The " Slow Train " enigma !

Once again the rail connection between Wollongong and Sydney is being examined to see if travelling time and frequency can be improved - without spending the enormous amounts of money needed to construct tunnels and deliver high speed rail.

We salivate over the GTV system in France and the Bullet trains in Japan, but Australia suffers from the combination of a small population and a vast distance between population centres.   In both Europe and Japan you have huge population numbers living within a constrained land mass.   Not only is there an adequate tax base to pay for an upgraded rail service, patron numbers keep the dollars flowing through the ticket office.

The Wollongong-Sydney rail link was an engineering marvel when it was constructed in the 1800's.   Much of it progresses through difficult terrain and this work was done in an age of horse transport and pick and shovel labouring.    Despite electrification, travel time between the two cities is now actually slower than in the steam train era.

Sydney is just eighty kilometres away, and yet this train journey takes ninety minutes - and that is on a good day.   Many regular travellers will attest that two hour journeys are not uncommon.  A lot depends on the weather, the number of train carriages - and whether it is a laughingly called " Express ", or an " all stations " trip.

The other gripe is the ever present overcrowding.   It is no laughing matter to spend ninety minutes strap hanging on a train lurching around sharp curves.    There has been a long wait for the promised new carriages - with functioning toilets and the provision of drinking water.   Unfortunately, even as these arrive the actual carriage numbers do not seem to increase - and hence the overcrowding remains constant.

Before we start tinkering with the system to try and increase speed, perhaps it would be a better idea to find out what the passengers really want.    By far the biggest beef would be the limited carriage capacity, resulting in the lucky few gaining a seat and the majority travelling  " cattle class " !

Our railways system seems to run entirely on either four or six carriage trains.   The argument against additional carriages stems from the short  platforms at stations between Wollongong and Sydney.   If we concentrate on providing an express service to get commuters to and from work at either centre, there should be no limit to carriage numbers - because the trains make no stops between these major destinations.

Journey time would seem to be less of a problem than solving the overcrowding.  The job facing railway planners would be to marshal enough carriages to create these express services, and because most people would cheerfully travel to the starting point of an express train to get a comfortable seat, the " all station "  trains would be less crowded, and offer a better service

This review of planning seems to be putting the cart before the horse.   Instead of just aiming for speed, it would be a better idea to first determine passenger priorities !