Thursday 9 October 2014

Western, Northern & Airport/Revesby Lines should be focus of capacity addition





The above image was taken from the NSW 2012 Transport Masterplan.  It shows that the worst congestion will be on the Airport line, with "passenger displacement on much of the line between Revesby and Green Square", and also on the Northern Line.  Also having "Very High" crowding are the Western lines, especially between Strathfield and the CBD.  In comparison, the North Shore line is only predicted to have "High" levels of crowding.

With my Blue Sky Western Express proposal, capacity addition of ~50 trains per hour will be distributed across the different lines as follows:
* Western line into CBD: additional ~36-40tph, of which 26tph are express trains to Barangaroo
* Revesby/Aiport/City Circle (anticlockwise): additional ~10tph
* Northern line: from ~10tph to up to 20tph

In comparison, the SRT proposed by TfNSW will initially add 30tph, distributed as follows:
* Bankstown line: 15tph from the current ~8 tph
* ECRL/North Shore: additional 15 tph via second harbour crossing
* Western line into CBD: additional ~4tph, due to freeing up slots used by Bankstown trains
* East hills line into CBD: additional ~4tph, due to freeing up slots used by Bankstown trains

The need for additional Bankstown capacity provided by SRT is questionable, given it is predicted to have "Low"/"Very Low" levels of crowding even out to 2031.  This suggests SRT is poorly targeting capacity addition.  Overall, on the most crowded lines (Western, Revesby and Northern), the capacity addition with Blue Sky Western Express is superior to that provided by the SRT, reflecting it's more effective targeting of lines needing more capacity.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This map is arguably very inaccurate especially when referring to the Inner West, Illawarra and Bankstown Lines. Currently due to cut services on the Inner West line, trains there are extremely overcrowded in morning peak hours where in 2031 trains at Newtown will probably be very high. There are no improvements planned for the future of the St George and Shire area. Currently the line experiences inequality of services such as major centres of Kogarah and Rockdale having services cut to provide minor improvements to the less densely populated shire area. This map says that crowding would be moderate just before reaching the CBD. That is well and truly false even today. Crowding levels are at least high at the moment and in the future due to growth precincts of Arncliffe/Wolli Creek/Banksia crowding levels will be through the roof. As with the Bankstown line, it has gained quite significant changes overall with 2 extra semi-fast services an hour in peak but with that according to figures presented by Sydney Trains, Bankstown trains are running on average at 120% capacity. There was only a 14% improvement to 2013 figures. This shows there were drastic population growth within the Bankstown Line catchment. This map shows high level of crowding upon reaching Sydenham in 2031 do-nothing scenario. In 15 years time I highly doubt that this would occur, in fact passengers at Marrickville would probably be unable to board morning peak trains.

Both the Inner West and Illawarra Lines have the most overcrowded trains on average across the network according to Sydney Trains statistics. Sharing the 134% capacity, these lines would have most overcrowding issues even after Liberal's plans which ignores improvements for both these lines.

I support the SRT but in fact I question whether 15 tph would be enough. The government is providing exaggerated capacity numbers for the single deck trains. My overall message is the inaccurate details of this map through evidence.