NEW TRAINS: A REAL IMPROVEMENT?

Goninan's at Newcastle have recently completed a mock-up of a carriage from the TANGARA train, the first of which is due to come into service next year. Several APT representatives inspected the mock-up and report that, while some aspects of design eg. external appearance are very striking, the design apparently does not consider passengers' comfort and convenience on several points, including:

• Headroom is restricted particularly going up and down stairs.
• The large windows, extending partly onto the roof, will give passengers excellent views but in Sydney's summer will mean extra strain on the air~conditioning systems. Has the SRA considered (a) the risk of air-conditioning breakdowns and (b) the extra energy consumption necessary?
• The fabric-covered seats are an improvement, for softness and angle of recline, on those fitted to the prototype air-conditioned electronically-controlled sets now coming into service. However, they will probably be unpopular for being non-reversible. Reversible seats have been a tradition in Sydney's trains and while it is true that most other systems in the world now have non-reversible seats, there is no reason why the SRA should abandon a feature which commuters like unless it is totally impractical to continue. Otherwise, l988 seats will not match the comfort of l924 ones.

• First class SLEEPING CARS to be limited to only one each in a couple of sets, and compartments to be without individual shower and toilet facilities that have been taken for granted in Australia for the past twenty years.
• No provision for ECONOMY SLEEPING ACCOMMODATION which could be a vital selling-point for rail in the increasing competition against road coach services. Alternative models are available such as the European couchette, the American open section (both of which are easily adaptable to day travel), two-berth compartments such as provided on the Indian-Pacific and Trans-Australian, or the three-berth ones provided in Queensland.

RAILWAYS 2000

Now that the Department of Main Roads and NRMA have provided and distributed a report promising (threatening?) us with a whole new network of roads by the year 2000, the SRA is getting into the act. They have asked the Commuter Council to provide "a submission indicating what services and facilities commuters would like to see provided in the year 2000". APT is preparing a submission and we would like to have the suggestions of as many as possible of our members. Send your comments to Box K606, Haymarket 2000 or direct to the State Rail Authority, G.P.O. Box 29, Sydney 200l.

GENERAL NEWS

• APT congratulates the new head of the NRMA, Mr John Lamble, on his appointment. We hope that he will act to lobby for a transport system which serves the needs of the whole community rather than ensure as a Daily Telegraph editorial demanded that "motorists come first".
• The State Rail Authority announced a record level of patronage for any year since it was formed: 224.3 million passenger-journeys in l986/7, an increase of 6 million on the previous year. (Higher volumes were carried by the NSWGR, as it then was, in the postwar decades.) This is a good result which reflects both the increasing costs and congestion of road transport within Sydney, and the efforts being made by the SRA to win passengers - a campaign which must be continued by all railway employees.
• The SKITUBE rack railway has now opened for part of its length, from Thredbo to Perisher Valley. This privately-operated railway represents one victory for sensible transport planning; it carries skiers from accommodation and car-parking below the snowline avoiding the disaster of increased road traffic in the environmentally-sensitive uplands.
• The SRA's total ban on smoking on interurban trains and long-distance road coaches, intended to be for a trial period of six months, has been ended after only three months. It is now intended that one in every four interurban carriages will be smoking, but APT doubts the SRA's ability to maintain a permanent separation given the constant remarshalling of trains. As for the trial ban on road coaches (which now applies permanently on state-run services in the rest of Australia and under`many`private operators), we are aware of many instances where no effort at all was made to enforce it in practice.

CENTRES POLICY AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT

The N.S.W. Department of Environment & Planning (DEP) has suffered a defeat at the hands of the DMR and Mr Brereton for having dared to reject the Harbour Tunnel because it is opposed to transport planning principles. The DEP's good work is continuing, however, with the Centres Policy now being circulated in draft form. This aims to concentrate office and commercial development in two regional and 16 subregional centres throughout the Sydney Region. All but one (Brookvale) are on the rail network. The benefits of concentration apparent to APT include:

• Maximising the use of railways as a link between centres.
• Less road traffic - and hence costly roadworks - than would be needed with dispersed employment and services.
• Clearly-defined centres for private bus operators to base their services on.
• Better access for people without use of a car to a full range,of shops, jobs and services.

TIMETABLE TRAPS

Availability of clear, concise, correct information is essential for any transport service to win and retain passengers: We have frequently commented on the poor state of information available to users of Sydney's public transport system. How do long-distance services compare?

• Consistency. The SRA introduced new timetables on all lines effective 3l May. We hope they will be accurate for some time, and not superseded by ill-timed service changes like the additions made to the North Coast service in l985 two weeks after the new timetable had come into effect. No effort at all is made to co-ordinate timetable changes between states.
• Availability. The new SRA timetables are freely available at present. They should remain in stock as long as the timetable is in force, rather than the SRA lose potential passengers through begrudging the printing of a few more.
• Completeness. No comprehensive timetable booklet is available at present for services. There are brochures for three separate "regions"; if you want to know how much a trip will cost, it is necessary to consult a fourth one. The brochures include brief summaries of interstate services, but other states' internal timetables are unobtainable in Sydney from either railway stations or state tourist bureaux.
• Period of Validity. There is never any indication of when a timetable will be superseded. Can you still trust that l985 one lying in a drawer?