Re: No Express Service on CityRail compared to TransAdelaide

[Eddie Oliver <eoliver@efs.mq.edu.au>]

David Johnson wrote:
> 
> Chris Downs wrote:
> 
> > There are 24 stations from Cronulla to Central.  Peak hour services stop at
> > 14 or 58%.
> 
> Blame the politicians for this one!  They used to stop All to Jannali,
> Hurstville, Sydenham, Redfern, All to Bondi (stopping at 11 stations).
> You can still catch the Super Express from Cronulla at 06:06 stopping First stop
> Hurstville, then All to Sydenham, Redfern, All to Bondi (stopping at 11
> stations).

And also blame the Eastern Suburbs railway, and double-deck stock,
and...

With more trains in the "old" days, there was more potential for better
stopping patterns. For instance in the early 1960's, I recall that
departing Redfern in the 10 minutes after 5.20, the pattern was
something like

5 21 Sydenham, Hurstville all to Sutherland
5.24 Sydenham, Arncliffe all to Hurstville
5.26 Sydenham, Penshurst all to Cronulla
5.29 Sydenham, Hurstville all to Royal National Park

(The precise details of the above may be wrong, but the spirit of it is
right!)

However if the member for Kogarah had not been Minister for Transport,
and if Kogarah had not been a marginal seat, one might well wonder
whether the urge to stop every train at Rockdale and Kogarah would have
been so great over the last decade or so.

Eddie