CityRail will introduce a new timetable on the Eastern Suburbs, Illawarra and South Coast lines in December 2010. The main driver for this change is the track duplication on the Cronulla branch.
The new timetable continues the slow running already noted. APT repeat our criticism.
Once more, the timetable relies on slow running and on pauses at several stations, apparently in an attempt to improve the on-time running statistics. Regrettably, the official "justification" for this policy is that safety is CityRail's highest priority.
The McInerney report on the Waterfall crash in January 2003, which is sometimes cited as authority for speed being dangerous, did not say that safe trains had to run slowly. Railways in many cities run fast trains safely.
The result is that Sydney trains travel more slowly in 2009 than their predecessors did in the 1930s, despite stronger track, more powerful and better-engineered trains, more modern signalling, the latest timetabling software and increased competition from motorways. Of course, the number of trips which a train can do daily diminishes in proportion to slow travel speeds, reducing the number of trips that trains can make at peak hour.
You can use the following calculator to show gaps in the weekday timetable at your station. Gaps over ten minutes are highlighted in yellow, gaps over fifteen minutes in orange, gaps over 20 minutes in red, and gaps over 30 minutes in magenta.
We have deliberately omitted CBD and major junction stations that are served by multiple lines.
The current Illawarra timetable can be seen at
/cityrail2009oct.html.
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