More on Town Hall from the Herald, Sat 17 May 2008.

Town Hall on track to burst at the seams

PEAK-HOUR congestion at Town Hall station is heading for crisis point as the State Government shifts funding priorities to the north-west underground metro.

The overcrowded station has failed to meet safety standards since 2001 and still lacks fire escape stairs. Each day 150,000 people use the station and this figure is predicted to exceed 168,000 by 2016.

Last week the Government admitted a huge surge of peak-period passengers was beginning to affect CityRail's performance.

The struggle to meet customer demands "is resulting in increased crowding on some lines", the Ministry of Transport wrote to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.

"Crowding is the key area of CityRail's performance that, for an increasing number of passengers, is not being met."

The huge number of people changing trains at Town Hall makes the overcrowding worse.

Plans to upgrade the station were deferred when the Government announced it would build a second cross-city rail line with a station on Pitt Street.

A 2005 RailCorp document says that "for planning purposes, all future growth on Town Hall Station beyond 2021 will be absorbed by the new Metro Pitt station". But that plan was ditched in March, when the Premier, Morris Iemma, announced the $12 billion North West Metro and scotched plans to expand CityRail in the city.

Peter Moore, executive director of the International Association of Public Transport, said an upgrade was needed immediately. "It is very urgent," Mr Moore told the Herald. "It should have happened yesterday."

A RailCorp spokesman, Paul Rea, said the operator was analysing the impact on long-term Town Hall patronage of the metros and the decision not to proceed with the second cross-city line.

A 2007 RailCorp spending plan put the upgrade cost at $600 million. With the metro now at the centre of policy, the Government is unlikely to fund a capital project of that size.

A Rail Corp study in 2005 said: "In the peaks, Town Hall station generally falls short of acceptable day-to-day crowd management congestion targets."

And on fire safety, the study said that in 2001 "Parsons Brinckerhoff determined that Town Hall cannot currently be fully evacuated in the morning and evening peaks within times stipulated by the Standards for Fixed Guideway Transit and Passenger Rail Systems".

In 2003, RailCorp moved to install fire escape stairs at a cost of $50 million, but management instead began planning a bigger renovation to substantially increase the station's capacity.

By late 2005, the Government was ready to tender for solutions costed at between $171 million and $350 million. In the end, it focused on a huge upgrade of the station's escalators.

No such thing as a new idea

Just so you know that there is no such thing as a new idea, here is a map of Bradfield's proposed railways for Sydney, drawn up in the 1920's with what looks suspiciously like a West Metro between Central and Strathfield.

Town Hall station cops some flack.

From SMH on Tues 13 May:

It's hell down here, and the devil has a microphone

I heard him before I saw him - a young man with hands on his ears standing still amid the churning, lurching chaos that is platform one at Town Hall station. "Can you please just shut up. Christ. Just shut up."
It turned out I was not the only one being driven mad by the lecturing, hectoring voice on the platform speakers, the latest horror to confront commuters.
Town Hall at peak hour is a dirty, dangerously overcrowded, stifling hot environment that looks and feels like an accident waiting to happen. But now, in what is presumably an effort to give the impression that something is being done, the captive commuters squashed on the platforms are lectured on safety, crowding, and train-travel etiquette by some insufferable Big Brother.
"Can that man sitting on the steps please move," the invisible voice booms.
Then louder. "That man on the steps who is blocking the way. Please move."
Then, infuriated: "You, that man in the brown overcoat, there's no reason to block the steps. You are holding up people who want to use the stairs."
Finally, the tired commuter who has been held up to us all as the cause of our mutual subterranean unhappiness, realises he has been made the scapegoat. The woes of Town Hall station are all his fault. He slinks off to join the other miserable but upright commuters.
It does not stop there. "The all-stations train to Bankstown is now at Circular Quay … the train should be here in about two minutes. So just be patient," the voice booms. We know that. It says so on the board.
"Can passengers please stay behind the yellow line while the train approaches." I would gladly do so if a three-person deep crowd was not exploding behind me.
"Those people crowding the train doors - you are a danger to yourselves as well as to others." No, the real danger here is that nothing has been done to upgrade this station to cater for today's crowds. But on it goes. The voice is relentless, monotonous and narky.
"We all want to get home, and pushing and shoving won't make things happen more quickly."
We don't know what's good for us, is the message, and CityRail is going to make sure we understand. If there was any real concern about overcrowding at Town Hall station, designed in 1916, then new exits would be created. It can take an eternity in peak hour just to get on the escalator from the bowels of the station. A fire down there would be … well, it's not worth thinking about.

If there was any concern about the risk of commuters falling from platforms the station would be redesigned so those waiting were not forced on top of one another. And if there was any thought at all about commuter comfort there would be more than just token seating (I, too, have had to sit on the stairs - when eight months' pregnant) and a real attempt to fix the stifling conditions.
In 2005, when RailCorp announced a multi-million-dollar plan to upgrade Town Hall, the tender package warned that the station was a serious danger to the public. Last month the Herald revealed that a report by Parsons Brinckerhoff found the station "cannot currently be fully evacuated in the morning and evening peaks within times stipulated by [the fire safety standard]".
RailCorp said a widening of the main concourse and ticket barrier expansion had improved access, but the projected commuter growth remained unaccounted for. Within eight years 168,000 people would pass through the station each day, up from about 140,000 now. By 2021 there will be 178,000.
For more than 10 years I have used the station to get to work, but it is only this year that have had to do so in peak hour. In that time I have had trouble breathing in sauna-like conditions; had to tiptoe around pools of blood and been caught on overcrowded trains where people were forced to travel to the next stop while jammed helplessly against the doors. Many times I have thought how easy it would be to fall off the narrow platforms, or to be accidentally pushed off. Just one person losing their footing would do it or - perhaps more likely - just one person losing their mind.

If there was any concern about the risk of commuters falling from platforms the station would be redesigned so those waiting were not forced on top of one another. And if there was any thought at all about commuter comfort there would be more than just token seating (I, too, have had to sit on the stairs - when eight months' pregnant) and a real attempt to fix the stifling conditions.
In 2005, when RailCorp announced a multi-million-dollar plan to upgrade Town Hall, the tender package warned that the station was a serious danger to the public. Last month the Herald revealed that a report by Parsons Brinckerhoff found the station "cannot currently be fully evacuated in the morning and evening peaks within times stipulated by [the fire safety standard]".
RailCorp said a widening of the main concourse and ticket barrier expansion had improved access, but the projected commuter growth remained unaccounted for. Within eight years 168,000 people would pass through the station each day, up from about 140,000 now. By 2021 there will be 178,000.
For more than 10 years I have used the station to get to work, but it is only this year that have had to do so in peak hour. In that time I have had trouble breathing in sauna-like conditions; had to tiptoe around pools of blood and been caught on overcrowded trains where people were forced to travel to the next stop while jammed helplessly against the doors. Many times I have thought how easy it would be to fall off the narrow platforms, or to be accidentally pushed off. Just one person losing their footing would do it or - perhaps more likely - just one person losing their mind.

.
Summarises the situation pretty well. The previously proposed 2nd harbour crossing and the new line between Chatswood and Redfern, with its new station at Park/Pitt St near Town Hall is desperately needed. All of this has now been cancelled and replaced with a metro from the North West to St James via Wynyard, which probably won't do a lot to relieve Town Hall.

Bowral station upgrade

Not really Sydney but close to it....from Railway Digest (May 2008), the upgrade of Bowral station was opened in March by the Parliamentary Secretary for Transport (hello)- new lifts, car parking, canopies and lighting. Sounds like the standard upgrade to easy access.

Quakers Hill- Vineyard duplication

The Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation (TIDC) invited expressions of interest for the work associated with this duplication of part of the Richmond Line, as part of the Clearways programme. An industry briefing on 28 February outlined more details of the proposal, due to be completed in 2012. It looks as though Schofields and Vineyard will be completely rebuilt, with the provision of 3 platforms at Vineyard. Interestingly this was to be the point where the North West Rail Link (NWRL) was to perhaps join the Richmond Line at some future date, although with the NWRL morphing into the North West Metro, it seems unlikely that this will ever happen. Is 3 platforms at Vineyard now something of an overkill? Are they really going to terminate services at Vineyard? Anyway, the full briefing is at http://www.tidc.nsw.gov.au/ViewSite.aspx?PageID=392, with line maps and some site photos.

West Metro

Both daily Sydney newspapers yesterday reported on a tentative plan by the State government to construct the West Metro, the second behind the North West Metro to be built in Sydney. Unlike the North West however, the West doesn't appear to yet be funded or have a timeline attached to it, except that it won't be up and running for at least 10 years. We could all be underwater by then of course, especially if the govt. pushes on with crazy plans to duplicate the M5 East and build the M4 extension.

From SMH:

TWO routes have been unveiled for a metro line to western Sydney - the West Metro project - which the State Government says will be built before any line to the eastern suburbs.

The line will cost up to $10 billion.

The Government said it is seeking federal funding for the line, which is unlikely to be in operation for at least 10 years.

Two routes are being studied for the West Metro: one shadowing Parramatta Road, travelling via Five Dock and Leichhardt to the city, and the other following the existing railway line. Both routes would run via Rosehill, Newington and Olympic Park.

The Premier, Morris Iemma, said the line shadowing Parramatta Road would be the cheaper of the two to build, at between $6 billion and $8 billion. A line following the existing rail network would be $8 billion to $10 billion.

Mr Iemma rejected criticism that a West Metro line built along the existing rail would cannibalise its profitability between Parramatta and the city. He said this option would help speed up services along the rail link, given the strong projected growth in patronage along the route.

Patronage on the western line is growing 6 per cent a year, twice the growth rate of patronage across the network over the past decade. It was this growth, plus population growth trends, which meant the Metro West line would take precedence over a line to the eastern suburbs, Mr Iemma said.

"If you're about improving the capacity of the current rail system and relieving congestion, then the western line … [is] the place that you get bigger bang for your buck in an investment in producing extra capacity," Mr Iemma said. "Extra capacity from Parramatta has flow-on benefits on other lines."

The Roads Minister, Eric Roozendaal, refused to indicate the estimated cost of duplicating the $800 million M5 East, or whether the second tunnel under study would be for exclusive use by trucks. Of the 100,000 vehicles that use the M5 East each day, an estimated 15,000 are trucks, the Government said.

The work on the M5 East duplication, which would extend beyond the existing M5 East to Port Botany, comes as the Government is finalising proposals for the M4 East, for which it is also seeking Federal Government financial support. The M4 East proposal includes an option which could result in a tunnel connecting to the airport and Port Botany.

The Government said it would be in a position to take its detailed assessments of these proposals to the Federal Government in 12 months, if it gained support for the projects, it would take another 18 months of planning before construction would begin, which would take eight to 10 years to complete.

Mr Iemma said the infrastructure fund flagged by the Federal Government "is money to seed these projects", which may still turn to the private sector for partnerships.

"I've already been in discussion with [the federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport] Mr [Anthony] Albanese," Mr Iemma said. "We'll be right in there with our projects, to tackle congestion in Sydney.

"By about the middle of next year, it will be decision time on the dollars to build these things. The important thing is they … contribute."

The State Government said yesterday it would add $20 million to the $25 million the Federal Government has committed to study the Metro West and M5 East duplication projects.

Regarding funding, from SMH:

The State Government wants Federal Government funding for the long-mooted M5 East tunnel, as well as for the proposed West Metro line, which would cost up to $10 billion alone.

Today NSW disclosed details of both projects saying it would help finance a Federal Government feasibility studies on both projects.

The Iemma government said it would contribute $20 million to the $25 million the Federal government has committed to study the Metro West and M5 east duplication projects.

NSW outlined two routes for the West Metro line, the first running along Parramatta Road, via Olympic Park and Leichhardt, to the city, would cost an estimated $6-8 billion.

The second option, for a metro line to run along the route of the existing heavy rail line, would cost $8-10 billion, NSW Premier Morris Iemma said.

NSW Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal refused to indicate the estimated cost of duplicating the M5 East, or whether the second tunnel here would be for exclusive use by trucks.

Of the 100,000 vehicles using the M5 East daily, an estimated 15,000 are trucks, the government said.

The Metro seems to have two alternative routes, with stations at

Circular Quay ,Martin Place , Pitt St, Central ,

then either

Sydney Uni , Leichhardt, Five Dock, Canada Bay, N Strathfield, or
Redfern , Newtown, Lewisham , Ashfield , Burwood , Strathfield , then

Olympic Park , Newington , Rosehill and Parramatta.

The article was accompanied by what looks like a Jubilee line train from the LU with 'West Metro' on the destination board.