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Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc. |
| Date | Item | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 2 February 2016 | Conversion of the Hurstville line abandoned. | Link |
| 4 December 2015 | Major conversion work will be needed on the Bankstown line to straighten platforms at several stations. Platform gates cannot operate safely on curved track. | Link |
| 11 May 2015 | The seven-month shutdown for conversion of the Macquarie line from double-deck to single-deck will be preceded by a period of four months during which the line will be run as a Chatswood-Epping shuttle. | Link |
| 21 April 2015 | A broken-down train at Warrawee blocks the Up Shore line. Fortunately, services from Hornsby are diverted to travel via Epping. This will be impossible after ECRL is converted to NWRL use. | |
| 9 April 2015 | Authorities are unable to say whether the Bankstown line will close for long periods of conversion. | Link |
| 8 April 2015 | NSW government announcement claims that Sydney Rapid Transit will have a capacity of 100,000 passengers/hour. It won't. | Link |
| 16 February 2015 | An academic criticises the decision to spend money converting the Bankstown line to single-deck when the greatest need is elsewhere. | Link |
| 4 November 2014 | Daily Telegraph reports that bus trips between Epping and Chatswood will be much slower than train during tunnel conversion. | Link |
| 29 September 2014 | Report that seating on NWRL trains is to be further reduced, with seats for only 30% of passenger capacity. The report does not discuss the number of passengers expected to reach Chatswood in the morning peak. | Link |
| 19 September 2014 | Confirmation that ECRL will be closed, with services replaced by buses, for seven months during conversion | Link |
| 16 September 2014 | Some particulars are announced at contract signing (six cars/train initially, 15 trains/hour each way in peak initially, capacity ~17000/hour each way with up to 6000 seated) but still no statement of how long ECRL will close during conversion | Link, Link |
| 11 September 2014 | Legislative Council motion is raised to establish a subcommittee inquiry into the NWRL | |
| 8 September 2014 | A tree falls onto the railway at Killara. Fortunately, services for Hornsby and beyond are diverted at Chatswood to travel via Epping. This will be impossible after ECRL is converted to NWRL use. | Link |
| 19 August 2014 | We learn what type of ticket barriers will be used at NWRL stations but we still don't know how many seats in trains | Link |
| 6 July 2014 | Paper by Stephen Bathgate on crashworthiness etc. of light trains | Link |
| 12 June 2014 | Yet another opinion piece slams the narrow-bore decision | Link |
| 10 June 2014 | The problematic Cabramatta interchange has disappeared from maps of the Sydney Rapid Transit system | Link |
| 27 May 2014 | Another academic criticises NWRL's choice of single-deck trains | Link |
| 5 May 2014 | At a public meeting, Rodd Staples is unable to say how long "upgrading" the Epping-Chatswood tunnels to single-deck will take | Link |
| 24 March 2014 | Premier O'Farrell comes out in support of single-deck trains | Link |
| 18 March 2014 | Planning Institute's perverse award for "public engagement and community planning" | Link |
| 30 January 2014 | Leaked document Rail Futures Investigations updates Sydney's Rail Future. Tier One trains - the single-deck metros - will serve Warringah and the East Hills line to Revesby eventually. | Link |
| 30 January 2014 | Emails within Transport for NSW suggest that Chatswood crowding problems will be worse than admitted | Link Link |
| 30 November 2013 | Information and Privacy Commission criticises T4NSW for not releasing its analysis of terminating NWRL trains at Chatswood | Link |
| 23 September 2013 | Report by Neil Douglas surfaces, questioning whether single-deck trains have the capacity to improve services on existing Sydney lines. This report has been kept secret by T4NSW | Link Link |
| 21 August 2013 | Action for Public Transport publishes article identifying the outstanding issues of double-deck versus single-deck services | Link |
| 17 August 2013 | Two articles published in Sydney Morning Herald report on local and overseas experts criticising T4NSW for not releasing certain information about NWRL |
Link Link |
| 7-8 August 2013 | Sandy Thomas presents updated 1855 Revisited paper at NSW Transport Infrastructure Summit 2013 |
Portrait
or landscape |
| 5 August 2013 | Action for Public Transport meets representatives of the NRWL team to discuss comparative merits of single- versus double-deck trains. T4NSW does not send a representative | --- |
| 22 July 2013 | Minister for transport Gladys Berejiklian withdraws at short notice from scheduled meeting with Beecroft and Cheltenham residents about NWRL tunnel diameter, apparently due to late notice of meeting details | --- |
| 15 July 2013 | Action for Public Transport examines what will be needed on the Western lines post-NWRL | Link |
| 13 July 2013 | SMH article remarks on the Minister's lack of transparency in transport policies | Link |
| 26 June 2013 | Letter to Minister explaining the need for proper use of single-deck trains | Link |
| 25 June 2013 | Tunnel contract awarded as foreshadowed | --- |
| 20 June 2013 | Another simple question in NSW Parliament about NWRL tunnel bore and the Minister's response | Link |
| 6 June 2013 | Minister announces that NWRL trains will be driverless and that platform edges will have glass gates that open when a train is adjacent | Link |
| 31 May 2013 | Action for Public Transport examines whether the Parramatta-Epping Rail Link will still be feasible post-NWRL | Link |
| 30 May 2013 | SMH opinion column laments the Parramatta-Epping Rail Link. Contains errors of fact - the author does not realise that the Berejiklian plan for the NWRL means Parra-Epping can never be built as originally intended. | Link |
| 29 May 2013 | Federal government defers Parramatta-Epping Rail Link funding until 2019. NSW government says that NWRL is more important than PERL, with or without federal money. | Link |
| 16 May 2013 | Minister's vacuous reply to Action for Public Transport's letter of 15 March about tunnel diameter. | Link |
| 12 May 2013 | Action for Public Transport's analysis of the Minister's stated position. | Link |
| 10 May 2013 | Breaking Bradfield, item on ABC TV 7:30 report questions the appropriateness of splitting Sydney's railway system. Minister Berejiklian tells interviewer Quentin Dempster that she is proud to be introducing single-deck trains. | Link |
| 8 May 2013 | Minister Berejiklian, interviewed in the Northern District Times (page 3), says the NWRL trains will have a capacity of 1300 passengers. This is an advance of 100 passengers on previous announcements. The number seated is not stated. | --- |
| 24 April 2013 | Directors of NSW Planning and Infrastructure recommend that their Minister approve stage 2 as set out in EIS2. This assessment report confirms that peak-hour Northern Line trains will travel via Strathfield to terminate at Central. | Link |
| April 2013 | Peter Mills' analysis of long-term seating availability on double- and single-deck trains | Link |
| 15 March 2013 | Action for Public Transport's letter to the NSW Minister for Transport recommending that the NWRL be built to carry double-deck trains | Link |
| 10 March 2013 | Sydney Morning Herald opinion Queries on rail line to nowhere questions whether people will like the north-west rail link | Link |
| 7 March 2013 | Action for Public Transport criticises some evasive official responses to submissions to second NWRL EIS | Link |
| February 2013 | Sandy Thomas' paper Fixing the Trains in Sydney: 1855 Revisited |
Portrait
or landscape |
| February 2013 | Unfit for Purpose, video by Eco-Transit Sydney, questions whether single-deck trains are appropriate for the outer suburbs | Link |
| 28 December 2012 | Minister faces resident backlash over changes to train services - Sydney Morning Herald article reports on numerous contrary submissions to second NWRL EIS | Link |
| 13 December 2012 | NSW Long Term Transport Master Plan | Link |
| December 2012 | Transport Policy at the Crossroads, paper by Paul Mees and Lucy Groenhart. Pages 20-21 have a scathing criticism of Sydney transport planning, especially Infrastructure NSW's bias toward cars and against double-deck trains | Link |
| December 2012 | Sydney's Light Rail Future issues. Page 15 explains why the CBD part of the line from UNSW to Circular Quay should be built at the same time as the rest - precisely the opposite conclusion from the NWRL plan | Link |
| November 2012 | Peter Mills' submission to the second EIS of NWRL | Link |
| November 2012 | Action for Public Transport's submission to the second EIS of NWRL | Link |
| 30 October 2012 | Sydney Morning Herald reports that buses from the Hills area to the Sydney CBD will become feeders to local railway stations when the NWRL opens | Link |
| 2 October 2012 | Sydney Morning Herald reports that NWRL commuters changing trains at Chatswood will face crowded platforms and crowded trains | Link |
| September 2012 | The North West Rail Link: winners and losers in the locality of the North West area, by Clifton, Hensher and Mulley - ATRF2012. Analyses the probable effects on travel times of the NWRL and concludes that many trips will take longer than on the current M2 bus services. | Link |
| September 2012 | Industry briefing on NWRL states requirement for 1500VDC power and grade capability up to 4.5% | Link |
| 6 September 2012 | Question in NSW Parliament about NWRL tunnel bore and the Minister's response | Link |
| 6 September 2012 | Action for Public Transport comments that the draft long-term transport master plan is "not a plan but rather a large amount of verbiage written in defence of a number of decisions which were made last year" | Link |
| 4 September 2012 | Release of draft long-term transport master plan | Link |
| August 2012 | Action for Public Transport's letter to the Minister remarking that effective public consultation is not happening | Link |
| July 2012 | Sydney's Constrained Rail Future, a paper by Peter Mills, analyses long-term difficulties of the proposed three-tier train system | Link |
| 14 July 2012 | Action for Public Transport comments on problems with Sydney's Rail Future | Link |
| 4 July 2012 | Sydney Morning Herald reports fears that smaller tunnels will lock off transport options | Link |
| 29 June 2012 | Railroaded? Metro rail alternatives for western Sydney, Dick Day's assessment of Sydney's Rail Future | Link |
| 20 June 2012 | Sydney's Rail Future, the first official announcement of the three-tier train system. Pages 22-26 give plausible reasons for mixing train types but do not show why metro-style trains should service the long trip to Rouse Hill. | Link |
| 6 October 2011 | Sydney Morning Herald carries a leaked story that NSW cabinet has been considering single-deck trains for Sydney and a three-tier system | Link |
| August 2011 | Improving Customer Experience, paper by the Tipping Point Institute. Page 23 has a chart showing that single-deck trains lose their inner-city advantage when stations get further apart than about 1 km and that double-deck trains are appropriate with stations further apart. | Link |
| 8 July 2011 | Sydney Morning Herald questions re-routing away from Beecroft dive in favour of staying underground at Epping | Link |
| 10 March 2011 | Gladys Berejiklian, before election to Minister, insists to a meeting at Epping that the NWRL will be approved by Infrastructure NSW | --- |
| 16 September 2010 | Rodd Staples gives evidence to Legislative Council committee on costs of cancelling the Rees metro system | Link |
| 26 May 2010 | Independent Public Inquiry, sponsored by SMH, publishes its final report. Pages 241-254 and 455-468 set out Alex Wardrop's analysis of the need for a new city line and harbour crossing and also a comparision of capabilities of double- and single-deck rolling stock. | Link |
| 21 February 2010 | Keneally government releases Metropolitan Transport Plan, Connecting the City of Cities and cancels Nathan Rees' CBD metro and West Metro. NWRL construction is to start in 2017. The project will be supported by extra tracks between Chatswood and St Leonards. | --- |
| February 2010 | Independent Public Inquiry, sponsored by SMH, publishes its interim report | --- |
| 4 December 2009 | Leaked Transport Blueprint (destined never to be officially released) shows all Gosford and Wyong trains terminating at Chatswood | Link |
| 31 October 2008 | Rees government postpones Morris Iemma's north-west metro indefinitely | --- |
| 23 October 2008 | Rees government announces CBD-to-Rozelle metro | --- |
| March 2008 | Iemma government announces north-west metro from the CBD through Gladesville and Epping to Mungerie Park | --- |
| 24 September 2007 | SMH article reports NSW Treasury (under Michael Costa) opposition to rail expansion program, including NWRL | --- |
| late 2006 | Reported opposition to NWRL going underground at Beecroft - locals fear a 6-track megarailway thundering through Cheltenham | --- |
| 9 June 2005 | Metropolitan Rail Expansion Program announced, including NWRL | --- |
| 10 March 2002 | Transport minister Carl Scully releases preferred route of proposed Epping to Mungerie Park railway | --- |
| June 2001 | The original Christie report: Long-term Strategic Plan for Rail | Link |
| May 2001 | Carr government cancels the proposed Epping to Castle Hill railway | --- |
| 1998 | First promise of N W Rail Link, to be open by 2010 at a cost of $50 million per kilometre, according to Liberal spokesman in 2010 | --- |
