Edited 11 Jun 2015 01:02, 6 years ago, edited by grog

From the video fly troughs and documentation I have worked out the following as far as planned configuration of the trains:

End car:

3 x longitudinal seats door 5 x 2 seat rows       door 9 x longitudinal seat door 7 x longitudinal seats

                                 *** Aisle ***

3 x longitudinal seats door 9 x longitudinal seat door 5 x 2 seat rows         door 7 x longitudinal seats

Total seats: 58

Middle cars:

7 x longitudinal seats door 5 x 2 seat rows       door 9 x longitudinal seat door 7 x longitudinal seats

                                 *** Aisle ***

7 x longitudinal seats door 9 x longitudinal seat door 5 x 2 seat rows         door 7 x longitudinal seats

Total seats: 66

Initial train configuration: 6 car trains (2 x end, 4 x middle)
Total initial seats per 6 car train = 380

Initial frequency = 15tph
Initial seated capacity = 5700/hour (equivalent to 6.3 tph DD stock @ 900 seats per train)

This fits within the documentation published which stated that the initial service would be 5500 - 6000 seats per hour with 6 car trains.

Eventual train configuration: 8 car trains (2 x end, 6 x middle)
Total eventual seats per 8 car train = 512

Eventual NWRL frequency = 18tph (designed to support up to 20tph on the NWRL and 30tph in the core section)
Eventual seated capacity = 9216/hour (equivalent to 10.24 tph DD stock @ 900 seats per trains)

That seated capacity for the NWRL is greater than the current seated capacity provided to 8tph DD Macarthur to CBD via East Hills services, and still allows another 12tph to run on a branch to Neutral Bay/Spit Junction to allow a bus interchange to be built to remove Northern Beaches buses from the CBD.

This is all seated capacity for the NWRL, lets consider the maximum capacity. 30tph @ 512 seats = 15360 seats/hour, which is 85% of the current maximum seated capacity on an existing 20tph DD line in Sydney.

Then you get the standing capacity on top of that (40% seated, 60% standing, 1300 per train total) for a total line capacity of 39000/hour vs 24000/hour currently. This standing capacity can be used to support intensive apartment and job development around stations within 20 minutes travel time of the CBD.

You can see they have made the right call on the new line, maintaining most of the seating capacity of DD by buying cheaper, simpler off the shelf technology, rather than wasting time and money trying to squeeze DD higher by moving to 24tph. Even 24tph @ 1200 people current train capacity (900 seated, 300 standing) is only an incremental increase to 28800/hour - still well below the total SD capacity.