Weekend congestion - 3-car trains

[Derwan]

I often head to Southbank Cinemas on the weekend.  I drive to Northgate so that I have more options for trains (every 15 minutes instead of every half-hour).

At Northgate I boarded a 6-car Ipswich train.  The Beenleigh train I changed to was a 3-car, but I think the Ferny Grove train I saw at 5:13 was a 6-car.

Anyway - I caught the 5:15 Shorncliffe train from Southbank.  It was a 3-car train.  More people boarded at South Brisbane and then Roma Street, taking the train to a 1 on the scale.  Of course even more people boarded at Central, taking it to a 2.

I can understand running 3-car trains when there are that few people they wouldn't reach a 1 on the scale, but when there are enough people to take a 3-car train to a 2 on the scale, it's definitely time to schedule in some 6-car services.

Of course - it may just be that most Sunday services only require a 3-car train and the trains aren't changed during the day.  Perhaps I just caught the wrong train!  But if this is something that's happening regularly, then it might be time to reassess weekend services and run 6-car trains more often.

Has anyone else experienced congestion on 3-car trains during the weekend?

[Mozz]

My current and past issue regarding 3 car units, is where there is an actual 6 car train but only the first 3 carriages are in use which happens at night. There is no rule on when 3 carriages versus 6 carriages are in use. It appears to be a random decision.

However the issue gets back to "communication" as currently there is no way to tell which night train is a 3 car versus a 6 car train. You can ask station staff, however they are not informed, you can look at the monitors at the larger stations, however they don't indicate.

You can guess perhaps that every train past 9.00pm will only have 3 carriages available but this didn't work last Wednesday night when I tried to catch the 8.08pm from Roma street when only the first three carriages were available - but hey we all managed to rush down to the front three carriages and create a 3  on the derwan scale.

You could try to listen to the loudspeakers at the large stations however the general situation is that they will not communicate this information to waiting commuters.

Three carriages or six carriages, let's communicate to the waiting commuters what is coming down the line After all I suspect that 95% of services on the citytrain network are in fact 2 x 3 carriages making up a single train and that's what the public have become used to and expect

[Derwan]

My current and past issue regarding 3 car units, is where there is an actual 6 car train but only the first 3 carriages are in use which happens at night. There is no rule on when 3 carriages versus 6 carriages are in use. It appears to be a random decision.

I've seen cases where only the first 3 cars are in use and they are packed because there's a concert on at the Entertainment Centre at Boondall - and they still don't open the rear 3 cars!

On the flipside, I did see (forget when) a case where the guard was opening the rear 3 cars at Central.