Thursday 23 October 2014

CBD & SE Sydney Light Rail to increase capacity by 50%

Even before any construction has started, the NSW Government is already aiming to increase the CBD & SE Sydney light rail capacity by 50%, presumably to 13500 passengers per hour.  This illustrates that the original design was underwhelming in it's vision or ambition.  I'm also not sure if George St is really the best alignment for the CBD light rail, as it necessitates using up not one but two precious Central station street frontages (Eddy Ave and Chalmers St).  Despite using up so much valuable Central station real estate, it's interchange with trains terminating at Sydney terminal is quite suboptimal, requiring passengers to cross all the way over to Rawson Place (what's wrong with having stop in Eddy Ave?).

The Connecting Sydney consortium, consisting of Transdev Sydney, Alstom Transport Australia, Acciona Infrastructure Australia and Capella Capital, was named the preferred bidder for the project.


Details of how the 50% capacity increase is achieved are unclear.  Presumably because final contract has not closed, it remains confidential information.  If anyone can provide a tip on this matter, please post a comment below.

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