Second thoughts on Park n' Rides

Previously I said that Park n' Rides, or car parks at stations were a bad idea, but the reality is we need them now and in the near future. People use them. My family uses them. Most of them are at freeway stations that are hard to walk to and offer little redevelopment opportunity anyway. But they can be improved.
For one, the concept of partly free parking and partly paid parking is a good one. However the paid bays are at the back, so those who paid are further inconvenienced by walking further, while those who got free parking also get parking close to the station, so the only way to get convenient parking is, well, to arrive early. Or at least this is the set up at Stirling train station; I haven't seen the other stations but I suspect the situation is the same. It would be better to have paid parking at the front and free parking at the back, so people can pay for the convenience of parking near the station.

If I ran Transperth ... I'd lengthen off-peak services.

While most peak hour services are now six-car trains, trains at other times are still only 3 cars. I took the train today on the Joondalup Line, and the three car trains had some standing passengers on the journey in at about 1:30pm, and nearly full on the trip back at 5:15pm. Standing isn't necessarily a problem, while it can be inconvenient, it is a reality of public transport, and most cities with great public transport have lots of standing, because standing means the service is popular. However, during off-peak times like this plenty of spare sets are available to make six car services, and add more services if the six car sets are full. In fact, I think off-peak services should have been six-car before peak services, because we wouldn't need to add more train sets to our fleet.

More thoughts on northern suburbs service changes

Major service changes came into effect yesterday in the northern suburbs, and while I have done a three-part analysis of the changes already, I did not have access to timetables. With services to and from Mirrabooka, I have found some further improvements but also a few gripes

On Saturdays the 888 is coordinated with the 354 and 370 to provide TUAG services every 15 min from Mirrabooka to Wellington St bus station, and provides 371 connections. On Sundays however, while services run every half hour, there are still no services past 8pm, despite the second last bus being half an hour before the last bus at 7:50pm.

In terms of feeders, there is still a gap in afternoon inbound service on the 376, so school students at Mercy College or John Septimus Roe who miss the bus still need to wait for an hour, despite a service 30 min before and 30 min after that gap.

Talking about long gaps, I apologise for my sparse posting, because as the name of this blog suggests, school has kept me busy. (Disclosure: My school is served by the 376, so the latter paragraph effects me and so there is reason to think there is bias, but the problem is still real).