Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by Fleet Lists »

Sundays every 10 minutes to 23.07 then 30 minutes at 23.37 and 00.007 which is the last train. So it is only the last hour that it has 30 minutes break.
Only appears to have been introduced since December 2020.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by tonyp »

Jurassic_Joke wrote: Mon Feb 15, 2021 12:34 pm Caught the Metro last night and it was only running one service every 30 minutes (app says that’s normal), which is an insult to the whole turn up and go thing. Like that’s actually worse than the Sydney Trains service it partially replaced.

Cost cutting victim of Covid19 or not, I don’t know, all I do know is I distinctly remember before Covid, it was always every 10 minutes at the very minimum at all times even on Sunday night. It was convenient as it got.

Not really impressed, empty train or not, it feels like a big step back on the original promise of high frequency at all times that we did have in 2019
The timetable shows 10 minutes off-peak throughout. Randomly checking departures for tonight, the very last train of the night each direction follows the previous by 30 minutes. Prior to that it's 10 minutes.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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Jurassic_Joke wrote: Mon Feb 15, 2021 12:34 pm Caught the Metro last night and it was only running one service every 30 minutes (app says that’s normal), which is an insult to the whole turn up and go thing. Like that’s actually worse than the Sydney Trains service it partially replaced.

Cost cutting victim of Covid19 or not, I don’t know, all I do know is I distinctly remember before Covid, it was always every 10 minutes at the very minimum at all times even on Sunday night. It was convenient as it got.

Not really impressed, empty train or not, it feels like a big step back on the original promise of high frequency at all times that we did have in 2019
This change occurred on 1 June 2020. Not cost cutting but rather, the resources redistributed to extend the 4 min peak frequency on weekdays.

Seems a silly way of doing it though and takes away from the attraction of the metro service. Can't really justify not needing a timetable for the service if there is a 30 min gap at any point in its hours of operation. Also seems strange as surely the labour cost component of metro is quite different (lower) to every other mode. Does it really cost that much to provide a few extra services? Also, seems a bit strange that the peak frequency is 4 mins but as soon as that period ends, it drops straight back to 10 mins. I would have thought the patronage drop would be more gradual and to avoid having the last 4 min frequency service lightly loaded and the first 10 min frequency service heavily loaded, that there'd be a more gradual transition in frequency.

https://transportnsw.info/news/2020/mor ... dney-metro
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by Jurassic_Joke »

Fleet Lists wrote: Mon Feb 15, 2021 1:40 pm Sundays every 10 minutes to 23.07 then 30 minutes at 23.37 and 00.007 which is the last train. So it is only the last hour that it has 30 minutes break.
Only appears to have been introduced since December 2020.
Yup i travelled between 23:00 and 00:00 last night.

Merely changed from the train at Epping, and as I’ve always done up till now, just head down the escalator and (assuming no incidents), your train should be there within 10 mins. No need to check beforehand on the app.

Instead, the indicator said next train is 16 minutes, and even more worryingly, it didn’t show the next service after that. Open NextThere and voila, the service is running in a 30 minute frequency which was a real eye opener. I really wouldn’t like to be caught on the wrong side of that 30 minutes.

Theres also been another cutback sometime in the last year where I distinctly do remember the Metro would actually run until just after 1am in the morning (and yes still at that lovely 10 minute frequency), even on weekdays, but thats now been cut back to around 12am..
Mr OC Benz wrote: Mon Feb 15, 2021 1:51 pm
Jurassic_Joke wrote: Mon Feb 15, 2021 12:34 pm Caught the Metro last night and it was only running one service every 30 minutes (app says that’s normal), which is an insult to the whole turn up and go thing. Like that’s actually worse than the Sydney Trains service it partially replaced.

Cost cutting victim of Covid19 or not, I don’t know, all I do know is I distinctly remember before Covid, it was always every 10 minutes at the very minimum at all times even on Sunday night. It was convenient as it got.

Not really impressed, empty train or not, it feels like a big step back on the original promise of high frequency at all times that we did have in 2019
This change occurred on 1 June 2020. Not cost cutting but rather, the resources redistributed to extend the 4 min peak frequency on weekdays.

Seems a silly way of doing it though and takes away from the attraction of the metro service. Can't really justify not needing a timetable for the service if there is a 30 min gap at any point in its hours of operation. Also seems strange as surely the labour cost component of metro is quite different (lower) to every other mode. Does it really cost that much to provide a few extra services? Also, seems a bit strange that the peak frequency is 4 mins but as soon as that period ends, it drops straight back to 10 mins. I would have thought the patronage drop would be more gradual and to avoid having the last 4 min frequency service lightly loaded and the first 10 min frequency service heavily loaded, that there'd be a more gradual transition in frequency.

https://transportnsw.info/news/2020/mor ... dney-metro
Exactly, its not like theres any drivers or guards to pay Sunday rates on the Metro? To be running a 30 minute service at any time on this thing, I personally condemn. It goes against the whole high frequent thing that was marketed everywhere
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by Swift »

Some world city. Looks like our true insular thinking is never far away.
Another case of major fanfare and hype at the start being wound back bit by bit to the point where the service starts resembling the regular network without drivers and two decks.
You can't trust our state administrations these days.
They do not think of the interests of the people at all.
Only what subterfuge they can can away with.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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Jurassic_Joke wrote: Mon Feb 15, 2021 2:39 pmTheres also been another cutback sometime in the last year where I distinctly do remember the Metro would actually run until just after 1am in the morning (and yes still at that lovely 10 minute frequency), even on weekdays, but thats now been cut back to around 12am..
It still runs until very late on Friday & Saturday nights, with the last train scheduled at 1:47am ex Chatswood (with a 10 minute frequency until last service!), but on Sunday to Thursday nights the last service is at 12:07am, which based on the time you'd need to leave the CBD at, gives it an earlier finishing time than any line on the conventional suburban network.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by Swift »

BroadGauge wrote: Mon Feb 15, 2021 4:09 pm
It still runs until very late on Friday & Saturday nights, with the last train scheduled at 1:47am ex Chatswood (with a 10 minute frequency until last service!), but on Sunday to Thursday nights the last service is at 12:07am, which based on the time you'd need to leave the CBD at, gives it an earlier finishing time than any line on the conventional suburban network.
Not characteristic of a world city. Even the 80s offered 24/7 trains. We have been slipping backwards for years with such conservative policies.
Sydney still has a long way to go before being in the ranks of Paris, London, LA, New York, Tokyo or even Singapore.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by Glen »

In fairness it was a pretty mixed frequency of late night trains as I remember it, before NightRide brought in hourly services 7 nights per week.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by tonyp »

Transport Info is now showing an updated timetable (24/12/2020) that shows the greatly extended 4 minute frequencies in peaks and the balancing cutbacks to half-hourly late night Monday to Thursday and Sundays and Public holidays.

https://transportnsw.info/documents/tim ... 201221.pdf

There's two inward and one outward services at a half-hourly gap weekdays and three inward and two outward on Sunday/holidays. I presume this happens because of an inflexible contract that the operator must supply a fixed number of services, therefore if they're increased some part of the day they have to be taken away from another part of the day.

I checked the community Facebrook group and nobody seems to have even noticed it. Certainly no outbreak of whinging that one might expect in these situations. It reinforces my view of the 'burbs that everybody is in bed by 9 pm. :lol:
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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Preserving fire service history
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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Details of next Bankstown Line closure June/July 2021
https://www.mysydney.nsw.gov.au/SydenhamtoBankstown with details of extra bus stop reservations at various stations including some on the East Hills line
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 June

Buses replace all metro services between Tallawong and Chatswood.
Buses also replace T1 North Shore Line trains between Hornsby, Chatswood and Wynyard.
If you are travelling to or from the City please change at Epping, not Chatswood, for direct T9 Northern Line trains to Central.
Plan your trip before you travel for up-to-date information.

Bus routes
11M: Tallawong, then all stations to Chatswood and return
12M: Tallawong, then all stations to Epping, then North Ryde, Chatswood and return
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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Alert today
Buses are replacing Metro services between Macquarie Park and Chatswood in both directions due to urgent infrastructure repairs at North Ryde. Anyone travelling from the city can catch a T9 Northern Line train to Epping and change for a Metro service between Macquarie Park and Tallawong. Anyone travelling to the city can change at Epping for a T9 Northern Line train to complete their trip. Allow extra travel time, listen to announcements and check information displays for service updates.
Also reported on Channel 10 news where it was reported that services are expected to return to normal by tomorrow.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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How embarrassing, from a regular and predictable one train every 15min to one which can either be one every 2-3min during peak or 30min near midnight or 0 at all.

Successfully running 80% of trains on time because most of them ran from Monday to Sunday but then not the following Monday may fulfil KPIs but may ruin joe blow's career or life trajectory because of missed interview/opportunity
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by tonyp »

Or - waiting on a train that only comes every 15 minutes but won't come at all for the next eight hours because a blown fuse on another unrelated line has frozen half the system, with the replacement buses at least an hour off, resulting in career termination.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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According to the alert the problem is at North Ryde which is on the Metro and there are no alerts for other lines so the problem was NOT on an unrelated line. Unless you have information to the contrary, please stick to the facts as reported.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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I think you might have missed Tony's point, which I interpreted as a sly dig at the complex and thus relatively unresilient Sydney Trains network, not the metro... :wink:
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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I wonder if there is a provision in the current operating contract where regular services may have retrofitted human drivers during certain required periods.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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In Transit wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 9:36 pm I think you might have missed Tony's point, which I interpreted as a sly dig at the complex and thus relatively unresilient Sydney Trains network, not the metro... :wink:
You interpreted right. I was replying to boxythingy.

I read somewhere else that the reason for the halt on the metro at North Ryde is that a bit of the tunnel ceiling fell off. After that business when the tunnel flooded, I'm starting to suspect that the Labor government must have employed Dodgy Bros. as the contractor to construct the line. It must have seemed a great idea at the time to save on cost of the metro by recycling the tunnel, ignoring the old retail adage that there's no such thing as a bargain!

What makes me nervous is that our family burial plot is right above the tunnel :shock:

To add to the irony, my late father-in-law, who was a designer of one of the major European metros, is buried there and we thought it was very appropriate for him to be buried over a railway tunnel (but hopefully not in it). Even worse, that's where I'm due to go too.... :roll:
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by Swift »

The Libs should have known better than to use Labor built infrastructure (their only one) as part of their pet project.
When former premier Nathan Rees was quizzed about the drainage problems going on in the then new tunnels in the Chatswood Epping rail link, his amateurish response was would you rather we didn't build it? Another way of saying thank your lucky stars you got anything from us Jack!
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by Linto63 »

tonyp wrote: I'm starting to suspect that the Labor government must have employed Dodgy Bros. as the contractor to construct the line.
Actually the contractor hired by Labor to build with the Chatswood - Epping line is the same one that the Liberals contracted to build the Epping - Tallawong line and Chatswood - Bankstown line.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by Nugget »

Of greater concern that it has taken a whole day to fix a panel in a tunnel. It's just embarrassing for a new piece of infrastructure.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

Post by moa999 »

boxythingy wrote:I wonder if there is a provision in the current operating contract where regular services may have retrofitted human drivers during certain required periods.
All the metro trains have manual controls hidden away.

But just because they've got a human driver doesn't mean they can go into a dangerous tunnel.

Seems to be back to normal this morning.. even if the last tweet from Sydney Metro is from last night.

Any detail on what the problem was?

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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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And would they have enough drivers sitting around at all times to cover all trains? That would seem to negate the whole idea of driverless trains.
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Re: Sydney Metro - Tallawong to Bankstown

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Don't they have customer service attendants (driving qualified) type roles floating around the network?
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