Proposed Dandenong Timetable

This timetable was prepared after I'd had a real argument with a certain person on Railpage. See the thread here: http://www.railpage.com.au/f-t11316413.htm.

Now, the important thing: Download DNGTT.XLS. This is not certified virus free etc etc. But I wrote it with Mesa which runs on OS/2 and doesn't get viruses, and what's more I had Norman running the whole time. So there's no viruses (viri? virii, viriii, viriv, virv?) in it.

NB: This document looks at EVENING PEAK. Morning peak can be sort of similar, off-peak just depends how much we want to spend on drivers and train-kms.

Goal

• To show what levels of service can be given by proper use of a third track to Dandenong
• To measure the requirements in trains and drivers
• To wipe the floor with Savethehumans, who I think might have the Excel skill and railway knowledge to do this - but then, I think Connex might pull out, the third track project might come in under budget, and Lucifer might need a nice warm scarf this winter. STOP PRESS: Savethehumans has read this page and said "Nice bit of defamation". I'm telling him, in comparison to some of the things he's said himself in that thread, this page counts as a scholarship to MENSA.

• High speed (115km/h) on the centre track to CFD-DNG and the western pair SYR-CFD, decreasing section times from 18min to 16min and 7min to 5min (these are highly conservative estimates)
• Signalling to allow 2min headways on all tracks SYR-DNG
• Two sidings on the south side of Dandenong as per Camberwell and Newport so stoppers can get out of the way of next arrival; put toilet etc for drivers there
• Flinders St platforms 6-9 dedicated to and 10-13 available for Caulfield group services: 6 = PKM/CBE expresses, via loop; 7 = DNG stoppers and V/Line services, direct; 8 = FKN expresses and SHM stoppers, via loop; 9 = DNG stoppers, direct; 10/12 = BBH-WIL/UFD stoppers; 13 = CHM stoppers, direct.
• Flyovers to allow trains to cross from express to stopping pairs (or vice versa) on the up side of Caulfield

• Frequency
• Speed - City to Dandenong in half an hour
• Clockface timetables
• Equal numbers of expresses and stoppers, so outer suburbs get fast service without inner suburbs getting bad frequency
• Sandringham services via the Loop
• All Loop services, if missed at FSS, can be caught at Richmond, usually without changing platforms, and with time at RMD to change platforms if necessary
• Relatively fast through-running of south/eastern services to north/western - BBH services running through to WIL and UFD through FSS Pfm 10/12, with only 1-2min waiting. Upfield timetable to be phase shifted by 10min (50%) - any issues at North Melb Junction?

Service	Today	Proposed
Serving HKN-TRK-ARM-MAL	5	24
Serving CNE-MRB-HUG	6	12
Serving OAK, express	3	12 (Fast to SPG and DNG also)
Serving OAK-DNG	9 (except one skips HTD)	12
Serving DNG-PKM	5	6
Serving DNG-CBE	3	6
Serving CHM, express	4	6
Serving MOR-FKN	7	6 - see below under Problems
Services direct to RMD	6 (not counting ALM and BBN)	24
Services to SHM	6	6
Services to BBH	6	12
Trains required	41*	91**

CFD-DNG down lines run at 40% of capacity; up line at 80% of capacity (assuming no trains stable) - plenty of leeway for catch-up time and for V/Line services.

Problems, and options to look at

This focuses somewhat on the Dandenong lines. Unfortunately there isn't the capacity at Flinders Street to give Frankston the same level of service. Between Richmond and Caulfield there is room for one more express and one more stopper in every cycle, which would bring Frankston's service up to the level of Dandenong's. However this would require two more platforms at Flinders Street and displace Sandringham services from the Loop.

An option would be to pull the Dandenong stoppers down from 5-minutely to 10-minutely. However this would mean that the stations from Oakleigh to Dandenong get downgraded from nine trains an hour to six. As it is, they get an upgrade and Mordialloc-Frankston only suffers a small downgrade from seven trains to six.

This is not ideal, but since they are getting more express running, some of the load on the through trains will be transferred to the Cheltenham trains (of which there is an increase).

An interesting way around it would be to run trains out of North Melbourne Yard, through Southern Crossern Spencer Street, stop at Flinders Street platform 9 (which would be unoccupied for four minutes out of each ten except in case of late running) but just treat it as any other station, and then run direct to Richmond, stop South Yarra, Caulfield, Moorabbin and then all stations to Frankston. This idea shamelessly pinched from Connex as per http://www.railpage.com.au/f-p583222.htm#583222.

Alternatively, if you will forgive me bringing in another hobby horse, reduce some of the Frankston load (Frankston is the busiest station outside the City Saver area, I'm told), run a Stony Point train from Southern Crossern, stopping FSS, RMD, SYR, CFD, MRN, CHM, MOR, FKN and all stations to Stony Point. And make it available to suburban passengers. Five Sprinters be enough?

The author extends special thanks to:

• Vicsig for the Line Guides
• Connex and Metlink for current timetables and hence running times
• Sweet As in Box Hill for the Jelly Beans

^*Presumably, since at one point the EDI Comengs basically stayed on the Caulfield group and the Siemens on the Northern group, Caulfield services (including Sandringham) must take approx 97/2-15% = 41 trains (97 x 3-car sets in the fleet, all arranged as six-cars, with 15% spare for maintenance).

^**If this is not achievable Sandringham and perhaps Dandenong services can be run with three-car sets, saving 4 and 11.5 six-car sets respectively