Cityrail
Big in news lately is the SMH’s investigative report on Cityrail and Sydney’s rail system (yesterday and today). The updated cityrail network will provide access to places otherwise impossible/hard to access via public transport – such as Drummoyne, the Eastern suburbs (Kingsford, UNSW etc.) and up in the North places such as Frenchs Forest. Unfortunately 80 stations is a massive amount of infrastructure, and it will take decades before that all happens. I also wrote a while back that Sydney was lacking a London “tube-style” underground subway, and that is another thing that has been proposed. The new millennium trains coming into service should be a breath of fresh air. All in all though, when you see and read the stats, the system is pretty awful. I got used to the idea of standing for an hour on the 5.30 train from Central to Campbelltown, but that is not something that should be happening.
A little bit on the East Hills line, which I take:
East Hills. This is the most unreliable line on the network. In fact, its performance is so bad it has dragged down the entire Sydney rail system.
The line has the most complex mix of stopping patterns on the network, increasing the chances of things going wrong. Passengers are offered a wider range of choices than the average steakhouse: fast, fast-medium, medium, snail’s pace.
The delays have been made worse by CityRail’s recent multi-million dollar upgrade of the line between Turella and Kingsgrove – where there are now four tracks – but the rest of the western arm of the line is still only two tracks, leaving no opportunities for overtaking.
Passengers have also had to put up with more crime on this line – 17 assaults and twice as many robberies were committed last financial year.
One of the chief complaints from residents in inner suburbs along the line is that a minimum number of services are forced to go down the Airport Line under the contract for its construction. That route is slower than the older way via Sydenham.
Only four out of five trains ran on time in the financial year 2000-1, although CityRail’s overall performance has improved markedly in recent months.
1:02pm (GMT +11.00) tomorrow from Work, Chiswick
