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

So, do you feel safe on the trains?

Are you worried about being attacked on the train at night, or are you worried during the day?

Can you sleep on the train, or do you always keep one eye open looking out for trouble?

Do Cityrail do enough to keep you safe, or at least feeling safe?

It seems that the old security guards that used to wander the trains at night have not been replaced with the transit officers, which means the transit officers have the dual role of checking tickets and maintaining order. In my experience transit officers only really seem to operate until 10pm, catching a train after this time usually results in a journey no involving any security officers, transit officers or Police, I could be wrong though as this is just my personal experience.

I used to feel alot safer at night when 2 security guards patrolled every trainafter 10:30pm a few years back, you would usually see them 3 or 4 times on a trip from the outer suburbs into the city, even if they didn’t look like they could hurt a fly, or argue with anyone it was nice they were there, and their presence seemed enough to keep down rowdy drunks and hooligans.

All that said, unfortunately a 17 year old boy was stabbed and killed yesterday on a CItyrail train at 5:30pm at Marrickville on the Bankstown line. Reading the circumstances at the moment it seems that it was gang related violence and if it didn’t happen on the train, it probably would have occurred somewhere else. I don’t think Cityrail could have done any more to prevent this except perhaps transit officers on every train, but that’s probably not cost effective.

What needs to be done by Cityrail for you to feel safe?

Well it was bound to happen.

As mentioned in my earlier post to about IPART and making sure you got your submission in the NSW Government has managed to wrangle some increases in our fares over the next four years, details below.

I’m in two minds on this one, personally being a commuter every day I don’t want to see the fares increase, it’s more money out of my hip pocket, and at the moment more money seems to be leaving my pocket than entering it, and job security certainly isn’t what it used to be.

We all know the appauling state of some of the trains on the network, they really, really need to be replaced, do these fare increases go towards improving the infrastructure? If so, is it worth it?

Sould we, the people be paying for this? Is it a “right” as a resident of Sydney to have access to cheap and reliable public transport? Should the Government be covering these rises in fares instead of the commuters?

For all those questions I find it hard to give a definative answer. The trains need to be fixed, but our State Government is currently $1 Billion in debt. where else is the money going to come from?

I have a bitter taste in my mouth about this increase, and will probably curse buying my 14 day rail pass every week at the start of 2009, I suppose like all things, prices only go up not down, and what can we do about it?

CITYRAIL
2009
Distance: Up to 20 kilometres
Single tickets: 20c to 60c increase
Weeklies: $1 to $3 increase
 
Distance: 20 kilometres to 65 kilometres
Single tickets: 40c increase
Weeklies: $2 to $3 increase
 
Distance: 65 kilometres to 175 kilometres
Single tickets: No change
Weeklies: $3 increase
 
Distance: More than 175 kilometres
Single tickets: $8 decrease
Weeklies: From $2 increase to $25 decrease
 
2010 to 2012
Distance: Up to 20 kilometres
Single tickets: 20c to 80c increase
Weeklies: $3 to $6 increase
 
Distance: 20 kilometres to 65 kilometres
Single tickets: 80c to $1.40 increase
Weeklies: $9 to $9 increase
 
Distance: 65 kilometres to 175 kilometres
Single tickets: 20c to $1.20 increase
Weeklies: $7 to $9 increase
 
Distance: Over 175 kilometres
Single tickets: No change
Weeklies: $13 increas

Well just a short note. Seems that Cityrail Ticket inspectors have a new uniform. I noticed today that they are now blue, more Policeish. I also think it gives them some more visibility, the grey kind of blended in with everything.

Whether they are trying to look more friendly, approachable or like Police it’s unclear, but they look OK.

Keep on keeping us safe

Well, this is what I like to read about as a frequent Cityrail commuter.

It would seem that over the last few years Railcorps “Clearways” project has been plagued with problems, most of which are resolved quietly and just wind up costing the tax payer more money.

These two problems however go a little deeper, these effect customer safety on the network, and in terms of my priorities as a commuter, above trains being on time, clean and air-conditioned is the safety of myself, my family and my fellow commuters.

The two problems both revolved around bad earthing & insulation for new sub stations at Lidcombe and Revesby. It seemed that a banned contractor was used to design the earthing for these new sub stations and they were not properly insulated for their distance from underground gas and water lines. The end result…

“This led directly to the creation of a potential latent defect on the RailCorp network which could have resulted in death or injury,”

This information was learned about when the Sydney Morning Herald(www.smh.com.au) forced the government to reveal a secret Railcorp report into the events. It was released under the Freedom of Information Act.

My thanks go out to our tireless Cityrail employees who thankfully picked up the faults during the testing phase and hopefully they have been rectified.

I feel safer now catching the trains, don’t you?

For more information on this story go to SMH’s article

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rail-blunders-hundreds-of-lives-at-risk/2008/10/29/1224956136414.html

Also, don’t forget to get your submissions in for the adjustments of Cityrails fares.

See…

http://www.ratecityrail.com/2008/10/peak-cityrail-fares-could-increase-from-2009/

Ah that was my piece of gold gleaned from yesterdays travelling experiences.

Travel during peak down the North Shore line yesterday afternoon Citybound was a little haphazard. All trains from around 5:30pm were 10-15 minutes late causing serious crowding on all stations I saw from North Sydney through to Central. At that time of the day with so many workers crowding into stations it just doesn’t work when the trains don’t show up.

Anyway as quite often happens at North Sydney, a train leaves that you’ve just missed. The station slowly starts to fill up with commuters. It’s been more than 5 mins between trains, people start looking restless and worried and looking down the line for that next train, it doesn’t come. Eventually the station fills up side to side and full length with commuters, when a train does come it’s not going to fit everyone.

Usually Cityrail keep you waiting the 5 minutes past 5 minutes late(so 10 minutes) before they start informing you the trains are out of time tabled order and initially no estimate on the next train. Finally the dreaded announcement, “The next City bound service departs from platform 3″, this means going up and over the platforms, which really was pretty tricky due to so many people on the platform and half the platform wanting to stay and the other half leave.

To Cityrails credit they were on the radios to the train crew to hold the train as it was due to leave, except half of Platform 1 was making the pilgramige over to Platform 3 and I’m sure the other commuters wouldn’t have been happy if it left whilst they were half way there.

Anyway, train was a cattle service as usual, my favourite point of the whole journey was the guard of the train after Town Halls crush “Welcome to happy hour, next stop Central”.

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.

As we all eagerly await the arrival of the new Epping to Chatswood railway line it has been revealed today that there are large unresolved problems with the project.

1. The projects costs have soared to $2.3 Billion.

2. It’s 2 years overdue.

3. The track is too steep for Tangaras to use, so older K set(silver rattlers) would have to be used.

4. Unfortunately these K set trains are so old they make too much noise in the confines of a concrete tunnel. Noise tests inside the carriage revealed up to 90dB. Workcover recommends not having to work with noise of over 85dB. This would be for 15 minutes!

5. The Intercity trains are appear to be Cityrails only solution to the problem at the moment, which will require a reorganisation of their rolling stock. This should meet Cityrails noise standards, I’d hazard it’s still going to be noisy…

I’m not sure why the Millennium trains can’t be used on the line, although there could be power limitations on the Northern/North Shore lines that held them back from crossing the harbour bridge. That said I have seen a few Millennium trains crawl their way up the North Shore line to at least North Sydney.

I suppose my question here is, would a noise level of 90dB stop you from using a train service? Or would just having your iPod headphones plugged in be enough and you’d ignore it?

Either way the issue remains unresolved and they are still planning on opening the line come February 2009.

Dear Avid Readers,

I was hoping to give you all the details you needed to survive this weekend around the CBD on the train. It seems Railcorp has some serious trackwork this weekend covering most of the lines around the CBD. They have buses on, but it’s always a pain and never quite as convenient as getting the train.

I’ve been trying to get the update of the Cityrail website but it’s been offline most of the evening so I can’t get you the details, will get on tomorrow and try to post up some more useful updates.

For the moment just be aware that if you are coming through the CBD on the weekend expect some trackwork and adjust your travel times accordingly.

As always info at http://cityrail.info.

I actually noticed this as I was flicking through my mX today, it seems every Wednesday Cityrail has a special section in mX, I must have just missed it all these years as it’s claiming to be us to issue 50 something, but oh well. I’m glad Cityrail is trying to get this information out there.

Railcorp currently has a document for review with IPART at the moment in regarding it’s fares from 2009-2012. I encourage all of you to view this document and contact IPART with your thoughts on the network, and whether or not there is justification for a fares increase or not. This needs to be received by IPART no later than November 5th, 2008. Contact them here ipart@ipart.nsw.gov.au.

In brief, and I’ve not read this document too much so far, it looks like your average Sydney fare could go up as much as $1.00 for single trips, and as much as $8.00 on a weekly ticket. A welcome part to the document is the big offset for off peak returns to be considerably cheaper, down by as much as 18% for most Sydney fares.

I’ve only had a glance at the document so far, so can’t give you all a full run down, just wanted to get it out there so people had time to write in if they felt they wanted to. Obviously Railcorp hasn’t got this widely published (they didn’t last year either…).

So is this increase a good or a bad thing? Should trains in Sydney be a user pays? Or is it our right as Sydney citizens to have Government subsidesed travel?(Even though our State Government is $1Bil. in debt).

I’ll discuss all these things over the coming days as I read the document more, for the time being, what do you think?

More information on the document referred to can be found at IPART, link below.

http://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/files/Review%20of%20CityRail%20fares%202009-2012%20-%20Draft%20Report%20and%20Draft%20Determinations%20-%20October%202008.PDF