Over at the Campaign for Better Transport forum, “kaiwhara” has noted a few things that could end up becoming part of a new train timetable from October onwards:
- No ADL’s on weekdays will go south of Manukau.
- Of the 5 sets that run peak time Manukau services, 2 are 4 car sets, one being an ADK, the other a pair of ADL’s. The 8:08 and 8:28 arrivals into Britomart will be an ADK and ADL4 respectively. Manukau trains will operate a clockface timetable in peak periods every 20 minutes. The two Newmarket services from Manukau will no longer run.
- A number of existing empty trains have been converted to Services.
- Pukekohe trains off peak will become an Hourly service – all off peak services to Pukekohe will be operated by SA’s.
- The SX utilisation will go up significantly, with the set running two return services to Pukekohe in the morning, and a round trip to Papakura in the evening.
- Limited Stop services are withdrawn, however frequency from Papakura has increased slightly in the same time period.
- The gaps between Pukekohe services in the Afternoon Peak have been reduced.
- 2 ADL’s and an ADK will return to Westfield during the day – currently none do this. However a couple extra SA sets will remain on the road – this will likely require overnight refueling at Henderson and Papakura.
- Off Peak Manukau and Onehunga services remain at Hourly Frequencies. While the wait at Manukau has unfortunately been retained, both routes have been retimed to be more sensibly placed at junctions.
- Several of the first and last trains have been removed. The 5:20 service from Papakura departs 10 minutes later, however the 5:40 service remains at the same time. the 22:40 service ex Britomart is removed due to poor loadings.
- Papakura off peak services do run to a clockface timetable, however the gaps between services is no longer 15 minutes, now being 10,20,10,20. However, the Manukau and Onehunga services fill these gaps, so each line on the Loop gets a train roughly every 20 minutes.
- The first train in from West arrives at 6:00, 30 minutes before current. This train starts at Henderson however, and the first train in from Swanson no longer runs.
- Current Henderson Trains during the day are now Swanson services, those that do terminate return to Henderson Stabling empty, and vice versa.
- Ovenight SA allocations have changed. Henderson gets 6 SA’s, Britomart has no stablers, Papakura drops to 4 sets (betting this is to allow refueling), Pukekohe retains 3, Westfield keeps the remainder.
- Weekend services remain more or less as current.
Until the electric trains arrive all timetable changes are something of a ‘rearranging deck-chairs’, but it’s still disappointing that no significant improvements are proposed at the weekend. Remember that weekend trains on the Western Line still only run hourly, and on Sundays only as far as Henderson. And also remember that there are no Pukekohe trains at all on the weekend. Goodness knows why we can’t improve these things in the very near future – it’s not like we need anymore trains.
Processing...
what’s adl and adk ?
ADK and ADL are the classifications of the two types of diesel multiple unit Auckland operates. The ADK class always run as four-car sets, and the ADL class can run as either two or four car sets.
Yeah we can get a bit obsessed with our acronyms at times:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NZR_ADL_class
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NZR_ADK_class
Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_British_Rail_Mark_2_carriage#SA_class – SA trains
“A number of existing empty trains have been converted to Services.”
What are Services?
I think it is meant that some empty train movements around the network at the moment are converted into in service train movements.
Otherwise evocatively know as ‘Dead Runners’ And I should hope so, bugger all marginal cost in moving them with people instead of without.
I love speculating on things too, but could we please leave operational matters like this out of this blog. Veola/AT aren’t asking for public submission on this, its only a draft timetable for internal use and really it shouldn’t have even been posted on the forum in the first place.
Just wait until official publication its not that hard.
That raises an interesting issue around why rail timetable changes don’t go out for public consultation while bus changes generally do. Anyone know the answer to that question?
I would assume because bus changes typically involve an alteration in their route as well as schedule?
Although the what has been posted is more or less grounded in truth it is by no means concrete information. I just wouldn’t take rumours on an internet forum as Gospel 😉
Otherwise your in for disappointment a lot of time when your old salt you just try and sit back,relax, say a few things and let it be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdopMqrftXs&feature=related I only have 3 years left to blame defective front lobes on stupid acts and words a.k.a young and stupid card. So I’m trying to behave it’s hard so many things to say, big bad stick I’ll get hit with.
And when something concrete does get published well I can think of the “Nutcracker” here 😛
Can’t let those pesky users get involved, they might expect to get what suits them and not the operator. Can’t have that, now can we. 😉
None of the proposed changes affect the trains I use – I’m sure we will still be able to run the daily sweepstake on how many carriages will arrive for the 7:21 from Swanson. 🙂
Listed for an SA6.
Yes, I mean what do we know? After all we only travel on them daily whereas ‘those who know best’ probably never knowingly ever travel on them. In literature, I believe, such an elevated perspective is known as a God’s eye view and Heaven forfend if we, the simple users of these services, should doubt the all-knowing wisdom of those who decide at AT.
I am also puzzled as to where the promised increase in services on the Western Line disappeared to when the current timetable was instituted several months back – e.g. half hourly services at the weekend plus a few more in the peak hours.