Fewer seats, more buses — the solutions that could ease the train pain on Australia’s creaking rail networks

COMMUTERS have been experiencing horror delays on the trains. But a few simple changes could work wonders on city networks.

FOR the third day in a row David Coyne’s commute from Sydney’s inner west to the CBD was a shambles.

On a journey that should take little more than 10 minutes, his train just came to a protracted halt between stations on Thursday morning.

That’s once he got on. “Newtown station is packed to capacity and the trains are too full to board,” he said.

At least Mr Coyne managed to squeeze into the carriage. Another passenger, from further west in Summer Hill, didn’t even have that luxury. Their train was simply cancelled, one of many on Thursday morning on Sydney’s broken rail network.

“I can’t rely on the train at all at the moment,” the frustrated commuter told news.com.au.

The congestion at Newtown station in Sydney on Thursday morning. Picture: David Coyne

It’s just another annoyance in a week that has seen Sydney’s train system spectacularly snap at the seams with passengers waiting for hours to complete journeys that should take minutes.

While this week’s troubles have been focused in Sydney, it’s a story Melburnians are also familiar with. Last year a serious of rail stuff-ups led thousands of commuters to be stranded on their trip home.

A transport expert has told news.com.au that while there may be many triggers for the chaos, there’s one root cause — Australia’s major cities are saddled with rail systems designed a century ago for century-old needs.

Dr Geoffrey Clinton, from the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, said there are solutions but one in particular may not be popular with commuters — scrapping seats.

Sydney’s trains have gone into meltdown this week.

Melbourne commuters know all about rail meltdowns. Picture: AAP Image/Joe Castro.

ACT OF GOD

According to New South Wales Transport Minister Andrew Constance, much of Sydney’s rail drama was simply unavoidable.

“It’s an act of God when you have three lightning strikes take out substations, train routes and signalling,” he said on Wednesday. Although on Thursday he admitted he was worried that next week when many staff were on holiday, there would be more delays.

There was also an unusual level of staff sickness. On Tuesday, 73 train drivers called in crook. That raised many an eyebrow, particularly as the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) is about to embark on wage negotiations with the Government.

RTBU boss Alex Claassens has furiously denied the unprecedented driver sickness was a shot over the bows.

It was “completely separate” to this week’s chaos, he was reported as saying in the Telegraph.

Mr Constance has demanded a report on the shambles to be handed down by rail big wigs within two weeks.

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance is under pressure due to the train stuff ups. Picture Nine News

STRETCHED TO THE LIMIT

But Greens MP and the party’s NSW Transport spokeswoman, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, told news.com.au she was wary of the excuses being bandied around.

“Blaming storms and drivers is a complete cop out. A city’s entire train system shouldn’t grind to a halt and be impacted for days.

It was a disaster of the Government’s making, Dr Faruqi said.

“The Government has stretched Sydney Trains to the limit, which means the smallest of incidents can spark widespread delays and chaos.”

Dr Clinton said Sydney’s controversial new timetable, introduced in November, had sparked the current crisis.

Indeed, before the new timetable was introduced, Sydney hadn’t seen a transport meltdown on the scale of this week for many years.

“From the beginning people have been unhappy with the new timetable,” Dr Clinton told news.com.au. It might need to be “recast” he said, a move mooted this week by the Transport Minister.

Should Sydney’s trains go from having lots of seats like this ... Picture: Peter Clark

... to this? Sydney’s Metro trains will have fewer seats and more standing space.

“They’ve tried to squeeze more services on to a network operating close to capacity. When you do that, you sacrifice the ability to fix problems.

“So, if a train breaks down it doesn’t just affect that train but trains five or six hours later.”

Rail pain isn’t exclusive to Sydney. Metro meltdowns in Melbourne have been frustratingly frequent. The biggest was in June when the entire system ground to a halt due to a computer fault.

Dr Clinton said creaking infrastructure was to blame. “Around Australia our trains are operating on networks built more than 100 years old and designed for conditions as they were back then.

“The systems aren’t designed for the crowds we’re seeing today.”

One way to meet future demand was new rail lines, which are under construction in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as more drivers for the existing trains.

Experts say Australian cities need to invest more in buses, as London does, to take the heat off the trains.

FEWER SEATS

In the medium term new rolling stock, including driverless trains — similar to which will run on Sydney’s new Metro — could be introduced. The existing network also needed continued investment.

But Dr Clinton said there were some more immediate solutions.

“Removing seats is hugely contentious but if it’s the difference between getting on a train or not, the Government needs to think about it.

“Perth and Melbourne have bit the bullet and on Sydney’s new Metro trains there will be a lot more standing space to cope with crowds.

“If we didn’t have as many seats on Sydney’s trains, people would have got home more comfortably after the Sydney meltdown.”

Dr Clinton said the bus network could help divert passengers away from chronically packed trains.

“There’s lots of political capital in a shiny new train line but the bus network can do more than what it is doing at the moment and in Australia we’re not at world’s best practice,” he said,

Mr Coyne said he was worried that his commute was only going to get worse.

“Newtown is being swamped. Tens of thousands of apartments are being built with no suitable infrastructure to support that many people,” he said.

Was he confident the NSW Government could devise a transport system to cope with the current and new passengers? “I’m not convinced as yet, no,” Mr Coyne said.

Originally published as Fewer seats, more buses — the solutions that could ease the train pain on Australia’s creaking rail networks