New technology alerts commuters which carriages have spare seats

Finding a seat on packed Sydney trains will get a little easier from today with the introduction of carriage capacity indicators. FIND OUT WHICH STATIONS WILL USE THE TECHNOLOGY

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Finding a seat on jam-packed trains has been promised to get a little easier from today with the introduction of carriage capacity indicators.

Screens next to platforms at some key Sydney stations will now calculate how many customers are on board and where there’s space in each carriage.

Weight sensors on each of the 100 Waratah A and B trains — about half the Sydney Trains fleet — will send real-time information to the platforms.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance said Transport for NSW and Sydney Trains has been analysing the way customers behaved and moved at major stations including Chatswood, St Leonards, North Sydney and Epping.

The new carriage capacity indicators will help commuters know which carriages are full before the train arrives at the platform. Picture: Christian Gilles

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“This type of technology is used in stations around the world including in Singapore, Toyko, Seoul and Hong Kong,” Mr Constance said.

Sydney’s public transport has been confronted with surging use by a rapidly rising population — in March 2017 there were 30,682,314 individual trips on Sydney trains, according to Transport NSW.

By March 2019 that had increased by 6.5 per cent to be at 32,800,539 individual trips.

The displays will be connected to trains on the T1 North Shore and Western, T2 Inner West and Leppington, T3 Bankstown, T5 Cumberland, T7 Olympic Park (weekends only), T8 Airport and South and T9 Northern lines.

The carriage capacity indicator has been on real-time apps for over a year.

Commuters will be able to see how packed train carriages are.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

Arrows and signs on stairs encouraging commuters to keep to the left and platform markers urging people to stand to the side of the doors while passengers disembark are also at congested stations.

Sydney’s busiest track is the Western Line at 2.5 people per square metre of carriage space, or 180 per cent capacity.

Arup transport strategist Terry Lee-Williams said we are not quite at Asia’s level of four people per square metre.

“These little things that the government is doing can be quite powerful and change behaviour; it’s a good idea,” Mr Lee-Williams, a formerly chief transport adviser to the City of Sydney and a director at Transport NSW, said.

“It is a signal that we are struggling with capacity on the network and the government is using every trick in the book to help people to help themselves.”

He said the screens will let passengers forgo a packed train because they will know they can get a seat on the next one.