North on South, South on North

This week marks the first week of official running of Northern Comengs on the Southside, and Southside Comengs on the Northside.

EDIT: They are unrestricted in their running, so expect them anywhere.

I rode the 17.05 down Werribee, which formed the 18.03 up, and Brendan03 (yes.... that Brendan! ) was at Werribee for.

We ran on time as far as Laverton Junction, we sat there for a minute as the 17.11 down (super express) was running late, it passed us there, and almost as soon as it cleared the junction we were moving again. We arrived into platform 1 at Laverton as the express was departing platform 2. This allowed us to stay (close to) on time while letting the late running express get sufficiently ahead of us as well. Most passengers leaving at Laverton were rather confused at the location of the platform. We crossed back to the correct track just before Aircraft. I must say, its very good to see the bi-di being used for small advantages like this. Two thumbs up to the signaller at Newport!

It formed the 18.49 down Broadmeadows after that, which I didn't ride.

Coley was on the train for the two previous runs it did, which were the 13.45 down Werribee and return, and the 15.34 down Sydenham and return.

Hansonator also spotted this set running a Broadmeadows earlier this morning.

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While it is still reletively "uncommon"... lets post sightings here.... and stop once it becomes widespread.

Is brendan still on the dole? Oh, and did anyone get a pic? I hope to be out early in the new year and get a few shots

Cheers

I crossed one near Moonee Ponds, and waited for it to come back. Then it migrated to the Werribee line.

Photos soon

Of Brendan or the Comeng?

YAY!!!!! A VARIETY OF TRAINS!!!!!

Are they swapping xtraps and Siemens?

No, FFS!

X'Trapolis trains can not run in revenue service on South lines as the destinations can't all be programmed.

Could someone tell me when an EDI Comeng is rostered to run through Ringwood?

Post whore!!!

You didn't even read the first post did you???

That is such a stupid excuse!!!! Why can't they just blank all stations after Eltham (as every second service terminates there) and run these trains down Frankston way? Or they can just place more memory in the system. It can't be THAT hard.

Or, the drivers could announce the next station.

Oh maybe the systems could announce which door to exit as well. This would be helpful as well i reckon.

That is not the reason, and I don't actually believe that to be true, I believe it could hold all the info, but it isn't loaded in, I will choose to believe this till I see proof it isn't true, AGATE memory can be expanded anyway, so it's pretty much a non-issue. The major reason is that they haven't been tested and cleared to run on most of the other lines is that it is particually hard to get a X'trapolis cleared on the south side due to signal siting and SPOT issues due to the position of the control desk, many signals may need to be adjusted and mirrors or SPOT monitors may be needed at certain stations.

Siemens can't run on the North side due to the system wide PID info not being programmed in. They also have clearance issues (especially on Clifton Hill group, although they have run to Epping a few times now).

Of course he is! Are all the EDI & Alstom sets running both sides of the network, or just a few sets running on both sides?

I hope the 07.45 City Loop from FKN will be an Alstom Comeng.

Search is your friend. The reasons behind the continuing separation of the newer fleets has been discussed before.

It could easily be cleared on the south side of Connex south (i.e Caulfield loop) as Xtraps have been down to Dandenong for driver training in the past.

How about clearance of Siemens on BELGrave/LILydale line? Any progress on that?

It's part of Connex's franchise agreement that every train must be able to announce every station, that's why.

If you were a driver, would you like to announce every station, keep in mind you have to do it all day, no? Didn't think so.

If you are too stupid to look out the window to see which side the platform is, you shouldn't be catching PT.

Yes, for driver training, they don't have to stop at stations, so that any SPOT problems may not be evident.

Again, post whoring; The Siemens are still running South sides and the X'traps are running North sides, they are not in question here. And Belgrave is BEG not BEL, BEL is Bell, please get things right.

A lot of the time they do stop all stations, and open the doors on the non-platform side.

Save the three letter codes for filenames of digital photos e.g. 601M-T-M-LIL-060814-1.jpg. Set - (description) - Where it is - date - photo number (if more than 1). If it's carriage specific you can just put the one car in e.g. 601M-interior-LIL-060814-3.jpg.

Did you post that in the wrong thread?

Nah, just pointing out to Azn_dj that station codes are better confined to that rather than everyday words. Hope it doesn't sound too "post-whorish"!

heh, you can talk!

in other news, I caught one this arvo to Middle Brighton which was an ex-Sydenham

No not at all, even if anyone does use them, it would be good if they use the correct ones too.

Well, they are stickied, as well as on the Connex SMS timetables so it can't be that hard to find them. Anyone who's been interested in trains for more than a month should know them, or at least the ones around their area, although Chelsea isn't very close to Belgrave!

Another code that people get mixed up is Huntingdale and Heatherdale. HDT also isn't a station code, it's Holden Dealer Team.

Back on track I suppose.

Saw only one today, a 6 car Alstom arrived at Sunshine at 4:00pm, didn't catch the numbers though.

Haven't seen one besides that, I didn't spend my whole day on the train network, caught a Siemens at 4:02pm and went down to Flinders and that was it, came home by bus.