Newcastle Transport

Sydney / New South Wales Transport Discussion
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boronia
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by boronia »

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mandonov
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by mandonov »

I'm in town today and note that the light rail is now operating every 7 or 8 minutes. It seems with the arrival of the last tram that the full service is now running.
Linto63
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by Linto63 »

I thought the agreement was to keep the political discussions in this thread http://www.busaustralia.com/forum/viewt ... =3&t=86248 rather than running it through every one that has a degree of government involvement? :roll:

Admin: And that is whee it has gone.
moa999
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by moa999 »

Reposting the main content of my moved post:

Seems to be 8tph from 6.50am thru 7pm from Newcastle Interchange, and 4tph other times based on Tripview.
mandonov
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by mandonov »

The NLR timetable valid from March 25 is up: https://www.newcastletransport.info/upl ... 190325.pdf

I must've coincidentally been in town the day more frequent services began.

M-F - every 15 mins in the early mornings and evenings and every 7.5 mins during the day.
Sat - every 30 mins prior to 7am and for the last service, every 15 mins during the rest of the day.
S/PH - every 30 mins prior to 7am and after 7pm, every 15 during the rest of the day.
Yerolo
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by Yerolo »

One of the trams has been plastered in advertising for Newcastle Permanent....I guess it was inevitable :roll:
tonyp
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by tonyp »

Yerolo wrote:One of the trams has been plastered in advertising for Newcastle Permanent....I guess it was inevitable :roll:
Lunchbox will be "pleased" to hear that.
LB608
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by LB608 »

everybody knew that was happening, the government said there would NO advertising on trams until after the election
Yerolo
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by Yerolo »

LB608 wrote:everybody knew that was happening, the government said there would NO advertising on trams until after the election
Everybody except me it would seem :lol:
neilrex
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by neilrex »

mandonov wrote:The NLR timetable valid from March 25 is up: https://www.newcastletransport.info/upl ... 190325.pdf

I must've coincidentally been in town the day more frequent services began.

M-F - every 15 mins in the early mornings and evenings and every 7.5 mins during the day.
Sat - every 30 mins prior to 7am and for the last service, every 15 mins during the rest of the day.
S/PH - every 30 mins prior to 7am and after 7pm, every 15 during the rest of the day.
Hardly "turn up and go" , is it. And probably totally uncoordinated with the trains.
neilrex
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by neilrex »

Trains from Newcastle on Sundays:

train departs: tram scheduled to arrive:
6:53 6:42
7:43 7:27
8:53 8:42
9:43 9:27
10:53 10:42
11:43 11:27
12:53 12;:42
13:43 13:27
14:53 14:42
15:43 15:27
16:56 16:42
17:55 17 ;42
18:53 18:42
19:29 19:12
20:29 19:57
21:56 21:27

That's a pretty poor service. To many of those trams force passengers to catch a tram scheduled
to arrive at Wickham 16 minutes before the train departs. In the evening, it forces you to catch
a tram 29 minutes before the train departs !

That is rubbish, right there.

Too many trams arrive at the station 1 minute before trains depart. Which is not real good when
there is a gap of 70 minutes or longer to the next train !

You used to be able to walk out of a bar or restaurant 2 minutes or whatever walk from the station, and
know that the train will depart ( at worst ) one minute early. Now, if you want to walk out of a bar
nears queens wharf tramstop, you'll need to leave an hour before the train departs !

What imbecile scheduled the tram to arrive at Wickham at 9:57 PM when the last train to Sydney departs at 9:56 PM ???

Sheer incompetence.
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boronia
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by boronia »

The tram timetables are based on having constant frequencies, they shouldn't be manipulated just to suit train arrivals/departures.

I"m sure bus services that connect with trains aren't aligned either. You just have to plan your trip to get there before departure.
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moa999
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by moa999 »

On a Sunday... Yes they could have done a better job.
But probably requires the rail to actually depart at a regular time every hour versus the current haphazard timetable.


But compare rail to light rail.

Previously 1 service every hour.
3 stops Newcastle to Wickham

Now. 4 services every hour
5 stops Newcastle Beach to Interchange.
neilrex
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by neilrex »

The trains from Newcastle have a regular 50 minute / 70 minute frequency on weekends. That's because the ones departing at 53 minutes past the hour have a 10 minutes faster trip to Hornsby than the ones departing 43 minutes past the hour ( most of the day ). Because half of them skip about 9 stations.

The central coast trains are all pretty much locked into 30 minute intervals at Hornsby station. This forces odd timing pretty much everywhere else.
neilrex
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by neilrex »

moa999 wrote:On a Sunday... Yes they could have done a better job.
But probably requires the rail to actually depart at a regular time every hour versus the current haphazard timetable.


But compare rail to light rail.

Previously 1 service every hour.
3 stops Newcastle to Wickham

Now. 4 services every hour
5 stops Newcastle Beach to Interchange.
This is a fairly bogus comparison. For anybody intending to catch a train, only one of those trams per hour will connect with a train. And it won't even be every fourth tram. And for most of the train in a day at the weekend, you'll have to wait 16 minutes or more for the train departure.

And for the few trains where the interchange time is a more reasonable 9 minutes, well they are the slowest trains which take 10 minutes longer to run, so you are not doing to well there, either.

Even if you are locked into a 15 minute tram frequency, there is no reason why you can't shift the entire tram timetable to 6 6 minutes earlier, so that there is a tram getting to the station 5 minutes before the majority of train departures.
Glen
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by Glen »

neilrex wrote:Even if you are locked into a 15 minute tram frequency, there is no reason why you can't shift the entire tram timetable to 6 6 minutes earlier, so that there is a tram getting to the station 5 minutes before the majority of train departures.
That seems to make sense, so long as it works the other way too. The trams only layover 3 minutes at each end, so how ever much you move the pattern one way, you have to also move it the other.

Also the Maitland trains follow a different pattern to the Sydney trains.
tonyp
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by tonyp »

neilrex wrote: What imbecile scheduled the tram to arrive at Wickham at 9:57 PM when the last train to Sydney departs at 9:56 PM ???
Probably the same person who back in the Cityrail days scheduled trains to Berowra from Hornsby to leave a few minutes earlier than a connecting north shore train, leaving a nearly half-hour wait at Hornsby.

Re Newcastle, it needs to be remembered that the tram is also (mainly really) a city circulator and needs a regular headway to perform that role. Also it is not the only route on which people would want to travel to and from the train terminus, there would also be a number of bus routes and possibly they have the same issue.
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boronia
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by boronia »

moa999 wrote:On a Sunday... Yes they could have done a better job.
But probably requires the rail to actually depart at a regular time every hour versus the current haphazard timetable.


But compare rail to light rail.

Previously 1 service every hour.
3 stops Newcastle to Wickham

Now. 4 services every hour
5 stops Newcastle Beach to Interchange.
There would have been more than one service per hour (Sydney fast, Sydney slow, Hunter).

But I doubt many people would have used the train to travel Newcastle - Wickham
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neilrex
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by neilrex »

On the weekend, there is only one train an hour to Sydney. the faster and slower services alternate on a roughly 2 hour cycle. On the weekend, or even on weekdays, there is not a faster and slower service to Sydney, except in peak hour.

I will check the hunter trains later.
But I doubt many people would have used the train to travel Newcastle - Wickham
Not sure what you mean here. The people who are screwed by this poor interchange are not the people whose destination is Wickham. any tram will take people to Wickham. And then they won't have to wait a long time when they get there, they can just walk straight into their house. Or they can walk, ride a bike, catch a bus.

It's people who want to catch the train, and that includes people going to Cardiff or Fassifern or whatever, not just people who want to go to Sydney.
neilrex
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by neilrex »

And I would not describe any service, anywhere, which only runs every 15 minutes as "a city circulator".
tonyp
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by tonyp »

neilrex wrote:And I would not describe any service, anywhere, which only runs every 15 minutes as "a city circulator".
It's pretty typical of circulator services for less busy times. Isn't it every 7.5 minutes for most of the day during the week? The Gong Shuttle is every 10 minutes and drops back to 20 in the evening and weekends. I'm sure that those miss a few trains too, if you don't plan ahead, which is the key to it. Newcastle station used to serve a major business and retail CBD that doesn't exist any more. That's the difference.
neilrex
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by neilrex »

If you plan ahead.....

Not sure what that will do. If you "plan ahead", you'll discover that it will now take you 80 minutes to get from Queens Wharf to Cardiff or 95 minutes to get from Queens Wharf to Fassifern.

The only logical outcome from that plan, is to get a car.

If two people leave Queens Wharf at the same time, the person with the car gets to Cowan at about the same time that then person using the tram gets to Hamilton.
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by Swift »

neilrex wrote:If you plan ahead.....

Not sure what that will do. If you "plan ahead", you'll discover that it will now take you 80 minutes to get from Queens Wharf to Cardiff or 95 minutes to get from Queens Wharf to Fassifern.

The only logical outcome from that plan, is to get a car.

If two people leave Queens Wharf at the same time, the person with the car gets to Cowan at about the same time that then person using the tram gets to Hamilton.
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by Fleet Lists »

But certainly not unique to NSW.
Living in the Shire.
tonyp
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Re: Newcastle Transport

Post by tonyp »

Are we talking about the 30 minute headways? There are hardly any of them and hardly anybody around to use them at those times. The great bulk of the service is 7.5 or 15 minute headway. Heck, if my family can get to trains in time using the Gong Shuttle at 20 minute headways, what's the issue with catching trams to meet the train at 15 minute headways (let alone 7.5 minutes during the week compared to 10 minutes for the Gong Shuttle)? Are we suggesting that Novastrians are vague simpletons who can't use apps or journey planners?
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