CityRail - still training Sydney? (2 Viewers)

[wuddie]

It should come as no news to you that cityrail has a bad record - everything from running on schedule, fitting in air-cons on trains, to ensuring that a black out does not happen on a thousand degree day - they've failed at every aspect possible. The critics are having a field day with them, whilst the commuters are starting to run out of words to express their continuous disappointment. I've become more empathetic towards those whingers since I became part of the 'prestigeous' morning train club, I have not once in 5 weeks got a seat on the train.

But deep down, I think cityrail is trying to do the best they can, with the limited amount of resource they recieve from the government. I read a report some time ago that the cityrail system no longer has the capacity to keep up with the increasing size of sydney. Maybe that's why.

So does anyone have a story you wish to share in regard to your experience (good or bad) on the train? Or any suggestions (besides more money) you have to make cityrail better?

 

[Sparcod]

Suggestions?
I remember Morris Iemma once thought about getting New Delhi-style standup buses. Here, there are no seats so everyone has to stand and that means more passengers can fit.

I actually have some faith in Morris Iemma that he will try to fix up the transport problems. (I say 'will' because a lot of people say that he'll be re-elected)

 

[banco55]

We need to hire the singaporeans they seem to know how to get the trains to run on time.

 

[Sparcod]

Privitisation perhaps?
It means that trains will go into the hands of people who know how to make money and to a large degree, improve customer service.

 

[onebytwo]

Privitisation perhaps?
It means that trains will go into the hands of people who know how to make money and to a large degree, improve customer service.

maybe, if city rail even makes any profits

no more 8 carriage trains at noon which are 95% empty. why not make a 2 car train during this time and just run more services? because trains at midday are horrible

 

[volition]

Well I think they tried to sell cityrail before, but nobody wanted to buy it.

 

[Scanorama]

Yeah they are still training Sydney - its patience.

 

[wheredanton]

City rail is very different from the MRT system in HK or anything anywhere in the world. It's a very very complex network over a naturally hilly city.

 

[han-]

Privitisation perhaps?
It means that trains will go into the hands of people who know how to make money and to a large degree, improve customer service.

Privatisation of PT was a massive failure here in Melbourne, suppose it could work for you guys though.

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

no more 8 carriage trains at noon which are 95% empty. why not make a 2 car train during this time and just run more services? because trains at midday are horrible

Lol. It takes a bit of time to decouple a train, especially creating a two car one (considering that they prefer to have them in fours). That'd just take up too much time, and waste resources.

People generally bag out cityrail with little understanding of how it actually works. The system is needlessly complicated due to its age, but the state government is consistently clearing up those problems via clearways. There are old trains with aircon, but aircon is being added to old trains all the time. It does take time to add aircon to old trains that were built back when aircon was a lavish luxury. There are new trains entering service fairly regularly (those intercity ones atm). One could suggest that trains should arrive to stations closer to the destination, but that would be at the expense of a lot more people (for example the Kingsgrove service).

 

[liv22a]

i am still catching the train everyday to school and am part of a big group of kids. all up there are about 60 of us who all catchit together. we all catch it together so that we are not spread out all over the train. we have commuters who try to sit on the seats near the doors, squeeze in and proceed to complain about our bags, piled about a metre high. we are abused every day and accused of everything by other commuters. there have also been times when we are so scared fo our safety through the actions of other commuters. why dont we get a carriage or carriages for students only. it may help out the complaining commuters. i am sick of the crap we get put through every day for 3 hours.

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

That's because you all stand in the vestibule, crowded together instead of spreading around the train. What you should be doing is standing in the aisle downstairs and upstairs in a spread out fashion, so that you can quickly grab a seat when the opportunity arises. Believe me, people standing in the aisle is annoying but people standing in the vestibule is so much more annoying. I stand in the vestibule (last carriage at Redfern for the 4:29 C'Town service! Yo!), but that's because there's absolutely no seats at that time of day. On the other hand, yesterday I caught a much earlier train, and I saw a whole bunch of school kids piled into the vestibule when there were an absolute TONNE of seats downstairs that they could have sat in.

 

[Josie]

I wish the intercity trains actually went on the intercity lines. I'm sick of catching the train to Sydney that doesn't have a toilet on it.

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

Meh. Just go before you get on the train. I read some story about a lady wetting herself because there weren't any toilets. People like that shouldn't be catching trains if that's the situation...

 

[Josie]

It doesn't worry me so much... but it's an hour and a half trip in a non airconditioned, no toilet train. Lame.

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

The seats are damn comfortable though. I caught a train to Hurstville to get off at Wolli Creek, and the trains actually had headrests! I didn't want to get off, they were that comfortable.

On the other hand, my ass always feels numb by the end of a commute from C'Town to Redfern.

 

[Josie]

Headrests? Where? When? *jealous*

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

It was a Tangaraish train, 8 carriages long heading toward Hurstville. I guess it only did a short run so that it could return and finish its intercity business. Anyway, they were these massive seats (that could face both ways), purple in colour, with massive spongy headrests on top of them. You could tell they were intercity from the sheer amount of newspaper lying around.

 

[Josie]

Ohhh, those ones. I like those

 

[Triangulum]

Blue Mountains trains are normally pretty good. We get the nice air-conditioned trains with toilets (although they're so small you can barely get into them, and they're not exactly very pleasant, so I avoid them if at all possible). It does get a bit crowded sometimes, but only once we get past Parramatta, generally, so it's bearable.

I miss the days when we had express services that didn't pick up from Penrith and Parramatta, though.