12 kms in 17 mins
A new rail line opened in Sydney today. It is 7 years after work first started and is now 3 years late. It is over budget by double and it delivers on only half of what was promised. That's right: it's the Epping to Chatswood rail line, that will form part of the new Northern (red) line later this year.The rail line will operate as a shuttle service between Epping and Chatswood via North Ryde, Macquarie Park and Macquarie University. These trains will operate on a frequency of every 15 minutes. The new timetable that connects these 5 stations onto the Northern line is expected to be operational in November with trains running every 15 minutes during peak hour. Frankly, that's just poor.
All trains that operate on this line are the new OSCAR (millennium-like) long distance trains. No other trains can operate on this train line due to poor planning, resulting in the tunnel being too steep for Tangaras and too noisy for the tin cans. Stupid.
What else is stupid is that the stations are not yet fully completed. There are no car parks at North Ryde station, and the pavement outside the station has not been laid. Even the road is unfinished. Stupid.
The government predicts that 12,000 people will use the new route daily. A 100 day free use period starts from today.
Live update from Chatswood
When I got to Chatswood this morning, there were 'ghost trains' running and many smiling, friendly Cityrail staff with nice t-shirts handing out brochures about the new train line. The platform design is conducive to smooth changeover between lines: the train to Epping is on the opposite side of the platform that serves the northbound service, and vice versa.
At peak hour, it was clearly visible that the Chatswood bound train was full but not packed, so the 100 days of free travel has found itself some clear supporters. It doesn't help that the government refused to build any car parks at the train stations, forcing people to catch non-existant public transport to the station. After the 100 days, would there be as many people? Only time will tell. The inconvenience is just too much.
On the way home tonight at 8pm, the Chatswood bound service was well timed to coincide with the southbound Western Line service. Likewise could be said for the northbound Hornsby service coinciding with the Epping bound service. Both arrived at similar times. Lots of people got off the terminating train to join us going into the City, which surprised me. I didn't expect that many people to be riding on the network at that hour especially on the new line.
Not bad for the first day.
That's all to report on from Chatswood for today. I don't see another line opening in Sydney for another five years at least.
benny | Monday, February 23, 2009 
Comments
from
Mags
benny
Post a Comment [2 comments]
hahah wolli creek still is a wreck? aren't they supposed to be building something there?
benny |
Sunday, March 01, 2009 10:59:00 am
Hahaha.. yeah, unfinished facilities at an open station sounds exactly like Cityrail!
I mean, look at how many years was Wolli Creek a wreck - people are still parking on dirt ground these days. Frankly, I'd be worried if Shittyrail tried to begin another major infrastructure project in the next 5 years considering how much of a near failure this expensive exercise has been so far.