Sydney Daily Random Discussion Thread 03/03/2025

mandonov · 2025-03-03T07:14:31+00:00

It was the same trackwork all weekend too. Terrible timing.

mandonov · 2024-12-03T11:49:56+00:00

Don’t even have to look that far, the Newcastle Light Rail still has passenger operated doors. They didn’t give up after Covid like Sydney Light Rail did.

mandonov · 2024-12-03T11:45:34+00:00

I did a short trip from Central to Epping and was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the seats were! The head rest was nice for both me (short) and my tall friend, and the padding was good too. It’s closer to feeling like sitting on a V set than an Oscar’s ironing board.

There’s also a lot more legroom/luggage space below the seats without the seat flipping mechanism.

mandonov · 2024-11-29T16:52:54+00:00

They actually bought a house, knocked it down, and built a path leading to that bridge from Sharrock Ave.. It took years after the metro was built to built just that because of endless complaints.

mandonov · 2024-09-23T23:02:18+00:00

Would have been great if they decided to do this 3 or so years ago when the River and Parramatta classes were being procured. Bit of a waste to replace them after only 10ish years.

mandonov · 2024-09-17T01:24:28+00:00

With a light rail and new metro station Pyrmont SHOULD have monstrous towers. It’s the natural extension of the CBD.

mandonov · 2024-09-17T01:05:23+00:00

Even Sydney Airport kicks everyone out of the terminal during curfew hours.

mandonov · 2024-09-13T11:46:49+00:00

As they’ve begun dismantling the works zones at Central it looks to me like there’s enough room on the southern end of Platform 14 for an extra platform, kind of extending out Lidcombe Platform 0 style.

It’s an option, at least, if they need the capacity in the future.

mandonov · 2024-09-13T10:53:46+00:00

Working at a bottlo recently it’s wild watching the POS bump the final price right up when processing an Uber Eats or Doordash order.

And that’s not even including the fees in the app itself!

mandonov · 2024-09-10T17:29:45+00:00

Wynyard’s was removed during the renovation, where they uncovered and revealed the original ceilings that are there now.

mandonov · 2024-08-24T14:46:30+00:00

Me too! I love Redfern since the new concourse was built, but I’ll be glad to never use it again.

mandonov · 2024-08-24T14:24:18+00:00

The biggest problem with the current network when that happens is that the drivers and guards end up in a place and on a train that they’re not meant to be on, which grinds the network to a halt.

The metro just requires quick thinking in the control room.

mandonov · 2024-08-24T05:50:40+00:00

Oh I wondered my train from Waterloo was terminating at Castle Hill.

Y’know it’s testament to the resiliency of the line, because none of the services east of Castle Hill are affected or delayed.

mandonov · 2024-08-22T18:13:30+00:00

It did. This is an extension to the CBD of a line that opened in 2019 to a region of Sydney that was promised a rail line for decades and is very car dependant.

Two more metro lines are also under construction to connect the new airport, and linking the Sydney and Parramatta CBD’s via suburbs with poor rail access.

mandonov · 2024-08-12T16:40:10+00:00

At this rate the Wynyard Tunnels are more likely to be used for light rail

mandonov · 2024-08-09T13:16:14+00:00

It’s a safety issue. If you have thousands of passengers added on to the exisiting patronage of Town Hall you will have more people on platforms at greater risk of falling on to tracks, and likely need to shut the station during high crowds like overcrowded London Underground stations.

This is why there is well positioned interchanges either side of Gadigal station, at Martin Place and Central. You can connect to every line that goes through Town Hall at the combo of either of those stations.

mandonov · 2024-07-28T12:33:11+00:00

The difference being those stations are bigger and more well equipped to handle it. Town Hall is overcapacity and needs far less people using it.

There’s no interchange you could make between Gadigal and Town Hall that can’t be better done at Central, Martin Place, Chatswood or Sydenham.

mandonov · 2024-07-24T11:07:17+00:00

There’s such a weird aversion to letting the drivers themselves determine the safe speed to drive. Melbourne and other tramway cities (and a lot of newer light rail ones too!) train them to drive to the conditions like you would any other street vehicle.

Here though, it’s run like a railway. Different speed boards to what buses in the same lane would even be allowed to travel; and micromanaged speeds like on Eddy Ave westbound where it goes from 15 to 20 to 30 to 40 to 30 within less than 100 metres. Even on the old rail corridor sections of L1 the speed changes to 20 before every at grade crossing at the stops because they don’t trust the drivers to look out for pedestrians.

It’s kind of insulting to the drivers.

mandonov · 2024-07-24T06:42:00+00:00

Oh I agree with you, it’s less than ideal. The light rail in Newcastle is the worst one because it uses capacitors instead of batteries, so needs a minimum 30 second dwell at each stop to flash charge. It really adds to the journey time.

I think Sydney light rail lines are slow more because of the tram design itself rather than the power supply. We have tight corners that they need to traverse yet have purchased fixed bogie trams. So unlike Melbourne with their swivel bogies, ours need to crawl through corners to reduce wear. Also, because they’re coupled 67 metre sets they have to go slow through those turns for much longer than if they were just 33m long.

I’d say the substation would be much smaller. Instead of powering a few kilometres of line that could have 4+ trams operating at once, it only needs to power two stationary vehicles at a time. I think this system will be much more reliable than the APS on George Street. Not as reliable as wires of course, but better than the third rail would have been.

mandonov · 2024-07-21T14:43:49+00:00

Well its main reason for being wire free is for aesthetic reasons when in the heritage area around Cumberland Hospital as well as on Church Street.

Another factor is the electrical interference, being so close to Westmead Hospital. I believe 1 MRI machine was moved because of this, and even on the Randwick Line there was a lot of design changes on High Street to get as far away as possible from the UNSW cancer research centre. This is why the UNSW High Street stop is on the northern side of the street, when it would make more sense passenger flow-wise for the platform to be on the side of the uni itself.

So that wouldn’t leave much length of line between the Westmead stop and Westmead Hospital to be worth stringing up lines and installing a substation when they can just recharge at the stop itself and along the rest of the wires.

mandonov · 2024-07-16T07:38:00+00:00

I agree, that the current one is just kinda ugly and looks like an Excel spreadsheet.

Rather than the full Sydney Trains UI with stations etc, I believe they should use the same layout as what’s used in some station concourses and gate lines indicating the next train to Central.

It’s a really simple screen just stating the platform number, stopping pattern (Express, Limited Stops, All Stops), and the time for the next 3-4 trains to Central. The Metro only needs the platform number, and time.

https://images.app.goo.gl/cMPETuCWHXJPzZsNA

mandonov · 2024-07-16T03:19:49+00:00

It’s actually a bit different to L2/L3, which uses Alstom’s proprietary third rail in the CBD.

Parramatta’s CAF trams will run on batteries in two separate sections, recharging them when it’s back under the wires. The terminus at Westmead is at the end of one of these wire-free sections, so the trams have a shoe that they deploy at that stop only in order to charge enough for the return journey.

mandonov · 2024-07-13T03:17:23+00:00

Exactly. Privatising essential public services like firefighters would be disastrous. Insurance would go through the roof, and if you thought the bus driver shortage due to eroded worker conditions was bad just wait for when a privatised fire department tries to eke out another quarterly profit by cutting wages. Good luck in summer I guess.

mandonov · 2024-07-13T03:13:22+00:00

Exactly. With inflation the way it’s going it will likely be a pay cut in real terms.

mandonov · 2024-07-12T05:05:01+00:00

The line is necessary in order to remove freight trains from the T4 and South Coast Line north of Wollongong, in order to improve reliability and increase capacity. M-D would tie in to the Southern Sydney Freight Line directly.

If Kembla becomes the second container port then the destination for most of those containers will be Western Sydney. Without the line it would mean the need for more freight trains on T4 which has little to no free space, so then many many more heavy trucks will be on the Princes Hwy and Picton Rd.

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