Re: Melbourne frequencies (was Double deckers)

[Mick Stock <mzs@eastwood.apana.org.au>]

Christopher_Martin GORDON wrote:
> 
> 
> Something else not said so far, lines like ones through Nth Melb,
> Clifton Hill has 20 minute serivce and 3 car trains in off peak
> Line through Richmond (caulfield, sandringhad, burnley) have 15
> minute service and 6 car trains.
> 
> Not only do they get better service but 6 car trains as well.
> 
> many there are more people using the line, or the  line serves
> a bigger area (ie longer line, more stations)
> 
> Chris Gordon
> http://www.ecr.mu.oz.au/~cmgord

A look at any map will answer the bit above about line lengths - the
western/northern lines (run by Bayside) are relatively short length
(20km or less), while most Eastern/NE/SE lines are MUCH longer, with
some lines being 35km or more.

During the last few years, I've travelled on off-peak service on most
lines quite a bit.  The reason for the less frequent service and 3-car
trains is simple - there is NO justification for longer trains/more
frequent services on the northern/western lines!

For example, I've travelled extensively on both the Broady & Upfield
lines,
and found that they are rarely more than about 60% full during the
off-peak (weekdays, daytime).  On the Lilydale/Belgrave lines, they WERE
running 3-car trains during the off-peak. They had to go to 6-cars due
to the constant overcrowding (not to mention frequent late running).
Even now with 6 cars, many services are close to capacity, especially
between the city & around Mitcham!
The 30-min service beyond Ringwood means that those trains tend to be
close to capacity anyway, due to lack of frequent services.

As for the delays in loading/unloading the 4D, that only became a
problem when it began running peak period services as a 4-car set
WITHOUT the extra Comengs attached. It now carries the same passenger
load as a 6-car Comeng/Hitachi, but with only 8 doors/side total as
opposed to a total of 18 doors/side on the Coms/Hitachis. 

Someone also recently mentioned something about problems with 8-car 4Ds
and platform lengths. Since there is only ONE 4-car "4D" set in
existence, then how  can there be a problem?  Even when it used to run
with a 3-car Comeng attached, there were no problems with platform
lengths. ( 4D + 3-car Comeng is almost the same length as 6-car
Comeng/Hitchi, or an 8-car Tait, 8-car Harris (original model), 7-car
Harris (extended length cars)). Even if there was an 8-car 4D, it would
still fit.....

Mick.

Mick Stock
 mzs@eastwood.apana.org.au
 mzs@bigpond.com
 http://eastwood.apana.org.au/