arrrghhh Sydney trains

Sydney's trains are generally an 8 carriage set for peak hour travel (only weekends have 4 carriage if iirc), this is dictated by the platform length.

Metro is crewless so so driver changes.

Innerwest light rail has had frequency increased (6-8 per Hr) but capacity is restricted by the number of rolling stock available.

 

On Saturday night, I almost saw a fatality at Redfern station. A couple had gotten on at Newtown looking a little agitated. As soon as the doors opened at Redfern, the female dashed for the opposite tracks. Her partner/friend ran after her and grabbed her just in time. Very sad indeed.

 

A Metro can be "driverless" but can still have an on-board attendant who opens, more often closes, the doors (this is grade of automation level 3) or can be fully automatic operation with no on-board attendant as the system opens and closes the doors (this is grade of automation level 4).

 

I reckon if they could implement a half decent/world class metro/rail system it would alleviate a lot of the demand of housing around the city centre. People would be more willing to buy further out knowing they had reliable and fast access (30 mins +/-) into the city.

 

If it helps, Myki in VIC is no better.

 

Great point, exactly, a well developed modern metro is really an enabler for town planning and development of a city. Interestingly, MTR in HK is classified under real estate rather than transport as it has been an enabler of new property developments.

 

The Innerwest light rail is short & slow as it winds it's way through Dulwich Hill, Summer Hill, Leichhardt, Haberfield, Leichhardt North, Rozelle, Annandale, Glebe, Star City, Ultimo, Central (and a few others). Not rapid transit

 

@geoffw - it follows the old goods line through the Innerwest. It was a disused rail corridor for many years linking Darling Harbour to the main heavy rail line at Dulwich Hill. Stopping at countless sidings such as Kraft, Mungo Scott (Mill), Sanitarium, Dairy Farmers/Power House (Ultimo) etc. All industries which are long gone.

 

I'm looking forward to this stopping outside my door ...

Autovino a driverless bus

 

I used to catch trains from Central to North Ryde in the afternoon, many of these trains did not have air con, in summer, it was like an oven. haven't had chance to use the trains at the same time for a while, hope it has improved.

 

The trains on this train line tend to be city rail's better trains. When they decided to put the train underground at Lane Cove National Park, one problem was that the older trains wouldn't have been able to cope with the steep gradient... thus this line only gets the more modern trains, and never any of the old trains. If you ride on the line to Bankstown, they get the non airconned trains.

 

Exactly. The waratah may not be a fridge but it is the only rolling stock able to cope with the steep climb (blame the greenies for forcing the tunnel rather tan a bridge through the national park near the existing roadway).

 

But sometimes public transport is unnecessarily like a fridge.... no good for skinny girls #firstworldproblems

 

yup everyone ... including barnaby, turnbull ... senator pauline

 

Just stumbled across this old thread. Most of the Sydney train issues from 2018 are not really a problem any longer.

The positives:
1. Loads of people working from home, thus generally much smaller crowds on platforms and trains for peak hours. Yay Covid pandemic!

2. We (mostly) can't and don't need to buy tickets at stations any longer. No Opal card? Use a credit card or digital wallet on your phone! Huge game changer. So much easier. I tend not to ever carry cash with me any longer since about 2020 for that manner. Anyway, with regard to using credit cards to tap on.... it would be great if this could be carried over to all public transport everywhere... just a week ago I bought a "Bee" card in Queenstown NZ. Makes your trips a lot cheaper and the app "Transit" is good and very helpful but the card costs $5 NZD and too bad if you leave the area with credit remaining on your card. (Maybe you can get the credit back but if so, it seems like it would be a hassle).

3. New Sydney metro lines should simplify the complexity of the rail network, add capacity, and make trips quicker end to end as there should be little waiting required.

4. I think free wifi has been rolled out to some areas on the cityrail network. I just noticed this. They want a lot of info from you though before letting you on the free wifi.

But what I still think would be good to have....
1. I still think Carlingford to Westmead light rail (opening in a few months) is a bit of a white elephant. Carlingford really should have been connected to Epping! That would have helped people travelling from Parramatta and further west to the north, eg. Macquarie Uni and vv.

2. The Richmond line should have been connected to the North West Metro line too.

 

A little bit more difficult now with the northern freight line to the west of Epping station, the line would have to meet at Cheltenham or Denistone East which doesn't provide a seamless link to Epping.

Agree with this as it's just too far between the Richmond line and the end of the Metro.

 

Maybe Carlingford line could have linked to somewhere because it’s not much use how it is now. There were plans to have a station at Carlingford Court and then Epping but it never got there. Maybe Carlingford line could have also gone up to Carmen Drive M2 and then to NW rail link - Cherrybrook station;

 

I don’t like all this digital stuff - I like the old days where every train station had a station master where you could buy tickets with cash and get help by a real person.
Problem with all this automated stuff is that people who implement this stuff think they can set and forget when the system is up and running and as we know when something goes wrong there are no humans to help you.
It is setting us up into a full digital living that is cashless and total surveillance state - horrible future and yet I’m the bad one for pointing stuff like this out.
There are too many people who are prepared to give up their freedom to accept the tyranny of surveillance and control in the name of convenience.