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    • Myrtone posted
    Posted in General » Are Australian cities really implementing a metro system?

    Unlike London, all of Sydney's suburban lines now traverse the CBD, so there is virtually no need for any further cross city connections from the outer suburbs.  However, that doesn't mean to say that future track amplification wouldn't be required on existing lines to meet the increased patronage demand for future suburban extensions, such as a link to Badgerys Creek Airport.  The only CBD extensions I would make for the existing network is for an express tunnel from Granville to Barangaroo to augment the Western Line and diversion of the Airport Line from the City Circle to a new terminus (St James perhaps).  All other new inner city lines should be part of a segregated automated metro system.
    Transtopic
    Metro was developed for cities like London, these didn't have mainline railways traversing the historic core, and London still doesn't. Sydney differs from many other global cities in a number of ways:
    *Late development with surface rail serving the busiest parts of the city right from the beginning. The suburban railways were electrified before there was a need for underground railways, first through the C.B.D and later out to the Eastern suburbs. This early electification meant that the existing network could be extended underground instead a separate third-rail electric network being started. This was due to the intervention of Dr. Bradfield.
    *Generous loading gauge which meant larger trains with more seats and a larger luggage size limit. Again, Dr. Bradfield fought for this before double decker trains.
    The Hong Kong MTR luggage size limit is such that a student got into trouble simply for carrying his cello on a train. Larger train size allows means that trains could be fitted with bike racks so that bicycles can be carried onto trains meaning that many commuters can cycle to and from stations instead of walking, a great advantage with wide station spacing. A double decker train with bicycle racks may still have higher capacity than a "cattle class" single decker without them.

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    Edited 12 Dec 2017 13:04, 4 years ago, edited by Myrtone

    Unlike London, all of Sydney's suburban lines now traverse the CBD, so there is virtually no need for any further cross city connections from the outer suburbs.  However, that doesn't mean to say that future track amplification wouldn't be required on existing lines to meet the increased patronage demand for future suburban extensions, such as a link to Badgerys Creek Airport.  The only CBD extensions I would make for the existing network is for an express tunnel from Granville to Barangaroo to augment the Western Line and diversion of the Airport Line from the City Circle to a new terminus (St James perhaps).  All other new inner city lines should be part of a segregated automated metro system.
    Transtopic
    Metro was developed for cities like London, these didn't have mainline railways traversing the historic core, and London still doesn't. Sydney differs from many other global cities in a number of ways:
    *Late development with surface rail serving the busiest parts of the city right from the beginning. The suburban railways were electrified before there was a need for underground railways, first through the C.B.D and later out to the Eastern suburbs. This early electification meant that the existing network could be extended underground instead a separate third-rail electric network being started. This was due to the intervention of Dr. Bradfield.
    *Generous loading gauge which meant larger trains with more seats and a larger luggage size limit. Again, Dr. Bradfield fought for this before double decker trains.
    The Hong Kong MTR luggage size limit is such that a student got into trouble simply for carrying his cello on a train. Larger train size allows means that trains could be fitted with bike racks so that bicycles can be carried onto trains mean that many commuters can cycle to and from stations instead of walking, a great advantage with wide station spacing. A double decker train with bicycle racks may still have higher capacity than a "cattle class" single decker without them.