RateCityRail

Dear RCR Readers,

Welcome to 2009. I’m finally back from leave and back on the trains again this week. It’s certainly shaping up to be an interesting year on the trains. Fares to rise, Cityrail changing the timetable and Cityrail endorsing trains to travel at “crush” capacity more frequently to support the new timetables.

This “crush” situation I’ll discuss in another post, but it does pose some interesting questions.

My experience on the trains this week since I’ve been back has been mixed. All the trains have been ontime, but I’m really struggling with the heat & humidity of the trains and underground stations.

Town Hall this week has just been unbareable(for someone who wears business shirt, tie & pants & considers themselves reasonably fit). You hop off either a nice cold train, or boiling hot one and just melt straight away.

Trains with A/C, or working A/C have been a little hard to get, but we’ll just have to see what the rest of summer has to say about that.

Later this week I’ll do some coverage on the overcrowding Cityrail is volunteering all commuters for in peak.

Can’t wait!

RCR

Well I don’t know about you but I thought Sydney was pretty hot today. According to www.bom.gov.au it was 35 degrees Celsius today.

Even as I ride home now at 9:50pm the heat is stifling & the humidity isn’t great either.

So I watch my train pull into the platform(old silver K set). I notice some windows pop open & others are either sealed or have had solid glass replacements. Anyway I hop in the guards carriage as it’s pretty late.

Im greeted by a bunch of hot frustrated commuters struggling to stay cool with the pathetically small windows all open. I sit down, instantly I am one with the seat, bonded by sweat. It’s just not pretty but you all know the feeling…

As I sit glued to the seat I ponder if I’m on one of Cityrails mystical half air-conditioned half not trains I’d heard about but didn’t believe it existed.

We get to the next station, I can’t take it anymore, I may as well have showered fully clothed. I jump up & run to the next carriage.

All windows & doors sealed and I am greeted bv cool air-conditioned bliss.

So is this a good idea? Clearly Cityrail doesn’t have enough air-conditioned carriages for the whole network.

Should Cityrail run fully air-conditioned services & then others not at all. Or should they continue splitting services up 50/50?

Either way, statistically I think only fully air-conditioned services should be counted on paper, then we would have a real idea of how many trains go un-air-conditioned under the scorching Aussie sun.

The moral to the story. If your carriage is too hot try the next one.

Average Cityrail commuter, Summer

Well today I really realised it was summer. As I hoped on the train this morning I noticed it was an old silver set that had been retro fitted with air conditioning, nice eh? Well yes, and no.  When they retro fit the old silver carriages with air conditioning they seal all the windows closed and block up the air vents in the doors. This is great “if” the air conditioning is actually working.

In my case the carriage that I was in had a distinct lack of cold air flowing anywhere. Other problem was it was peak and nearly full to capacity, the heat and humidity in there was just stifling, so at the next stop I hopped out of the carriage and moved one down. Sure enough, cold as ice, and less people too.

I think I’ll run a few posts on this, but my initial tips for staying cool on the trains this summer.

• If your carriage is air conditioned, and hot, try moving to another carriage
• If your carriage isn’t air conditioned and it’s an old silver set open up the door in between cars, this moves a huge amount of fresh air through the train.
• On the old silver sets standing near the doors is nice and cool due to the air vents(just make sure you move when a station is approaching).