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Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

Faster trains OK, but when?

posted Saturday 14 August 2010
For the past five years, most Sydney train passengers will have been irritated by their train sitting at a minor station for two or more minutes, waiting for the timetabled departure time. It is a consequence of CityRail having slowed most trains in the 2005 timetable, ostensibly for safety reasons, following the Waterfall crash.

APT has been lobbying for faster trains ever since. Our campaign has increasingly been corroborated by rail industry professionals outside CityRail.

Following a meeting with CityRail on 10 August, our focus has shifted slightly, to the more rapid implementation of such faster train services. CityRail is committed to faster trains, but only very gradually, spread over many years. In an effort to minimise passenger complaints, it is more concerned about on-time running. Three or four minutes will be shaved off the running times of a few Blue Mountains trains in the forthcoming October 2010 timetable, but the year 2040, for example, has been mentioned in planning for more trains on the City Circle line. In his report on the Sydney Morning Herald-sponsored independent transport inquiry in May 2010, Olympics transport guru Ron Christie recommended that "Rail journey times should be restored to those prevailing before 2005, within one or two years at most" (p 65).

We acknowledge that there are constraints on CityRail running faster trains. They include conservative speed restrictions applied by accountability-nervous track engineers, inconsistent rollingstock characteristics, and highly variable driver behaviour. We assume that most of the constraints could be eliminated more rapidly by increased funding, but CityRail says funding is not a problem. Driver variability will be largely eliminated with new signalling, including Automatic Train Protection (ATP).

We urge CityRail to work harder at getting more trains to run faster, sooner.

Ultimately of course, Sydney needs more stable long-term transport planning. Given the recent Metro debacle, and the current federal election campaign pork-barrelling, there doesn't seem much hope for that.



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