Re: Sydney people movers.

[David McLoughlin <davemcl@REMOVEiprolink.co.nz>]

Ross Walker wrote:
 
> For all those knockers of CityRail, be thanful you don't live in Aukland
> where, on a weekday services start just after 0600 & finishes just after
> 1900. Wellington is a bit better.

You are too generous to Auckland and grossly unfair to Wellington.

Auckland's suburban train "service" is provided by diesel railcars
bought second-hand from Perth when Perth electrified years ago. These
elderly railcars run services at best half-hourly and often hourly
during the times Ross says, and only Monday to Saturday. Patronage is
low because the lines do not really go anywhere -- just long, slow,
snaking trips through industrial wastelands, well away from housing
areas in all but a few cases. The "city" railway station is more than a
kilometre from the CBD and is also in an industrial wasteland where the
railway yards used to be.

By comparison, Wellington runs a full service from 5am to after midnight
using electric multiple units running a frequent and well-patronised
service that actually runs to the CBD (the station is opposite
Parliament Buildings) and through housing areas in the suburbs.
Wellington trains run seven days.

David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand

"The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced;
the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled.
Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't
want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of  living
on public assistance." – –   Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 B.C.