Sydney trains buckle under immigration crush

In late 2018, the endless immigration-driven population flood into Sydney drove the city’s train system into meltdown:

Pressure on Sydney’s Town Hall train station has grown significantly during peak periods due to a 23 per cent surge in passengers in just three years, raising the prospect of staff limiting access to platforms more often to avoid severe overcrowding.

The growth underscores the demands on Sydney’s already stretched rail network from a population boom…

Mr Collins said a major surge in passengers at Town Hall during peak periods – especially evenings – was partly due to a near doubling in people catching trains to and from fast-growing suburbs such as Mascot and the Green Square precinct in Sydney’s inner south…

Then in February, NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance admitted that “off-the-charts” demand had stretched the train system to its limits:

Sydney’s 163-year-old train network is struggling under the demands of what the government describes as “an explosion in demand”. Last year passengers took more than 413 million journeys on the rail system, up 38 per cent from 300 million in 2013.

And over the next three years a 21 per cent rise in annual passenger trips is forecast…

“A hundred million passenger increase in a five-year period is off the charts, and that’s what we’ve had to cater for.”

Today, The SMH reports that Sydney’s trains are “regularly failing to run on time during [the] evening peak” due to exploding demand:

Commuters on Sydney’s busiest rail lines are regularly unable to get home on time during the evening peak on weekdays, as new figures show the T1 Western and T8 South lines have been the worst performers over the last year for passengers…

Mathew Hounsell, a researcher at the University of Technology’s Institute for Sustainable Futures, said the poor on-time running was due to a combination of factors, including crowding at stations such as Town Hall and Wynyard in the CBD forcing trains to wait longer.

“Crowded platforms push out dwell times. People cluster around the stairs at the north end of Town Hall,” he said.

Mr Hounsell said the performances of trains would worsen if the trend of a growing population and ensuing record increases in patronage of the rail system continued.

Sydney’s population is projected to balloon by around 90,000 people every year for the next 48 years to nearly 10 million people. Therefore, the train network will continue to be overrun and become increasingly congested:

Moreover, according to Infrastructure Australia modelling, the crush-loading will extend well beyond public transport to include Sydney’s roads, schools, hospitals and green space, regardless of whether Sydney builds up or out:

How’s the ‘vibrancy’, Sydney? Just imagine how much worse liveability will get when Sydney’s population roughly double s around 10 million people?

This is a disaster in the making. And for what? To feed High-rise Harry and Transurban more customers?

Cut immigration.

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