Article: Big train squeeze eases (on Gold Coast Line)

[Arnz]

Source: http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/04/06/205185_gold-coast-news.html

Big train squeeze eases

Matthew Killoran   |  April 6th, 2010

Extra trains means fewer services are overcrowded

COMMUTERS have been breathing easier with a slight improvement in overcrowding on Gold Coast trains.

The only catch is fewer services are running on time.

Almost 60 per cent of the seven morning peak hour trains and 50 per cent of the eight afternoon peak hour trains were deemed overcrowded.

This was an improvement from the September quarter when more than 70 per cent of the morning services were overcrowded while the afternoon services remained at 50 per cent.

A train is overcrowded if passengers are standing for more than 20 minutes outside of Central Station.

On the Gold Coast, just one in seven morning trains and no afternoon trains were overcrowded south of Beenleigh.

Since the December figures were recorded, one train has been added to the morning and afternoon peak hour services.

A TransLink spokesman said they would closely monitor results for the next quarter with the two extra peak-period train services added in December to be included.

Statewide train patronage was down by 1.67 million to 13.66 million trips, though no figures were available for the Gold Coast.

The number of trains running on time has fallen 2 per cent to 92.04 per cent, including a four-minute margin of error -- below TransLink's benchmark of 92.4 per cent trains running on time.

[ozbob]

This is the first article I have seen following on from the TL Tracker Q2.  The GC is doing fine at the moment relative to the Caboolture and Sunshine Coast lines ... agree though there were a lot of service interruptions during Q2 on the GC line.

[cartel_brisbane]

A train is overcrowded if passengers are standing for more than 20 minutes outside of Central Station.

I think that is a bit dud definition of "overcrowding" for one thing. There is going to be people standing, and obviously with longer commutes out from the city such as the Gold Coast, there are bound to be people standing for periods long than 20 minutes. I mean there could be five people standing with 10 empty seats in a carriage (some people rightly don't like to squish into the seats if they are bigger than 'average' for example which is quite common), which might therefore cause for the claim that the carriage was in fact 'overcrowded' by the above definition.