[quote="RTT_Rules"]
[quote=Ethan1395][quote=a6et]There is enough space along the straight between Tascott & Koolewong to make provision for long platforms to suit 10 or more carriages, likewise on both sides of the line there is room for car parking, for those who are dropped off by family that is no great issue.
Koolewong & Point Clare do not have great car parking, and Tascott much less interestingly though with Tascott, how many car spaces are available there and how often is it full? It has approx 30-35 spots and I have yet to see them full. Realistically the Western side of the line will never be developed any further than it is now. Having one station for the area may well provide better services for those who live in the area.
The way things go these days, if those 3 stations were not there, where would a business case go if there was a call for 1, let alone 3. The way Brisbane Water Drive is these days, for commuters heading to Gosford to catch trains, most give it a miss owing to the congestion on it, but travelling to Woy Woy is a better option for them. Thing is with the area growing on the basis of retirement units, and extension for the Point Clare station, if car parking was available in better numbers, more people would use it, and likely be seen as a crucial stop justifying a 10 car train.[/quote]Having one station will also significantly increase the cost of living for those living in the area, possibly leading to someone families who once owned 1-2 cars needing to own 4 cars. Household budgets in Australia are already stretched thin as it is.
No one is suggesting stopping a 10 carraige train at these stations, people want smaller local shuttles serving these stations which would both be for local trips and connecting with express services at larger stations.
I cringe every time I drive past the hideous 10 carriage platform extension at Adamstown, that stations has good walk-up catchment and should be served by frequent 2 carriage local trains and not hourly/2 hourly 8/10 carraige intericty trains.
[quote=RTT_Rules]
[quote][quote]The passenger numbers at Koolewong, Tascot & Point Clare could be better served by one new platform large enough for all train on platform, and only one station to maintain along with better parking, cost to move the station owing to the crossing North of it, may as well go that bit further and have the one station.[/quote]You do advocate for closing local stations in favour of park & ride a lot, but I thought we were trying to encourage people to use cars less?
Ignoring the fact that park & ride often does not work due to the impossibility of providing enough parking for commuters, closing local stations in favour of park & ride also increases the cost of living for those on the rail corridor.
When a station is in walking distance, a family can own one car and one family member can drive while another uses the train, should the other family member need to use the car, then the one who normally drives can use the train - obviously it is not always as simple as this but it is certainly within the realm of possibility.
Take away the local station and make car ownership a pre-requisite to using the train, then every family member in said household needs to own a car, increasing the cost of living significantly.
And then there is the fact that pre-Covid, park & ride simply never worked, the car parks always filled to capacity.
[quote]Park & Ride only works if the car park is not going to fill to capacity, it certainly does not work in the Sydney suburban network.
The 2 car family is fairly entrenched (but still would be helpful to reduce to 1 car) but I'm talking about trying to prevent the 4 car family that we see in the likes of Newcastle where local transport options are so bad that employers won't hire someone who uses them, essentially forcing children from poorer families (who can't afford to buy them a car) into welfare dependence.
Agreed with what your other points, there should be two express services an hour, one ultra-express and one limited (see my above post), as well as Berowra-Wyong local shuttles connecting with express services and Newcastle local shuttles which both connect with express services but operate more frequently to connect with the light rail.
Also worth mentioning that there is plenty of development in Newcastle occurring near the railway, no one has just bothered to connect it to said railway.
How hard would it be develop a new Hunter Railcar with an electric motor and pantograph? I imagine the biggest issue would be if the Hunter Railcars would be too narrow for current regulations. Wouldn't a 4-carriage H-Set be a little overkill for local shuttles?[/quote]
Park'n'ride is very effective and sucessful in Sydney. Buses, bikes and walking would be nice 100% alternative, but in reality it's not a solution for everyone. In Sydney most of the car trips would be assumed to travel from perpendicular to the station as stations are generally close together.
People don't just want cars for commuting, there is also a thing call the "weekend". I'm fairly certain even if we both used PT to go to work we would still have a car each.
Berowa is too far south and unnecessary as there are only two other stations in between Berowa and Woy Woy and its not worth jamming up 20 odd km of track capacity for just these two stations.
4 car sets are used for similar or worse in Sydney, but if you really want to use a smaller train, just buy another few 3 car CAF's.[/quote]Park & Ride, I would suggest along that section with the 3 stations currently there is not that great, in fact its probably more Kiss and ride services from them, as I mentioned there will not be any new housing development on the western side of the line, so little future expansion of commuters is likely to happen. Koolewong has the level crossing on the Northern end, and with Exp services from Woy Woy, many commuters would go there from not just the Woy Woy area but also from the afore mentioned 3 stations. We travel down to Sydney and to Woy Woy, usually just outside of the Morning/evening commute and we do not see a great number of passengers get on or off at these stations.
Seriously speaking Point Clare & Tascot really are the weak links in this arena, owing to how close they are to each other. Point Clare as I said could be an ideal commuter station to take passengers to Gosford where it would amalgamate with a Sydney bound train or be there in time for passengers to change to a fast service to Sydney a win win for them. A look at the Demographics around the 3 stations shows a single 6-10 car set could serve the area better than it gets now.
Our problem of course is that we are in Covid times meaning the number of commuters are more than 75% down along the CC line as well as to the North to Wickham. Our nearest station is Victoria st and ATM the car park is only ever around half full on average for the morning and afternoon peaks, the pax numbers have dropped remarkably. Once something close to normality returns then we may get a better idea of how things will go.
Looking at the lines to NCL, realistically the growth areas are still around Wyong/Warnervale, then there may be a fair increase with the developments around Wyee and in the Morriset areas, that include Cooranbong. Most with the exception of Wyong and Warnervale will take time, to provide for extra train services, I would actually think there could be extensions at Morriset for Terminating trains there to run back and stop at Wyee - Warnervale in time when these housing developments are more advanced. There is a fair degree of road works around the Wyee station area ATM also to provide easy vehicle access to the station on the Western side also the station now has upgrades with lifts in operation.