Well they've left themselves unable to meet the demand with the limitations on capacity of that restricted Dulwich Hill terminus and not having enough fleet availability.boronia wrote:Patronage has doubled but only about 5% increase in services?
The 2018 financial year patronage will be of interest. Gold Coast looks like it's hitting the 10 million mark this year. These figures indicate the huge latent demand for these services that could not be met by bus capacity - as everybody knew back in the 1950s, but sheer political and bureaucratic bloody-mindedness took our street transport down a path to disaster anyway. However much many people like to have a go at Gladys, her determination to reinstate trams in the face of then-intense opposition was and is admirable. It's just a pity that TfNSW has let her down badly on the execution, but they're learning - at great expense. Her vision will be vindicated in the long term.
Who'd have thought that this recycled goods line meandering past back fences to nowhere in particular would end up moving many times more people than the busiest bus route in Sydney? It does demonstrate that trams have a great power to attract. There's virtually never an unsuccessful new tramway project anywhere in the world. The frustrating thing is that the bus industry could have fought back for at least some of the potential territory but has never had the will or sophistication to do so in Australia, in spite of making a lot of vocal claims about it. That's why I get really frustrated sometimes!