Showing posts with label If I ran Transperth.... Show all posts
Showing posts with label If I ran Transperth.... Show all posts

Tuesday, 9 October 2012

If I ran Transperth ... Suggested minimum frequency standards


I've previously advocated for feeder buses to run every half-hour during the off-peak. I'll flesh out that idea in this post.

IDEAL MINIMUM FREQUENCY STANDARDS
Definitions -
Peak - 6am to 10 am and 3pm to 7pm
Daytime - 5am to 9pm (7 days a week, excluding peak)
Evening - 10pm to 12 am (2am on Friday and Saturday nights/Saturday and Sunday mornings)
Early Morning - 4am to 5am
Night - 12am to 4am (2am to 4am on Friday and Saturday nights/Saturday and Sunday mornings)
FEEDERS
Every 15 minutes during peak, 30 minutes during (the rest of the) daytime and  60 minutes during evenings and early mornings.
TRUNK
Every 7.5 minutes during peak, 15 minutes during (the rest of the) daytime, 30 minutes during evenings and early mornings, and 60 minutes at night.

 As a result, all areas will get TUAG (every 15 minutes or more)service during the peak, and trunk routes (most main roads) will receive TUAG from 5am to 9pm, and some kind of service 24/7. This trunk service could be depended on, and would make it possible to live comfortably in many parts of Perth without a car.

More important corridors should get more frequent service, but preferably in the above ratio.
For example -

PRIMARY TRUNK
Every 3.75 minutes during peak, 7.5 minutes during (the rest of the) daytime, 15 minutes during evenings and early mornings, and 30 minutes at night.

Saturday, 12 November 2011

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.