CBD & South East Light Rail

[tonyp]

How long until redbacks take up residence?

When a fleet of Citadis was delivered to Istanbul several years back, there was a problem with the bogies that took a year to resolve. Until then, the roof wells became a favourite nesting ground and toilet for the local pigeon population. No further description of the results is necessary. Never saw a red back in Randwick but about 6 billion cockroaches live there.

[hornetfig]

Currently CAF set 2118 from L1 sitting in the Randwick Depot.

[ACM]

Never saw a red back in Randwick but about 6 billion cockroaches live there.

What about the various kinds of parasite? Banker, lawyer, graffiti 'artist', etc.

[Aurora]

What’s under construction next door?

[boronia]

Student accommodation apartment blocks.

[boronia]

L2 Randwick and L3 Kingsford Lines
Last updated: 9:44am Fri 7 Jan Refresh
Incident activity

Ongoing - Until further notice

Details
Light rail services are not running between Circular Quay and Town Hall due to urgent maintenance works. Use alternative transport including trains or walking. Services continue to run between Town Hall and Randwick or Juniors Kingsford. Listen to announcements and check information displays for service updates.

https://transportnsw.info/alerts/details#/ems-1541

[ACM]

https://transportnsw.info/alerts/details#/ems-1533

From 10 January, due to COVID-related staff shortages, light rail services on the L2 and L3 lines will run according to Sunday frequency. Plan ahead and allow extra travel time as connecting services may be impacted.

[buzzkill]

It looks like the entire service will be unavailable this weekend, both L2 and L3. Pretty interesting that they need so much maintenance that the entire line has to be shut down.

https://transportnsw.info/news/2022/l2- ... nd-closure

[boronia]

I don't understand why the replacement buses can't continue down Elizabeth St to Circular Quay?

[pgt]

I don't understand why the replacement buses can't continue down Elizabeth St to Circular Quay?

For one there's already trains running parallel for the most part to the George St light rail line, and usually the replacement bus services have to serve as close as practical to the stops in question.
Elizabeth St isn't exactly close and in the case of Circular Quay, there's already a train station there.
(Not to mention other buses that already go up Elizabeth St).

[boronia]

If you take that attitude to the extreme, think of all the money and disruption they could have saved by not putting the tracks down George St.

[pgt]

What I was going to add was that having people transfer from light rail replacement bus to train etc is the sort of thinking I'd expect when it's one entity overseeing all public transport operations, rather than say light rail being its own thing (in which case yes you probably would see said light rail replacement bus traversing through the city streets trying to service every stop).

Pray tell - why would you send the light rail replacement buses down Elizabeth St (which is not exactly near the light rail it replaces)?

[Glen]

I don't understand why the replacement buses can't continue down Elizabeth St to Circular Quay?

Cost, I presume.

Also this weekend the City Outer is closed, i.e. no trains from Town Hall to Circular Quay.

[boronia]

What I was going to add was that having people transfer from light rail replacement bus to train etc is the sort of thinking I'd expect when it's one entity overseeing all public transport operations, rather than say light rail being its own thing (in which case yes you probably would see said light rail replacement bus traversing through the city streets trying to service every stop).

Pray tell - why would you send the light rail replacement buses down Elizabeth St (which is not exactly near the light rail it replaces)?

It is not a long distance from Elizabeth St to George St. You may recall that all the CQ bus services displaced by the LR operated along Elizabeth St, so it wouldn't exactly be a new experience for most travellers. The 396 was picking up heavy loads yesterday.

An alternative might have been to run the L1 buses down to Hay St where pax could transfer easily to the 343, then stop in Pitt to provide an easier walk through to Chinatown area?

But it seems passengers amenity is no longer a function of TfNSW

[tonyp]

Also, of the four north-south streets, Elizabeth St is now the only street you can run buses the full length both directions.

[boronia]

It seems that inbound L2/3 buses "terminate" in Foveaux St, then run empty around the block to the starting point in Chalmers St. They could easily take passengers all the way, again to connect conveniently with buses to CQ or Town Hall.

Today I walked from Kensington to Central along the line, to see where the "essential maintenance" was being carried out. As usual, there was little information around other than actually at the stops about the closure. I watched a number of people climb up the stairs from Anzac Pde to cross over to Moore Park (the lift was out of order again), climb down to the stop only to find no service, then have to repeat to get back. No signs to warn people before the treck, and nothing to indicate where the replacement bus stop was located. There used to be one near the stairs, but no sign of it today. Mentioning lifts, I noticed that the lift on the eastern side has a 3rd B button on the control panel; is this access to the back-up control centre?

DSC09117 (Small).jpeg (68.74 KiB) Viewed 1456 times

A large section of Moore Park West over the tunnel has been fenced off for remedial works.

DSC09119 (2) (Small).jpeg (123.2 KiB) Viewed 1456 times

There was no sign of any maintenance being carried out in this section as far at Chalmers St. At the stop there, a few people were "waiting" for trams, guess they don't read the signs, just happy to turn up and wait. No staff there to advise these people.

Pavement works in progress between Haymarket and Chinatown impinged on the tracks so this would have been the main reason for the CBD closure. On the old system this sort of thing could be have been done between passing trams, not difficult with 5 min gaps.

Coming back home about 5 pm I noticed a couple of trams near the Lang Rd crossover.

[In Transit]

Maintenance shutdowns or partial closures on the L2 and L3 seem frequent for what is essentially still a new network. What at least feels like regular full weekend shutdowns of the entire South East system (plus late night partial shutdowns) suggests perhaps not enough attention has been paid in the network design/maintenance plan/operating contract to minimising customer inconvenience from shutdowns. Shutdowns tend to be cheapest for the operator/maintainer, and it's fundamentally up to the contract to structure service requirements in a way that protects passengers. Given the various planning, construction and implementation debacles that have occurred with CSELR, it's not exactly drawing a long bow to suggest the approach to shutdowns may also be somewhat less than optimal.

Perhaps this apparent acceptance of shutdowns is influenced by Sydney's love affair with large scale rail weekend closures with massive bus replacement programs. Perhaps we are seeing here a local acceptance within the industry and TfNSW that this is just how things are, without enough consideration about how things might be done better and looking elsewhere for examples on how this is actually achieved. This is a recurring theme at TfNSW.

What is also interesting is the closure of Juniors Interchange to regular bus routes for the whole weekend. At least for southbound buses on Anzac Pde there is a remaining bus stop adjacent to the interchange on the street which can be used instead, but northbound buses are showing on apps as having no replacement stop for the interchange - making the closest stop for the 390X for example over two blocks north from the interchange. This in particular makes a mockery of Kingsford's broader interchange status - the already unfortunate walk to other routes such as the 343 and 358 from Juniors Interchange has become even longer. Even an all stops service like the 396 has a 900 metre gap between stops for the weekend (northbound) - at what is an important location on the network. Meanwhile transfers such as from routes such as the 390X and 396 to each other and to local routes is removed from an interchange environment to out on the street.

I hope that the closure of the Interchange actually reflects a substantial amount of work being undertaken throughout the whole weekend at Kingsford itself, and isn't just a lazy outcome of a possession being taken out on the whole line and thus automatically closing the interchange to buses too. Short of actually digging up the interchange, it seems surprising that regular buses can't access the interchange even if appropriate traffic control was required - and even so, is that going to take the whole weekend? CSELR already managed to make a hash of interchange design (and a lack thereof) and much of the interaction between buses and trams (and between buses and buses!). Seems we are seeing this again in service delivery - either from poor management, poor design or a bit of both. Does anyone understand that interchange facilities are not just for trams, but in a bus system recently redesigned as a connected network that they are important for buses too? Even more bizarrely - there were light rail replacement buses using the interchange (southbound at least). Did someone decide the interchange needed to be kept reserved for light rail buses only? Hopefully not... although there is definitely a different mindset on how heavy and light rail passengers should be treated during disruptions compared to regular bus passengers.

It's also peculiar seeing light rail fares advertised as charged on the replacement buses. There's never really been a good justification for having light rail fares separate to buses (and thus adding cost to some bus-light rail journeys), but as flimsy as the case for this was, it seems to completely disappear when operating replacement buses. It also adds to ticket costs when passengers use a combination of the LR replacement buses and regular buses to fill gaps in the replacement buses - eg accessing Circular Quay or Surry Hills. All part of the lack of commitment - or at least lack of practical understanding - for a genuinely integrated multimodal network, let alone to providing decent alternative options to passengers using the existing network when you've shut down the light rail again.

Finally, yet again we see the lack of integration in customer information and service delivery. The light rail disruption notice mentions replacement buses, but makes no mention of availability of the frequent alternatives using buses in the regular network. You'd also think that if you remove the highest capacity mode in part of the network, that the first response would be identify whether and how to strengthen capacity on the existing network - especially when that existing network has been recently simplified which would make that task easier -and to advertise those options clearly. It's almost as if TfNSW has no commitment or understanding that it is operating an integrated, multimodal public transport network - plenty of talk, precious little follow through. There is the usual reference to using TfNSW's Trip Planner - however that has its own significant limitations in planning connected journeys that involve more than one trip - whether bus to bus, bus to light rail etc.

All of these things are just basic, fundament building blocks in delivering decent public transport. They aren't "best in the world", they aren't "innovative", they aren't brimming with exciting new tech or today's shiny new concept that grabs attention disproportional to it's actual benefit... they are just ways of getting on with the job and should be the bare minimum. It shouldn't be asking for too much. Sadly the issues I've discussed above can be seen time and time again - this isn't an isolated example. Unfortunately it seems the basic delivery aspect of public transport isn't exciting enough - and too tediously reliant on expertise, accountability and commitment - to get the attention it deserves in Sydney.

[Linto63]

Sheeze! But otherwise you are happy with the service?

[gilberations]

Might I suggest that it is easier to close the line to allow for a lot of little projects to be done, otherwise you might have to have sections of Tram - Bus - Tram - Bus, which is far more inconvenient.
From what I understand, almost all of the crossovers need work done. As well as a lot of very little things.

I do agree about the interchange, there’s no reason it needed to be closed to regular buses.

[boronia]

That would be fine, but there was no evidence of lots of little projects being done, in fact of any jobs being done, on Sunday.

[gilberations]

Given the nature of the lines operation, it’s possible that the work could be getting done in the control Centre.

[boronia]

They have a "back up" control centre which could have been activated if there was physical work required in the main centre.

[gilberations]

They have a "back up" control centre which could have been activated if there was physical work required in the main centre.

Software updates are a thing too. It’s just like the heavy rail. Just because you can’t see the work being done, doesn’t mean it isn’t

[In Transit]

This is true, but just because it's being done this way (with so many full, weekend long shutdowns for example) doesn't mean that's the only way to do it either. Again this goes back to the design, the maintenance plan, the operations plan, the contract, and the approach of the operator and the contracting authority (ie TfNSW).

Anyone who has worked in different areas of the industry can come up with plenty of reasons - and excuses - why things are done the way they are. That doesn't mean its the best way, or even just a good way - and in particular when doing it a better way is hardly innovative or requiring some massive leap, given there's usually plenty of examples to be found elsewhere on how it can be done.

Apologists who just accept how things are in Sydney, and have a view purely from the operator side rather than considering the customer and without considering how to improve, are a big part of the reason why we often don't see the improvements that we could easily see.

[Linto63]

Appears to be one of those cases with people assuming the worst, but not really being aware of the facts and thus making assumptions that may not be correct.

Presuming the light rail operates along the same lines as railway closures, there will be a set number of weekends in a year in which full or partial closures are booked which will be locked in many months in advance. This may be scheduled around a major project, or just be to allow for the backlog of minor jobs that have built up to be attended to. For example the Short North from Central to Newcastle is always booked out on the June long weekend.

Not all of those jobs will require the full shutdown window, hence why by the Sunday evening there may appear to be little activity., although there was activity on George Street when I passed through at 7pm on Sunday. While trackwork and how it is conducted will always be an inconvenience, TfNSW do appear to have made an effort in recent years to keep the trains rolling through a combination of reducing services and closing lines in only one direction rather than just resorting to bustitution.