1988 Rosebery District UTA timetable

The Urban Transit Authority was created in 1980 when the Wran Government split the all encompassing Public Transport Commission (PTC) into the State Rail Authority (SRA) for trains and the UTA for buses and ferries. In 1989, the Greiner Government renamed the UTA the State Transit Authtority (STA) to which it remains today.

This is the last UTA timetable for the Roseberry District, encompassing routes 343, 345 and 351.  343 and 345 soldier on pretty much as they did. 351 was a peak hours only 'industrial' route between Kingsford and Redfern, now no longer.

Note the bicentennial logo bottom right of the cover.

The East Hills line timetables- Part 2, 1987- (Part 1!)

This timetable, dated 31st May 1987, is the last timetable prior to the opening of the extension to Glenfield. It's also in a new style. I must admit that of all the timetables published before and after, this style is my favourite. There is something about the snaky coloured line on the front with the major station names, and the 'East Hills Line' title in the format of the station signs of the time that screams 1980s. Perhaps its also that I was 14 at the time and it's probably my earliest real memory of carrying one of these things around.

The map is also my favourite of all the styles of State Rail/ CityRail maps published before and after. I've pointed out it's flaws on my website before, especially the ambiguous junctions at Blacktown and Cabramatta, but despite this it remains simple, clear and kinda funky. I also have fond memories of the perspex maps on the carriage walls above the side windows in the S and R sets (and can recall ripping a few off in a miss-spent youth).

Anyway, into the timetable we go, and its basically the 1985 timetable  tweaked a bit, with a few curiosities. The basic 15 minute clock face timetable remains, along with the few weekday peak hour limited stops runs, most of which have had their stopping patterns slightly adjusted. There are also a few services that terminate at Central with an asterix beside the time but no explanation of what that means. Presumably it refers to the fact that they terminate in the country platform but we are left to speculate and the 'Explanation of Symbols' is of no assistance.  There is also a 'Days' column across the top, despite it remaining quite blank all through the timetable.

And what do I see at 6:53pm on weekday nights? A St James terminator!

The rear cover has lost the fares and phone number information, too bad if you need help. But here we see the start of political spin, a list of looming new trains and improvements- the XPT is coming, so are 520 (yet to be named) Tangaras. Not sure about the 140 luxury air-conditioned interurban carriages, maybe the once proposed Inter-Urban Goninan Tangara variant that never came off (more on this in another post). $2,500 million in upgrades etc, in 1987 dollars (whew!). $2,500 million sounds like so much more than $2.5 billion. It was of course the last days of Barry Unsworth.

Next.... the opening of the Glenfield extension.

How's this for professional?

Was digging around in my box of tricks and came up with this undated timetable, probably early 1990s, of the western NSW country rail and bus services. What sort of professional corporate image does it promote? Any ideas on the date?

The East Hills line timetables, part 1- 1985

The East Hills line has perhaps seen the most changes over the last 30 years of any Sydney suburban railway line. As a humble backwater between its opening in 1931 until its first major extension in 1987, the line is now a fairly major trunk route and the quickest of the 4 ways to get from Campbelltown to the city.

In 1985, the line was double track between Tempe and Riverwood, and single track to the terminus at East Hills, with a passing loop at Revesby. It was electrified throughout, although initially so only to Kingsgrove on opening, extending to East Hills in 1939.

In 1985, the line was served mostly by local all stations services generally on a 15 minute headway.  A perusal of the timetable reflects this, with a mostly 15 minutely service between 530am and 9pm, dropping to half hourly thereafter. The last outbound departure was 1241am from Town Hall to East Hills and 1246am from East Hills to the city, 7 days a week. There were, however,  also early morning departures from Town Hall at 221am (except Sundays) and 331am from East Hills.  These were the days before NightRide.

During the weekday morning peak, there were 4 'express ' type services each with slightly different stopping patterns, the first stopped at all the stations between East Hills and Kingsgrove then express to Sydenham, the second ran all stations from East Hills to Narwee then express to Sydenham; the other two ran all from East Hills to Riverwood, then Kingsgrove, then express to Sydenham. These were supplemented by 3 services starting from Riverwood (where the double track needed) and 3 from Padstow.

Of note also is that all trains except a few of the peak hours services stopped at Erskineville and St Peters, now the domain of the Bankstown Line only.

The evening peak also saw a mixed bunch of limited stopping services generally skipping the more lightly patronised stations between Tempe and Kingsgrove, supplemented by Padstow and Riverwood terminators in a similar manner to the morning peak, and one that terminated at Kingsgrove.

Saturdays and Sundays were a generally a clock face 1/2 hourly service, except for a couple of bonus services thrown in on Saturdays at what perhaps were thought to be busier times (e.g. an extra departure at 747am from Kingsgrove and extra departures from Riverwood at 940am and 451pm giving 15 minutely intervals at these times). All weekend services stopped at all stations.

Stylistically, the timetable was branded as a product of "State Rail" (CityRail was yet to come into being), and the timetable was the last to feature the rather groovy angular 'The Sydney System' map. Timetables were also numbered, the East Hills line was 'Pocket train timetable no. 3"

The only information provided, apart from the actual train times themselves, was what is shown on the rear cover (below): an explanation of (2) symbols, a list of commuter car parks, some basic fare information and some phone numbers. Note the 5 digit rail enquires number.

How does it compare to today? Well obviously service patterns are now completely different with the Glenfield extension and connection to the Airport line. The only useful running time comparison that can be made is for all-stations services between Revesby and Turrella, and its exactly the same- 19 minutes in 1995 and 19 minutes in 2011. 

Next.... the 1987 timetables. 

Metroline 400

Today, the 400 bus is a pretty popular and intensive route by Sydney standards, especially between Eastgardens and Bondi Junction where it can run up to every 4-5 minutes. Back in 1990 however, it was a bit more low-key. Marketed as the 'Metroline', it generally operated every half an hour.

The station of the future is here!

Watch out Star Wars fans! The Greiner government was in and we were all to have a 'world class railway' by 1995. As part of this, the all-fancy automatic fare collection system was to be brought in, replacing the old cardboard Edmondson type tickets with space age new magnetic strip tickets. Not so hard to change the world in the early 1990's, a bit harder 20 years later.

Kiama goes Electric! (10 years ago)

November 2011 (the 17th to be exact) marks the 10th anniversary of the extension of Illawarra (South Coast) line electrification from Dapto to Kiama. It also was the introduction of the new InterCity blue and yellow livery, and a souvenir timetable was published. The timetable has a brief potted history of the Illawarra line on it's rear cover. It was also at this time that the 'fuzzy' CityRail logo came in.

Bankstown- Blacktown direct services

With all the talk of rail- clearways, I thought I'd upload a timetable page from 2002 showing the direct services operating between the Bankstown and Western lines.