Two more services for the Ippy - from 4th October

[Cam]

The new afternoon express service, that skips 9 stations between Milton & Darra, only saves 3 minutes between Milton & Darra compared to the adjoining all stations services.

Can anyone that catches this service confirm how long it waits at Darra? I suspect that it is about 5 minutes unless it is running late or crawls between stations that it doesn't stop at.

In 2009 I timed the 5.24pm from Roma St taking 15 minutes to Darra when it was allowed to overtake the all stations service in front of it around Corinda. Sometimes it left Darra a couple of minutes before the scheduled departure time of 5.43pm but it usually waited 3-4 minutes. I haven't caught it this year. Does it still wait at Darra for several minutes longer than it should, crawl around Sherwood & Corinda or does it leave Darra before 5.43pm?

I really hope that the new timetable due in early 2011 aggressively trims the fat on express services.

[mufreight]

it would seem at this time that the intention is to pad out the running times on a number of the PM peak services to ensure on time running despite faster running being possible.
Still it makes the figures for on time running look good.

[Cam]

it would seem at this time that the intention is to pad out the running times on a number of the PM peak services to ensure on time running despite faster running being possible.
Still it makes the figures for on time running look good.

I think you are spot on there. I recall it being done in Sydney some years ago. When on time running performance targets were introduced there should have been a condition that you can't add additional running time to services.

It will be interesting to compare the travel times in the 2011 timetable to the current timetable between Central & Ipswich. Off peak & some peak all station services are currently timetabled to take 53 minutes. However, some peak all station services are timetabled to take as much as 58 minutes e.g. the 3.35pm. The 5.21pm express takes 50 minutes but could do it in 40 minutes if the timetable for surrounding services was modified. It skips 13 stations (53mins - 13mins).

[somebody]

Off peak & some peak all station services are currently timetabled to take 53 minutes. However, some peak all station services are timetabled to take as much as 58 minutes e.g. the 3.35pm.

That idea is fair enough.  A peak hour service is likely to have longer dwells at stations, and this time adds up.  Although 5 minutes may be excessive.

it would seem at this time that the intention is to pad out the running times on a number of the PM peak services to ensure on time running despite faster running being possible.

I don't know which one is worse, CityTrain or CityRail.

To a large degree, we, the citizens have the system that we deserve.  I do not understand why Australians get so worried about on time running.  In the mid-90s, the Northern Line in Sydney had additional limited stops services all day, meaning that most stations had a 15 minute service.  This could not be done reliably for whatever reason (could have been conflicts with freight or interurban services or a bit of both), so they pulled the extra services and went back a half hourly service after massive whinging about the reliability of the line!  The service is not much better now than it was in 1990, and for some trips it is quite a lot worse mostly due to the ECRL.

EDIT: clarity