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Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:10 pm
by boronia
The RTBU and several other unions agreed not to undertake any industrial action during the coming arbitration period, or while members are voting on the new enterprise agreement, meaning at least two months of guaranteed industrial peace.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 5:48 pm
by boronia
Freight train derailment at Linden this morning.

Buses operating between Lithgow and Springwood.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 9:05 pm
by hugh45
There was a power failure affecting the Eastern Suburbs line about midday today. Train services on the Illawarra line were rerouted via the city circle and departed from platform 22 at Central.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 9:41 pm
by Swift
hugh45 wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 9:05 pm There was a power failure affecting the Eastern Suburbs line about midday today. Train services on the Illawarra line were rerouted via the city circle and departed from platform 22 at Central.
Like the olden days (up to 1980). Does this happen much?

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 10:17 pm
by Aurora
Only last minute diversions and sometimes due to trackwork.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2022 5:21 pm
by jpp42
hugh45 wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 9:05 pm There was a power failure affecting the Eastern Suburbs line about midday today. Train services on the Illawarra line were rerouted via the city circle and departed from platform 22 at Central.
Did they do something else to free up capacity, like terminating Airport line services at Central? (What does that do to T2 services when it happens?) Cancelling Hurstville starters and switching others to all-stops? Hard to see how the City Circle can handle all Eastern Suburbs trains...

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2022 6:47 pm
by Glen
Terminating Up Airport line trains at Central is a P.I.T.A. because the crossover is so far south inside the tunnel, so they have to run wrong road for quite some distance.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2022 6:56 pm
by Linto63
Capacity wouldn't have been an issue in the off-peak on the City Circle. Only 14 services scheduled with a capacity of 20.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2022 8:36 pm
by Aurora
jpp42 wrote: Thu Dec 15, 2022 5:21 pm
Did they do something else to free up capacity, like terminating Airport line services at Central? (What does that do to T2 services when it happens?) Cancelling Hurstville starters and switching others to all-stops? Hard to see how the City Circle can handle all Eastern Suburbs trains...
Don’t have to in the middle of the day. No Hurstville all-stoppers.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 12:35 am
by boxythingy
Be careful about what you do around the railways


https://youtu.be/UXhcGfArTso

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 10:50 am
by tonyp
boxythingy wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 12:35 am Be careful about what you do around the railways


https://youtu.be/UXhcGfArTso
That bloke's personal appearance tells the story on its own without the addition of a news report.

I guess there's little chance of claiming the insurance money from him. I've looked at the go kart site often from the train. What he was trying to do was basically impossible.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:37 pm
by Linto63
Notice there is virtually no trackwork planned this week or next, usually there is a major shutdown of some sought. Maybe I'm being cynical, but does that mean an election is just around the corner have a bearing?

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 8:13 pm
by Merc1107
Given the announcement of more bus services, a bit more hot air around the electric bus transition, it's not much of a stretch to think of less shutdowns as trying to keep the public onside. It may also be that this year, they're trying to avoid works as it's the first year we'll be having a fairly normal holiday period since COVID.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2022 12:28 am
by Swift
Why do we need so much trackwork anyway? Hadn't enough been spent? We have all concrete sleepers now and less joins than ever?
I can't help it's to give work to contractors -the other obscene C word.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2022 1:25 am
by gilberations
The NSW and Sydney rail networks are so old that there’s always going to need to be work done. Trackwork doesn’t mean work on the tracks, it means work around the track area. Trains stop running if the work involves a safety system or physical system that it requires to operate. There have been examples in the past of having buses replace trains because of a signal box software update. Nothing at all happening on the tracks. There will always be a dip, a bump, a sag, a tension check, points upgrades, tests, software updates, air line leaks, bulb replacements, and sometimes just cleaning that needs to take place. Scheduled closure that’s are publicly announced 6 months in advance allow for a much faster, smoother, and less inconvenient disruption than a failure requiring immediate response.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2022 1:52 am
by Swift
This preventative maintainance comes at a dollar value.
Maybe it actually saves money over running trains or is close to cost neutral!

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2022 11:18 am
by gilberations
It’s cheaper to fix a small problem than it is a large problem. That’s the point of preventative maintenance

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2022 4:25 pm
by Glen
Swift wrote: Sat Dec 24, 2022 12:28 am Why do we need so much trackwork anyway? Hadn't enough been spent? We have all concrete sleepers now and less joins than ever?
I can't help it's to give work to contractors -the other obscene C word.
This earlier SMH story mentioned that union action was prolonging the amount of line closures needed for the Bankstown Metro work:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sta ... 5auaq.html

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2022 6:44 pm
by matthewg
Glen wrote: Sat Dec 24, 2022 4:25 pm
This earlier SMH story mentioned that union action was prolonging the amount of line closures needed for the Bankstown Metro work:
That's a different problem - they are scheduling close-downs for conversion work - the closedown happens, but the scheduled work doesn't due to a dispute with the ETU. As part of their industrial action, they black-banned shutdown 'safe isolation' work on that project. Without the contractors being able to verify 'safe isolation' had occurred, no work was done. So the programmed works have been rescheduled with additional close-down periods.

But it appears Sydney Trains once they have a shutdown scheduled, even if something happens that stops the work from being able to proceed, can't cancel the shutdown - the trains stop, the buses come on and the rail corridor sits empty for the scheduled time anyway. Later they have to insert an additional shutdown into the long-term program to make up.

Re: Railway Observations for 2022.

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2023 2:24 pm
by jpp42
matthewg wrote: Mon Dec 26, 2022 6:44 pm But it appears Sydney Trains once they have a shutdown scheduled, even if something happens that stops the work from being able to proceed, can't cancel the shutdown - the trains stop, the buses come on and the rail corridor sits empty for the scheduled time anyway. Later they have to insert an additional shutdown into the long-term program to make up.
Not sure I understand this part, I thought the planned Bankstown line shutdown was in fact fully cancelled, which is the subject of this part of the discussion?

I was told that this was fortuitous as some of the assets planned to be used on the Bankstown line were redirected to help in the Blue Mountains reconstruction, not sure if that's correct. I assume that the union action doesn't apply there since it's considered emergency reconstruction and not planned maintenance?

Re: Rail Observations for 2022

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2023 2:45 pm
by Linto63
matthewg wrote: But it appears Sydney Trains once they have a shutdown scheduled, even if something happens that stops the work from being able to proceed, can't cancel the shutdown - the trains stop, the buses come on and the rail corridor sits empty for the scheduled time anyway. Later they have to insert an additional shutdown into the long-term program to make up.
Not a simple case of just reinstating trains at a moments notice. Rosters will have been prepared weeks in advance, leave approved etc all on the basis that the shutdown would occur.