Re: Melbourne Double deckers

["Graeme" <gvrail@thatsent.com.au>]

Richard,

Thanks for your response.  Because of the huge urbanisation of Australian
cities including Melbourne, it is important that regional centres like
Frankston have express services.  To shift the focus away from peak period
services serving just Melbourne, here in Perth we run our expresses away
from Perth as well as to Perth.  By running through trains as well say and
I'm only guessing Broadmeadows to Melbourne then through to Frankston with
the train being limited stop on both sides, you start to promote cross city
travel.  You also don't have to be a rocket scientist to also work out that
running expresses contra flow also gets the equipment back into the City for
a second or even third trip in the peak.  In Perth we use 46 of 48 two car
sets a number running as four cars in the peak to uplift 110,000 passengers
per day.  Lots of the fleet is running 18 hours per day continuously because
with a high capital intensive system labour becomes a lower cost
consideration.  With longer distance through limited stop trains as we have
in Perth, we know people who are commuting across town for up to 60
kilometres taking 45 minutes to do so using our system.

All trains hub in Perth so that passengers can interchange freely and in the
off peak connections are guaranteed.  All systems including the overseas
ones you mention have an "on-time" factor that includes running up to three
minutes late (but still shown as on-time).  We developed our performance
criteria from the Kowloon to Canton (KCR) together with GO Transit in Canada
who use the same spec.

What I found without being too critical is that Melbourne is a difficult
system to use.  In Perth our captive patronage i.e. those who have no other
transport options is less than 2%.  We have to have a user friendly service
because if not 98% of passengers can travel some other way.  In fact in our
early days with the system we had a couple of glitches and that showed in
the following days patronage figures.  Similarly in Perth we get flooded
with passengers on the Northern Suburbs line if the freeway has fowled up
for more than two days in a row!!!  (I often wondered about rostering staff
to breakdown on the freeway to help build our business)!!!  It didn't really
matter.  ^ weeks after we opened the line in 1993, building on all that we
had learnt from the other lines, certain time periods in the peak hour were
carry loadings not planned for until 2020!!!

--
Graeme Vellacott
PO Box 322
CANNINGTON 6987
AUSTRALIA
Email:   gvrail@thatsent.com.au
Ph/Fax: +61 8 9451 5630
Richard <richard_snook@primus.com.au> wrote in message
3820DD04.20DDD5C9@primus.com.au">news:3820DD04.20DDD5C9@primus.com.au...
> Graeme
>
> Intersting stuff. I agrre that the fundamnetal cornerstone of revitalising
the
> sytem (and in this case I'LL refer to Melb) is to start afresh...totally
rethink
> what the service is need ed for and how it is to do it....you can  modify
an
> existing system only so much before it cracks.  Im sure that the gurus
> designing  these systems never use them, you sir seem to be the exception.
> Im sure for example that there could be arguements for ruuning certain
trains as
> ultra expresses...say for example on the Frankston line run totally
express
> from Cheltenham...right up til it hits the loop..there may be cause for
two of
> these....radical eh...those wishing a train to facilitate a change at Sth
Yarra
> of Richmond would baord a conventional express...by my calc thats 8-9 mins
off
> thetrip...providing correct "windows". Of course the whole system could be
> looked upon in ths view. I appreciate the bottlenecks that exist...but Im
sure a
> canny "engineering-analyst " group could find the answer..
> To me the eseential error that most of these "systems" make is to say that
for
> arguement sake a train is on time if within 3 mins...to me a train is on
time if
> its on time..otherwise it is late..I accept reality but if we accept 3
mins
> thenwe are 3 mins behind the 8 ball.. ibelieve the germans, french ,
italians
> and japanese, probably many others wotk to the idea that a train is only
on time
> if its on time. that swhere we should start.. You cant cut headways down
if
> forever allowing for the reality of 3 mins for starters and then the
inevitable
> lateness of situations.
> It has to be as you incurred out West a complete mindset and culture
change.
> This may well be where the new franchisees get their "ptential "
improvements
> from.
> Did you take the standoint that you are running a service for passengers
as
> opposed to running trains for the system??
>
> Cheers >:~)) Richard
>
> Graeme wrote:
>
> > Re Melbourne System
> > Increased frequency and keeping current sized consists is the way to go.
In
> > 1990 in the lead up to rail electrification customer surveys of users
but
> > most importantly non users of the system put frequency and reliability
ahead
> > of everything else.  Speed but consistent on time performance was also a
> > factor and here we designed the "skip" stopping pattern where in the
peak
> > period every train becomes a limited stop train with major stations
having
> > every train stop and "minor" stations every alternate train.
> >
> > Frequencies are two trains per 15" for the Armadale, Fremantle and
Midland
> > lines.  Minor stations get a train every 15".  Skip stopping plus rail
> > electrification reduced travelling times by up to 30%!!!  Customers
through
> > away their timetables as frequencies increased and in the off-peak
services
> > run every 15" on regular clock face timetables!!!  On the Currambine
Line
> > opened in 1993 peak hour frequencies are every 3 minutes and every
alternate
> > train is an express!!!  Off peak trains run every 7.5 minutes.
> >
> > Melbourne could easily go this same path improving utilisation of
equipment
> > and boosting frequency and capacity.  The change in operating culture is
> > enormous.  We threw everything out and started again!!!  Maintenance of
> > equipment both rollingstock, signalling and infrastructure has to be
> > meticulous.  Each day we run 765 timetabled services of which 98% must
run
> > within 3 minutes of schedule.  New customers flooded the system proving
that
> > what the customer was asking for would give us the result!!!
> >
> > How do I know???  I was the General Manager equivalent at the time and I
> > used to ride the system frequently!!!!
>