

Bill McNiven <wmcniven@gunzel.ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
5Wbi3.2411$1u.23523@ozemail.com.au">news:5Wbi3.2411$1u.23523@ozemail.com.au...
> Recent threads have mentioned the vast improvement in passenger
information
> provided by the weekly shutdown posters at CityRail stations.  (These
> posters also make it clear that there is a big shutdown virtually every
> week!).
>
> July 10 and 11 promised that East Hills trains would be diverted to
"Martin
> Place on the Illawarra Line" (sic!) and Bankstown Line trains would
> terminate at Sydenham (NSW) with East Hills trains making the stops at
> Erskineville and St Peters.  The poster also stated "Customers for City
> Circle stations will need to change at Town Hall" (so CityRail, like
Ansett,
> now has customers instead of passengers?).  Wollongong trains were to be
> diverted to Martin Place.
>
> While the Eastern Suburbs line opened with Platform Indicators capable of
> showing East Hills and Bankstown stops, the only workings I had ever seen
> had been the trains to Punchbowl and Bankstown in the first year of ESR
> operation.  This called for some observations:
>
> Saturday was cool and cloudy.  There seemed to be no physical obstruction
to
> Bankstown trains at Sydenham.  The usual four-car trains from East Hills
> arrived at Sydenham on the Up Illawarra Local, were announced by a machine
> as "all stations to Martin Place via Town Hall", and departed to cross to
> the Up Illawarra.  The only meaningful announcement on the train was
> something like "Central change for City Circle".  The East Hills /
> Campbelltown passengers seemed to know what was coming.  I continued to
> Martin Place to check the PIDs given much mileage in this NG.
>
> Martin Place was well organised.  The new video indicators were working.
A
> Macarthur train was correctly indicated (though, since all the station
names
> had been keyed in upper case, MACQUARIE FI and CAMPBELLTOV were
truncated).
> Even though the East Hills destinations have long been papered over on the
> old PIDs, they still work on the mimic indicator in the control room.
>
> Back to Town Hall to join the Customers for City Circle stations:  there
> weren't any.  The City Outer was closed.  Back to Central (High Level).
>
> The work here was large-scale.  The Down Local through Flying Junctions
was
> largely missing, and blocked by track machines from Cleveland Street
towards
> Redfern.  Road trucks were removing spoil via a level crossing from the
Down
> Local towards Platform 15 at Central.  New overhead masts were being
erected
> at the New Southern Railway junction.  New overhead was being erected over
> the Up and Down Illawarra Lines from Wells Street towards Illawarra
> Junction.  While the lines from Erskineville to the Illawarra Dive were
not
> obstructed, I guess that the power was off.  Minor works occupied the Up
> City Outer between Goulburn Street and Sydney Frame C.
>
> Despite this, trains were running fairly smoothly.  Up Liverpool /
Lidcombe
> trains crossed to the City Inner to return as down Liverpool / Lidcombe
> trains via Platform 18.  North Shore services ran via Platforms 16 and 18
as
> ususal.  This meant that 16 trains / hour were using platform 18, and this
> was carried out with minimum confusion and delay.  Only once did I hear
"The
> Indicator Board Has Been Changed" (now the standard Sydney announcement
> which means "Don't blame me - blame the indicator") as Liverpool via
Regents
> Park and Glenfield via Granville trains arrived out of order.
>
> Because of the work on the Down Local, down all-stations trains were
running
> on the Down Suburban and skipping Macdonaldtown, Newtown (NSW), Petersham
> and Lewisham.  Town Hall had excellent and correct announcements (bus from
> Redfern to Macdonaldtown, or from Central to Newtown, Petersham and
> Lewisham).  Central was a little vague (showed Summer Hill, but not
> Stanmore, as a stop).  Redfern was totally vague.
>
> Caught a slow train to Ashfield.  Stopped at Stanmore but nobody joined or
> alighted.  Stopped at Summer Hill.  Some passengers alighted.  Noticed
> passengers waiting in the street for the Route 30 bus to Ashfield.
>
> Ashfield is a little chaotic at the moment as the new overbridge and
station
> buildings are under construction.  Up trains were shown correctly as
> proceeding to Musuem (NSW) downstairs, but indicated and announced as
"City
> Circle via Town Hall" upstairs.
>
> Back to the City Circle.  On a cool and cloudy afternoon, four-car trains
> every 7 or 8 minutes are just adequate for the City Circle.  There was a
> standing load from Circular Quay, and I alighted at Town Hall.
>
> Town Hall platform 5 has interesting indicators.  Viewed from the centre
of
> the platform, an all-to-Bondi-Junction train is indicated as "Martin
Place"
> at the south end, as "Kings Cross" and as "Martin Place, Kings Cross" in
the
> centre, and as "Martin Place, Kings Cross, Edgecliff, Bondi Junction" at
the
> north end.  See separate thread on how to change light bulbs!
>
> Town Hall platform 4 was a little crowded late in the afternoon.  Four-car
> trains for Illawarra and East Hills destinations were running to time.  A
> real person (as opposed to a machine-generated voice) was making
> announcements.  Passengers were confused.  I heard one customer on a
mobile
> phone arranging a lift from Sutherland because "all the trains are late".
>
> Central Platform 25 had even more 'customers'.  My immediate impression
from
> the crowd was that it was 5 pm on a week day and trains were "running late
> and out of timetable order".  In fact, trains were on time but the traffic
> was busy.  I watched as people (possibly of a non-English speaking
> background) studied the indicators looking for stations such as Campsie
and
> Lakemba, and stepped back to see if the next train went to Bankstown Line
> destinations.  Incidentally, Central Platform 25 neeeds some light bulbs
for
> Erskineville and St Peters.
>
> The last trip of the day was on the 16:38 Dapto, a four-car G set which
was
> standing-room-only until Hurstville.
>
> Back on Sunday for another reason.  This day was warm and largely sunny.
> Illawarra trains still four cars!  Caught an up Cronulla which was
> standing-room-only ex Hurstville, and VERY FULL after picking up a
trainload
> of Bankstown passengers at Sydenham.  Changed at Redfern to see that the
Up
> and Down Illawarra Local lines contained a crane that had been erecting
new
> footbridge steps on Platforms 8/9.  Central Platform 18 was getting a
little
> confused as Rosehill Racecouse trains brought the traffic up to 19 trains
> per hour.  Saw that the Down Local was now replaced at Flying Junctions.
> Saw that four-car trains to Circular Quay are barely adequate at lunch
time
> on a Sunday.
>
> Some overall impressions:
>
> Diversions such as this are inevitable if machinery, rather than hundreds
of
> fettlers, is doing the work.  Terminating Bankstown trains short of the
city
> seemed anti-customer at first glimpse, but the alternative would have been
> to send them to Bondi Junction and create confusion there.
>
> The planning, sheduling and preliminary advertising were fairly good.  The
> only obvious glitch was "need to change at Town Hall" but it seems that
> nobody but I read this!  It's certainly better than the old days of
> "prominent CHALK notices".
>
> Running the usual four-car trains is risky.  Customers don't expect that,
> after their Bankstown train terminates at Sydenham, they will become part
of
> a crush load on another four-car train.  Nor do they expect that, on their
> second change of trains at Central, they will be standing up on a four-car
> Liverpool train.
>
> Abnormal workings at Town Hall and Central (Low) really need more than
> loudspeaker announcements.  Even with the best announcements, a crowded
> underground platform has terrible acoustics.  A few uniformed customer
> service people to ask "can I help you" would have removed some confusion
and
> anxiety.
>
> Finally, guards' announcements.  I'm not sure what the train guard is
> supposed to do, but I heard little more than 'stanclearjawsclosing' on
most
> trains.  I did appreciate "Central change for City Circle" and I nearly
> understood "Synmchangef'BankstownLine".  I did not hear "this is a City
> Circle train stopping at Museum, St James, Circular Quay, Wynyard and Town
> Hall" on a train that had been indicated at Ashfield as City Circle via
Town
> Hall.  I did not hear any other similar announcements at connecting or
> diversion points.  Should guards be given scripts to read on these
> occasions?
>
> We've seen the State Opposition Transport Spokesperson sounding off about
> safety (at Hornsby) and shutdowns (in general) over the weekend.  If
> CityRail is to avoid political attacks about shutdowns, it has to ensure
> that customers (voters) are not confused or anxious.  If a lack of
> information means that the customers think that "all the trains are
running
> late" when they are in fact on time, this will evolve into a political
> problem.
>
> Yours in gunzeling,
>
> Bill
>
>
>