Re: Melbourne Double deckers

["Kosh Naranek" <richardcremovethis@tpg.com.au>]

Graeme <gvrail@thatsent.com.au> wrote in message
3823ca5f$0$21301@motown.iinet.net.au">news:3823ca5f$0$21301@motown.iinet.net.au...
> Daniel
>
> I'm sorry I can't agree with your views on frequencies.  In Perth, THE
MOST
> CAR DOMINATED CITY IN AUSTRALIA, getting people onto the trains required
> very frequent services.  Because rail is capital intensive the added
labour
> cost on driver only trains to increase frequencies is by comparison small.
> The minimum frequency on the heavy routes into Melbourne should be 3
minutes
> peak hour, 7.5 minutes off peak.  15 minutes very early morning and late
at
> night.  Perth might be small and people are saying you can't compare Perth
> and Melbourne/Sydney, but you can.  Our busiest line carries just 35,000
> people per day and we use the frequencies described above.  On the
Fremantle
> Line which was closed in 1979 and replaced with buses, we increased
> frequency from half hourly in the off peak to every 15 minutes and the
peak
> from every 20 minutes to 10 minutes.  Traffic increased from 8,000 per day
> to 25,000 pax per day.
Agree Graeme

The Perth experience is a lesson to all interested in rail on how a city
(any city) can improve its rail patronage levels. Frequency, reliability and
presentation of rollingstock. Existing operations such as Melbourne can do
it too. The economic analysis is true too- I remember my economics lecturer
going on about the Met - that the very last passenger will bear a cost in
the hundreds of millions - because they didn't realise that rail has a very
high fixed cost and very low marginal cost - so each additional enhancement
to the system will cost less as the overheads are spread wide.

How many passengers does it cost to pay the drivers salary. From Ringwood -
if the driver was to cost $25 in the 3/4 hour it takes, and if the  $3.50
single fare - I'd say the people in the first doorway of the first carriage
have well and truly paid the drivers cost. IIRC the Flying Scotsman had a
similar breakdown - the first compartment in first class paid the driver and
fireman, the next compartment the coal, the rest of the car the balance of
the trains operating costs, and the rest was profit. 747s are the same too -
first class pays the cost of the trip, economy is profit.




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