April 2020 a Journal of Transport Timetable History and Analysis

The Times April 2020 A journal of transport timetable history and analysis RRP $4.95 Inside: “How Good was THAT?” Incl. GST More on CR PTTs Slow and Fast in NZ Sundays at Central The Times A journal of the Australian Timetable Association Inc. (A0043673H) Print Publication No: 349069/00070, ISSN 0813-6327 April 2020 Vol 37 No. 04 Issue No. 435 The Times welcomes all contributions. Our Authors’ Guide is available on our web-site at https://www.timetable.org.au/ Reproduction Provided a Creative Commons acknowledgement is made, material appearing in The Times may be reproduced anywhere. Disclaimer Opinions expressed in our magazines are not necessarily those of the Association or its members. Editor Geoff Lambert 179 Sydney Rd FAIRLIGHT 2094 NSW email: [email protected] The Times is posted in full colour to our website https://www.timetable.org.au/times.html, two months after publication in paper and to the National Library website 6 months after publication. Colour PDF versions of previous issues of our magazines are at https://www.timetable.org.au/ —Contents— Ian MANNING WALK, WAIT, RIDE—SYDNEY PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN 1969 3 David WHITEFORD CR PTTS INSIDE WAGR PTTS 10 James T WELLS SLOW AND FAST IN NEW ZEALAND 12 Geoff MANN SUNDAYS AT CENTRAL 13 WHY GO PAST? Indeed. Why go past Public Transport? Back in 2003, Michael Costa, the then Transport Minister, opined that "You need a degree in timetable-ology to get around the system [at the moment]”. Little did he know that people with such degrees were lurking in the background. In this issue, Ian Manning takes a look at Public Transport in Sydney in 1969 … part of a project that formed his Ph.D. thesis. The photo above shows pedestrians emerging from Town Hall station and scurrying past a Ryde-bound bus. Ian’s thesis ex- amined the interaction of pedestrians, trains and buses in getting people to work in Sydney. 2 The Times April 2020 How good was Sydney public transport fifty years ago? Ian Manning ACK IN 1970 I FOUND MYSELF to guide future transport investments. fifty years ago were very restricted in pursuing a PhD at the These Studies were subsequently the extent to which they could analyse B Australian National University criticised for the simplistic way in current data and explore future on the equity of provision of public which they used the data which they options. services in the different suburbs of collected to support freeway The Transportation Studies divided Sydney. One of the services in construction, mostly on alignments each city into zones and used the question was public transport. I never already reserved by a previous fledgling computers of the day to bothered to publish my researches, but generation of town planners. Where calculate how many trips were made they may have passing interest as a alignments were suggested which from each zone to each other zone. It record of public transport services as involved demolishing people’s houses, was assumed that trips between any they were half a century ago. political hell broke out and the two zones would increase with the offending freeways were quietly Such a study required measurement of number of potential trip origins in the deleted from the maps. These the quality of service and I therefore first zone (say houses) and with the criticisms are not wholly fair, since a searched the literature for relevant number of potential destinations (say simplified approach was inevitable, measures. The most likely source was workplaces) in the second, but would given the limitations of the computers the “Transportation Studies” which diminish with the distance between the of the day. Whereas today were then being carried out in all the two zones, measured in some conscientious urban planners will major Australian cities, though not yet combination of time and cost. This assess a wide variety of alternative in Sydney. ‘gravity’ model was ‘calibrated’ from locational patterns and transport the collected data and used to project connections even if they eventually The Transportation Studies changes in ‘travel demand’ as the succumb to the preferences of the cities followed their growth trends. The idea behind the Transportation roads lobby, developers and other Studies was to collect data on urban political groups. Their equivalents Though the Transportation Studies travel behaviour and to use these data were primarily road-building exercises, they acknowledged the MAP 8 The Times April 2020 3 existence of public transport as a lower engineer, C.L.Fouvy, the Study Transportation Study district. Other -cost, slower alternative to motoring. constructed two indices of public variables included the number of Each zone-to-zone travel estimate was transport service, one for the trains and resident workers, residents’ cars, subjected to a modal split calculation, the other for trams and buses. The students and jobs. In many districts the which divided travel demand between indices basically reflected the distance tram/bus index was significantly motoring and public transport from home to public transport and the associated with high tram/bus depending mainly on a cost/speed frequency of public transport service. patronage, and was also negatively comparison. It was expected that Fouvy defended the indices as follows: associated with rail patronage. The rail motoring would become more ‘Convenience of service is assumed index was not particularly successful affordable and that, provided road greater for two routes [or two rail as a predictor of rail patronage, and construction kept pace with travel stations] each with two vehicles an neither index was of much use in the demand, people would be able to save hour, than for one route with four prediction of car travel. The findings precious time by switching from vehicles an hour, since wider areas are were not fully analysed – for example, public transport to driving – hence the served. The use of the square root of it would have been useful to know case for freeway building. The data the service frequency places more whether there was a relationship were used to argue that people were emphasis on the number of routes between the indices and car ownership happy to pay for speed and that new serving the area than on the service rates. A finding that low car freeways would generate travel time frequency of an individual route. The ownership, high public transport savings worth millions of dollars. number of routes passing through a quality and high public transport usage district tends to increase in proportion characterise high-density suburbs The Fouvy indices of public to the size of the district, assuming could have led to a conclusion that transport quality equal service levels; dividing by the investment in increasing urban Despite this underlying agenda, the square root of the area provides densities would be better than Melbourne Transportation Study compensation for unequal district investment in freeways. size.’ attempted to go beyond the It remained for me to apply the Fouvy assumption that public transport is Fouvy’s rail and tram/bus indices were indices to Sydney. By 1970 there were always inferior to motoring and to calculated for the peak period and used no trams in Sydney, so the tram/bus investigate the response of modal split in a regression analysis to explain the index became a pure bus index. On the to the quality of public transport observed numbers of train, tram/bus other hand, Sydney had ferries which services in each zone. Under the and car trips originating and provided express service from guidance of a Tramways Board terminating in each Melbourne harbourside suburbs to Circular Quay. 4 The Times April 2020 These I treated as akin to rail services. Glenfield and Loftus (Map 7, lower distance from dwellings to the nearest Secondly, in lieu of the Melbourne left, page 3). The map shows local station or stop and second, the Transportation Study districts, I government boundaries as they were frequency of service once one reached divided Sydney into 408 rectangular in 1970. that station or stop. I began with the zones defined in terms of the map trains and ferries. Computing power The map of the bus index was a little reference grid employed in the sixth has now increased to the point where it more interesting. The best served areas edition of the UBD Sydney Street is simple to calculate the distance from were south of the Harbour, all the way Directory. Sydney was then smaller each dwelling in Sydney to the nearest from Ashfield to Bondi and Randwick. than it is now and my calculations did wharf or station, but the IBM 360/50 Elsewhere there were pockets of high not extend beyond Loftus, Hoxton which was the height of computing service, largely in Zones where bus Park, St Marys, Kellyville and power in 1970 fell way short of the routes were radiating out from a Berowra. Railway stations and ferry needed capacity so I resorted to railway station (Hurstville, wharves were readily allocated to approximations. I noted the number of Bankstown, Strathfield/Burwood, Zones and the frequency of service at stations and ferry wharves in each map Auburn, Parramatta and Blacktown). each station, both between 7 am and 9 zone, and if there were none, in the Services on the inner North Shore am and throughout the day on zone with the nearest station. With the were not as abundant as to the south of weekdays was readily obtained from aid of various assumptions and the the Harbour, and were quite sparse on the timetables. Route and timetable application of geometrical probability, the Outer North Shore, in Warringah information was also readily available I estimated the most probable average north of Dee Why, in Sutherland Shire for bus services operated by the distance from dwellings located in and in swathes of the Western suburbs.

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