Article: Connex gathers space with recession

[ozbob]

From the Herald Sun click here!

Connex gathers space with recession

Connex gathers space with recession
Article from: Herald Sun

Ashley Gardiner

March 12, 2009 12:00am

THE size taken up by two pages of the Herald Sun is how much space you should have on a crowded train.

New figures calculated for Connex reveal there are 2.5 passengers a square metre on a train packed with 950 passengers.

A train is considered full if it has 798 passengers, which equates to 1.5 passengers a square metre.

But the recession could actually be good news for long-suffering train commuters -- patronage could fall.

In Melbourne, train patronage fell during the Great Depression and during the recessions of the 1970s and '90s.

The State Government yesterday guaranteed that services would not be cut if patronage fell.

In London, rail chiefs met the city government to discuss the impact of the economic slowdown on train use.

They have considered reducing services and cancelling orders for new trains.

Figures released last week show patronage is still growing, with 212 million trips made on Melbourne's trains last year.

Train patronage has grown by 46 per cent since 2005.

The Herald Sun believes Connex expects the rate of growth in patronage to slow, rather than go backwards.

Employment in the central business district is a key driver of train patronage, so a recession could have an impact.

A spokesman for Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky said those figures were the first indication of the impact on patronage amid the global financial crisis.

"As household budgets are tightened, people are more likely to select the travel mode that is most economical, which will often be public transport," Stephen Moynihan said.

[ButFli]

I understand that during a recession less people are going to work because they have lost their jobs so there are fewer people on the train. Surely there are other people who need to take the train because they can no longer afford to drive, though?