Article: Melbourne trains fail world 'metro' test

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

Melbourne trains fail world 'metro' test

Melbourne trains fail world 'metro' test
CLAY LUCAS
April 3, 2010

Melbourne and Sydney are among a handful of the industrialised world's big cities not to have a high-frequency ''metro'' system, an analysis of international centres shows.

A Public Transport Users Association study has found that of the 30 most populous cities in the developed world, all but six are serviced by metro-style train systems.

The six without metro-style services are Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Phoenix - all in the US - Sydney and Melbourne.

A ''metro'' system, much discussed in the transport industry, does not mean a train service running below ground. According to the International Association of Public Transport, a metro is a high-frequency, high-capacity system independent of traffic or pedestrians.

Many of the world's best known ''metro'' systems operate much of their services above ground, including New York's subway, Vienna's and Berlin's U-Bahns, and the Paris Metro. About 55 per cent of the London Underground is above ground.

Andrew Lezala, chief executive of Melbourne train operator Metro, defined a ''metro'' at a parliamentary inquiry last month. ''What we mean,'' he said, ''is that passengers will not really need to understand the timetable. They can turn up and know that within X minutes they will get a train and that those trains will run reliably to time, generally stop at most stations and have a high capacity.''

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen said that while definitions varied, ''the common ground is high-capacity trains with high-frequency services at least every 10 minutes, all day''.

A train could run every 10 minutes on most of Melbourne's rail network now using the present infrastructure, except on some single-track sections, he said. ''Melbourne and Sydney have sizeable suburban rail systems, but long waits between trains of 20 to 30 minutes or even more mean these are not as efficient as the metros seen in most of the other big cities.''

In Melbourne during rush hours on most lines, trains are scheduled to run about every 10 minutes. But during weekday off-peak periods, six of Melbourne's 15 lines have trains only every 20 minutes. From Monday to Saturday in the evening, almost all lines run one service every 30 minutes. On Sunday mornings and evenings, all lines run one service every 30 to 40 minutes.

Metro's Mr Lezala last month said the number of trains running on Melbourne's network would double by 2017.

However, there is no publicly available strategy for how this will be done, from either Metro or the state government, which repeatedly has promised a metro-style system for Melbourne.

Public Transport Minister Martin Pakula's spokesman, Stephen Moynihan, responded to the PTUA study by saying the government would deliver a metro-style system. Mr Moynihan said the government was improving train reliability, and also buying new trains.

''Bottlenecks are being removed across the network to improve reliability, like removing peak-hour Werribee line trains from the City Loop and one-way operations for the Epping and Hurstbridge lines,'' he said. ''The 38 new trains will allow us to add more services and increase capacity across the network.''

[#Metro]

If they want to call it a metro, they should deliver one.
Melbourne has an extensive tram network, which is like a BUZ everywhere.
Houston has light rail. Dallas has light rail, Phoenix has light rail and Detroit is building light rail.

What about Auckland? That has no metro.
It might prove too simple to do 'this city has it, this city doesn't'.

In Melbourne during rush hours on most lines, trains are scheduled to run about every 10 minutes. But during weekday off-peak periods, six of Melbourne's 15 lines have trains only every 20 minutes.

Wow! I wish we could have the luxury of complaining about this! "Only every 20 minutes" so the average wait is 10 minutes- all I can say is come to Brisbane! Every 30 minutes off peak, and if you miss your connection or something goes wrong, then you can easily wait 1 hour!

Melbourne also has heaps of lines everywhere, underground loop and trams to fill in most of the gaps.

Perth is pretty close to having a metro. Every 15 minutes off peak is very good.