A Few Good Reasons Why Our Rail System Should Go Metro All The Way
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday March 26, 2008
The authorities have been telling us for years that our rail system is difficult to manage because of its complexity, and that metro systems are more reliable, easier to manage and able to run more frequent services. The main feature of metro lines is that they are point-to-point, with no branches or intersections, which eliminates scheduling problems. Users have to change lines more often, but are compensated by a higher frequency of service.
So why not modify the existing system? Chop the network into discrete services that intersect at mainline stations. On the western line, the southernmost track pair could run a regular (say, every five minutes) all-stops service from Blacktown to the city and back, and the middle pair a similar, but limited stops, service, leaving the northern pair to handle the inter-city traffic as it now does. All the other joining lines could become discrete services, terminating at the mainline stations. Travellers from the city to Carlingford, for example, would always have to change at Clyde, but they could catch any westbound train from the city. The increased frequency of service would more than compensate for having to change trains. The stations all seem to have an extra platform for the joining lines, so we should be able to achieve this with little or no construction. There is an added benefit for the passengers: all trains stopping at any platform would go to the same destination and stop at the same stops, so people such as me who start reading the Herald letters page on a platform and finish reading it on a train would at least know where they were going.Russell Day Leichhardt
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald