General Sydney talk, from: Article: Transportation Jetsons-style

[SurfRail]

The SE busway carries 44 million passengers per year, more than any stretch of rail line in Australia

Melbourne loop, Parra to Sydney, even Roma St to Bowen Hills would exceed that.  The SEB is a conglomeration of multiple routes, it is near capacity.

I wonder if anybody knows the patronage figures for the ESR?  Sounds about right for that too.

If we really want to get stuck in, the City Circle in Sydney probably runs rings around anything, and has a single track in each direction (same as the busway in the inner city).

[somebody]

I wonder if anybody knows the patronage figures for the ESR?  Sounds about right for that too.

Weekday patronage in 2009:
Bondi Junction: 19210 in, 19210 out
Edgecliff: 6410 in, 6410 out
Kings Cross: 11150 in, 11150 out

Total: 73 540/day.  Puts the yearly patronage in the range 18mil - 27 mil.

Doesn't touch the SE Busway.

[SurfRail]

I wonder if anybody knows the patronage figures for the ESR?  Sounds about right for that too.

Weekday patronage in 2009:
Bondi Junction: 19210 in, 19210 out
Edgecliff: 6410 in, 6410 out
Kings Cross: 11150 in, 11150 out

Total: 73 540/day.  Puts the yearly patronage in the range 18mil - 27 mil.

Doesn't touch the SE Busway.

For only 3 stations it certainly does!

[somebody]

I wonder if anybody knows the patronage figures for the ESR?  Sounds about right for that too.

Weekday patronage in 2009:
Bondi Junction: 19210 in, 19210 out
Edgecliff: 6410 in, 6410 out
Kings Cross: 11150 in, 11150 out

Total: 73 540/day.  Puts the yearly patronage in the range 18mil - 27 mil.

Doesn't touch the SE Busway.

For only 3 stations it certainly does!

Is per station the correct metric?  Or even a metric which is in any way meaningful?

How about per dollar?  I doubt that the ESR was constructed nearly as cheaply as the SEB, however the ESR is AIUI cash flow positive re:OPEX.  I guess it would depend on your discount rate as to which is the better project, but I don't doubt that the ESR will win that one.  Density is so much higher on the corridor that it is hardly a fair comparison.  You also don't see it competing with an enormous freeway.

Anyway, the SEB has been built.  It's academic to argue about whether it should have been.

[somebody]

As others have said despite the above issues and only having a few stations, its more than well used bringing in a loaded 8 car DD set of people (1000) every 3min in peak hour.

Not quite.  Cityrail report that for the busiest 1 hour and peak direction, it carries 8600 people in the AM and 5805 in the PM.

The Woollahra station wouldn't have had any feed (perhaps except the 389 & 200), so would have relied on walk up patronage, making the least used station by far.  Similarly the Bondi Beach extension would have helped off peak, but I doubt it would have made a huge difference in peak when few people don't change at Bondi Junction.  It couldn't have hurt though.  Perhaps I'm a bit negative about what might have been here.