Article: TransLink blames slow-boarding passengers for trains running late

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

TransLink blames slow-boarding passengers for trains running late

TransLink blames slow-boarding passengers for trains running late
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Ursula Heger

February 08, 2009 11:00pm

TRANSLINK has blamed passengers for Brisbane Citytrain services running late, saying they are not boarding trains quickly enough.

TransLink has pointed the finger at the time it takes to board peak-hour trains after figures released to The Courier-Mail show an average 18 trains a day failed to arrive on time, on top of those delayed by weather, police incidents and scheduled cancellations.

A TransLink official said: "The greatest factor affecting on-time performance is increased passenger boarding times due to patronage growth.

"More than 61 million people travelled on the urban rail network in 2007/08 - an increase of more than 6 per cent on the previous year."

The official said more services would be put on over the next five years to improve the on-time running performance of the Citytrain fleet.

"The Queensland Government, through TransLink and QR, has commenced a program to deliver 102 three-carriage trains by 2016, which will boost the total urban rail fleet by 70 per cent," a TransLink official said. "By mid-January this year, 23 trains had been delivered with a further 21 sets under contract.

"More rolling stock and increased line capacity enables more regular and express services and reduces the impact of load times and delays as a result."

Transport Minister John Mickel said four new services on the Caboolture and Ipswich lines would provide for an extra 1800 seats and room for 1200 standing passengers each weekday.

Extra weekday services will run in the morning peak-hour from Corinda and Petrie stations while two new six-car services will run from Caboolture and Ipswich from February 23.

The comments came as Queensland Rail prepared to meet with unions in an attempt to avoid rail strikes planned for next Monday, February 16, over cuts to weekend leave.

The Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Employees gave notice of the 24-hour strike after negotiation over a cut to employees time-off broke down.

Commuter advocacy group Rail Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow said although the new services would ease some congestion, more services were needed.

"Both the Caboolture and Ipswich lines have been experiencing significant congestion during weekday early peak and peak services for a number of years," he said.

"There is a need to consider some additional services for the afternoon evening peak from the CBD to both Caboolture and Ipswich too, and as more trains and crew become available these congestion points will also need to be eased."

[dwb]

Some how I don't think Translink was blaming customers, simply admitting it was having issues dealing with the increase in patronage generally and specifically in relation to boarding times.

I wonder as well, is says 102 3 car sets, which is 51 6 car sets. It is my understanding the commitment is 44 6 car sets... so where do the extra 7 come from?!

[Derwan]

Looking at the blog entries (including my own), people have realised that the wording of this article was deliberately misleading to sensationalise the story.

The TransLink statement read, "increased passenger boarding times due to patronage growth."

It is clear that the statement was NOT referring to slow passengers, but rather the fact that increased patronage in turn increases boarding times.

If any finger-pointing should be done, it should be at the state government for not acting sooner.

[stephenk]

This does seem like the press have sensationalised this story.

However, it may have made sense to have wider or an extra set of doors on the new SMUs. It is well known that the more door throughput, the shorter the station dwell times.

QR's timetabling is also responsible for long dwell times. The mix of stopping patterns, and thus long and irregular intervals between trains results in large passenger loadings at each station. A reduction in the number of stopping patterns, regular stopping patterns, and thus more frequent services would result in shorter and more predictable dwell times at each station.