Transtopic wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:55 pm I can remember the days when there was a direct bus service from Glenorie to Eastwood via Pennant Hills Rd. Eastwood is now completely cut off from the North West by bus.
I would imagine that those passengers who board 515 closer to Ryde, including those students at TAFE on Blaxland Rd, would be miffed that they will now have to change to continue their journey along Victoria Rd towards the city and vice versa.
I have never understood why 286/297 never continued to Eastwood Station along Lovell Rd, instead of terminating at Denistone East.
Something to do with Hunters Hill Bus Service later Northern Western Bus Lines objecting to any continuation to Eastwood because it would encroach on their territory.
I remember seeing a Glenorie Euro Bedford layed up on the western side bus terminus just across from the taxi rank of an afternoon. I thought that was for a school service. Always intrigued me. I used to be intrigued at the hubodometer on the right hand rear wheel always in miles instead of kilometers. They did this on their buses into the 1990s for some mysterious reason.
I can remember Hornsby Bus Group with their service to Pennant Hills via Epping on the eastern side. My mother and I once used it to visit my grandma as it stopped right near her home on Essex St near Brucedale Ave. We were the only ones on it and even as a 10 year old I couldn't help feel it wasn't a very profitable run for them. It felt like we were the only passengers the driver had seen for the day. I remember it was a CCMC Bedford VAM with Allison automatic fitted. I always found the Bedfords felt much more civilised with an Ally auto fitted.
Speaking of Route 525: when the route is shortened to operate out of Strathfield only, it seems the weekend DFO services will also disappear.
Currently on weekends they operate in the peak direction for around 3 hours each, at 30 minute intervals. It amounts to around 8 trips per direction per day on the weekend/public holidays.
On the other hand, 526 sees additional services at 20 minute intervals, with around 23-25 services per direction per weekend/public holiday. Hope this is a permanent fixture - COVID or otherwise.
Unfortunately the 525 weekday timetable is still running the service as it was 10 years ago. Patronage has way outstripped the very poor frequencies.
As someone who used to live in Wentworth Point, let me tell you, Starthfield - Olympic Park DFO short workers are vital! Apart from the obvious capacity benefits, it also dramatically improved the on time running of the full legs.
Hopefully tomorrow (weekday) the updated route 458 will be available. The interactive map does not display the route 458 from 24 Jan onwards, this should be rectified tomorrow. The new timetables for Night Ride routes N80 & N81 should be updated soon to reflect STA as the operator.
Stu wrote: ↑Sun Jan 17, 2021 8:11 pm
Hopefully tomorrow (weekday) the updated route 458 will be available. The interactive map does not display the route 458 from 24 Jan onwards, this should be rectified tomorrow. The new timetables for Night Ride routes N80 & N81 should be updated soon to reflect STA as the operator.
Hopefully the same applies with Route 333 and its updated timetable to absorb all 333N trips, as well as the additional short workings from Bondi Junction to Martin Place during the peaks.
ftr10 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 12:24 am
Petition created by the Ryde mayor.
Let's see if this puts any pressure in reversing the changes to the 515, 518 & M52.
Given a number of glaring errors and the usual partisan hyperbole at the description of the petition, the mayor might like to better acquaint himself with both the current and new networks before rushing to score cheap political points....
marcnut1996 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 10:00 am
From the petition page,
525 will no longer come to Macquarie University and only service Parramatta to Strathfield
????????? Since when did 525 go to Macquarie Uni?
Getting it confused with the 545.
I genuinely wonder what the Opal data says for Routes 515 and 518 regarding patronage into town and how many people on the outer ends of the route past Top Ryde City, use it most of the way into town.
I can understand most people who use the 515 and 518 on the inner parts of it would take it all the way into town.
Back in 2014, I used to live along Blaxland Road, Denistone East during my high school days, and I understand that no one in my family takes the 515 to the city. Instead, taking the train from Eastwood or Denistone was much faster, even though it is not as direct as the 515.
I believe with the curtailment of 515, it will make it a lot more reliable in terms of punctuality. It will still be a problem at Eastwood (western side of the railway). I think terminating the 515 east of the station will improve things further.
marcnut1996 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 10:00 am
From the petition page,
????????? Since when did 525 go to Macquarie Uni?
Getting it confused with the 545.
I genuinely wonder what the Opal data says for Routes 515 and 518 regarding patronage into town and how many people on the outer ends of the route past Top Ryde City, use it most of the way into town.
I can understand most people who use the 515 and 518 on the inner parts of it would take it all the way into town.
Wouldn't be 545 as that will continue to service Macquarie Uni as well as Macquarie Centre. Most likely they're referring to 507 as that will be truncated for that part of the route from Macquarie Uni to Top Ryde and replaced with a new route 517 from Macquarie Centre to Top Ryde. It's much the same as the truncation of 515 and 518, although the extension of 518 from Top Ryde to Meadowbank Wharf may somewhat alleviate this.
With regard to 515 and 518, I too wonder what the Opal data shows for patronage continuing past Top Ryde towards the City from the respective inner and outer ends of their routes. From my casual observation, there seems to be a reasonable amount of patronage on 515 to and from the TAFE campus on Blaxland Rd for those coming from east of Ryde and also to and from Ryde Hospital. I also suspect that there are those, such as school kids (Marist College) who travel to and from Eastwood from east of Ryde. As a former student, that was not uncommon.
I wouldn't put it past them to ignore the Opal data because it doesn't align with their privatisation agenda.
ftr10 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 12:24 am
Petition created by the Ryde mayor.
Let's see if this puts any pressure in reversing the changes to the 515, 518 & M52.
Given a number of glaring errors and the usual partisan hyperbole at the description of the petition, the mayor might like to better acquaint himself with both the current and new networks before rushing to score cheap political points....
Canada Bay Clowncil did the same when the 25/10/2020 new network was rolled out - whinged and whinged, but it eventually fizzed out.
Transtopic wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:56 pm
I wouldn't put it past them to ignore the Opal data because it doesn't align with their privatisation agenda.
I wouldn’t put it past some people to attack service changes - for which privatisation is actually irrelevant - purely on the basis of their anti-privatisation agenda, and not on the merits or otherwise of the service changes.
Transtopic wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:56 pm
I wouldn't put it past them to ignore the Opal data because it doesn't align with their privatisation agenda.
I wouldn’t put it past some people to attack service changes - for which privatisation is actually irrelevant - purely on the basis of their anti-privatisation agenda, and not on the merits or otherwise of the service changes.
That remains to be seen. If you think that packaging regions to suit private operators at the expense of inconveniencing the travelling public by having to interchange to complete their journeys, and that equally applies to cross regional links, then you have a warped sense of fairness. Economic rationalism should not be prioritised over providing an adequate public service. There is a cost, but that's what governments should be prepared to commit to.
swtt wrote: ↑Sat Jan 16, 2021 10:47 pm
Speaking of Route 525: when the route is shortened to operate out of Strathfield only, it seems the weekend DFO services will also disappear.
Currently on weekends they operate in the peak direction for around 3 hours each, at 30 minute intervals. It amounts to around 8 trips per direction per day on the weekend/public holidays.
On the other hand, 526 sees additional services at 20 minute intervals, with around 23-25 services per direction per weekend/public holiday. Hope this is a permanent fixture - COVID or otherwise.
Unfortunately the 525 weekday timetable is still running the service as it was 10 years ago. Patronage has way outstripped the very poor frequencies.
Those are COVID extra runs, which are not shown in the new timetables, which are for normal situations. Wouldn't surprise me if the new timetables are updated to include those COVID extra runs at a later stage
I wouldn’t put it past some people to attack service changes - for which privatisation is actually irrelevant - purely on the basis of their anti-privatisation agenda, and not on the merits or otherwise of the service changes.
That remains to be seen. If you think that packaging regions to suit private operators at the expense of inconveniencing the travelling public by having to interchange to complete their journeys, and that equally applies to cross regional links, then you have a warped sense of fairness. Economic rationalism should not be prioritised over providing an adequate public service. There is a cost, but that's what governments should be prepared to commit to.
Your premise is that these service changes are to suit private operators. On what basis do you say that? "Packaging regions to suit private operators..."? I'm not even sure what that's supposed to mean. Sydney's private operators are paid more if more services are operated - they are not incentivised to reduce services or improve the efficiency of the network design, as it generally reduces their revenue and profit.
You'll also find that professional public transport planners across the world embrace frequent, direct and legible services, including the use of interchange to achieve that effectively and efficiently. That isn't a political agenda - its a planning one.
Could it be that operators are complaining to TfNSW that they can't meet punctuality targets with long routes, and advocate for shorter routes (requiring more passenger interchange) to allow private operators more chance of meeting their punctuality numbers? I don't have any evidence this is in fact why we've seen the removal of so many longer routes recently, but I am just trying to explain the possible argument here.
In Transit wrote: ↑Your premise is that these service changes are to suit private operators. On what basis do you say that?
Probably not to suit private operators per se, but a lot of the recent changes appear to have been made more for operational convenience rather than that of passengers, e.g. chopping many of the services that cross regions, e.g. M10, M50, 340, 343, 430.
Note the new timetable for route 458 is https://transportnsw.info/documents/tim ... 210124.pdf and showing the operator as Transit Systems, still contains the 16 prefix for STA region 7. There is a problem in the system that they can not have two timetables for the same route with different prefixes. I believe a further new timetable will be issued next Monday with the correct Transit Systems Region 6 prefix of 79 after the old region 7 route 458 timetable has been removed.
boxythingy wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 3:43 pm
The new 500X seems to offer very competitive travel times to the rail equivalent, and at better frequencies. Is West Ryde a really busy suburb?
West Ryde seems to be much less busy than Eastwood or Epping. However, it has ample layover capacity.
boxythingy wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 3:43 pm
The new 500X seems to offer very competitive travel times to the rail equivalent, and at better frequencies. Is West Ryde a really busy suburb?
West Ryde seems to be much less busy than Eastwood or Epping. However, it has ample layover capacity.
But it's using the eastern side of the station, which I'm not sure whether it has ample layover capacity or not.
At every 10 min during the off peak and 5 min during the peaks, they may as well run this service as an infinite loop service (difference being, recently introduced shorter frequent routes such as 100 and the soon to be 120 has an outer terminus with a fair bit of room)
A big difference regarding the new route 120 (Chatswood-QVB via Freeway) that replaces the 340, is that it actually runs all day to midnight, unlike 340 (old M40), which stops running at around 8pm. A very worthwhile trade off if you ask me, the City-Bondi corridor meanwhile has more than enough options
