Network Design

[Lungfish]

Reading this article:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-22/campbell-newman-labelled-insensitive-tweets-following-fatality/9787558?WT.ac=statenews_qld
and ignoring Campbell Newman's attempt to stir up anger about the police response, had me thinking about transport network design.

Transport networks in general (applying to roads and rail systems, as well as combined systems) can be categorised as some variation between a networked grid and a radial pattern.

At the networked grid end of the spectrum there are lots of connections between different lines. This enables efficient access to multiple locations within the network without having to go through a central point. It also makes the network much more resilient, with a failure at one point only having a local effect, and most commuters being able to navigate around it. An example of this type of network would be the London Underground, or Melbourne's City Centre Trams.

The radial system adopts a hierarchical structure with routes combining to all feed into a single node. This system is good where there is a single destination that everybody wants to get to, however a single incident can cripple the whole network. Brisbane's and Perth's passenger rail lines are good examples of this kind of structure and the road networks in these cities are also built in a similar fashion.

Both Perth and Brisbane are making changes to the rail lines to move towards a more networked approach. Perth's Metronet plan proposes introducing circumferential rail links, starting with extending the Thornlie Line through to Cockburn and eventually extending it to a Southern Loop and a Northern Loop. In Brisbane the Cross River Rail Starts to create the networked effect on Brisbane's rail system (The Tennyson line was also good from this point of view).

[#Metro]

Melbourne had circular rail lines, closed them soon after.
On the other hand, orbital Smartbus very well patronised.