"Shock and Awe" in Chalmers Street

Duncan Gay

The Minister for Roads, Duncan Gay, announced on 15th July 2011: "there is no longer an RTA". NSW Maritime, the Transport Construction Authority and Country Rail Infrastructure Authority also ceased to exist. They were subsumed into Transport for NSW a statutory authority created on 1 November 2011 by the O'Farrell government. Transport for NSW (TfNSW) would report to the Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, and would control the functions of Rail Corp and own Metro Transport Sydney. TfNSW would be answerable to no-one and would have no checks or balances.

On 13 December 2012, TfNSW launched an extraordinary attack on the Public Bus services that it had a statutory obligation to administer. The Public Bus services were castigated because "only 19 to 34 per cent of buses achieve running within two or three minutes of the time table in the Anzac Parade and CBD corridor". It was claimed that 97% of trams would achieve this, hardly surprising, since it also claimed that trams in peak periods would not have timetables and would be running every three minutes regardless of how many passengers they carried.

This unprovoked and dastardly attack laid the grounds for the O'Farrell government's ideological assault on Public Transport, however. By making bus services much less likely to run on schedule their status would be further undermined.

TfNSW has contrived to make every bus that is forcibly terminated, at any tram stop, set off immediately, regardless of the scheduled departure. Hardly any bus services will run on schedule!

Chalmers Street now Central Station stop

The only difference between the artists impression of the Chalmers Street stop released in December 2012 and the Central Station stop unveiled on 9/11 13 is the pedestrians. These are supplied in libraries with graphics applications. I could have photoshopped an image of O'Farrell into the final photo of this blog, but why lower myself.

It was in Chalmers Street that TfNSW would deliver its coup de grace to the Public Transport System of NSW.

Elizabeth Street bus services terminated at the Central Station stop, the only stop where they can be terminated, will be forced to insert themselves into a single lane of general traffic in order to make a hairpin turn round the Dental Hospital, then set off again immediately. 

But this alone is not sufficient to cripple the Public Bus services. There are bus services that cannot be terminated such as the "Railway Square" and Crown Street bus services. These must be crushed.

Traffic from the southern suburbs of Sydney has a choice of routes to reach the Wentworth Avenue distributor. Vehicles can use Chalmers Street, or they can use a much more convoluted route of Lee Street then Pitt Street then Eddy Avenue. Needless to say, the preferred route is Chalmers Street. In the bewitching hour of 8-9 AM on the Tuesday in 2005, (page 35, k5sy4.doc) there were 1420 vph in Chalmers Street. There were 1209 vph the previous hour and 1325 vph the following hour then it remained around 1000 vph the rest of the day. On the other hand there were 1063 vph in Lee Street in this period (page 15, k5sy3a), and most of this traffic would have been heading for George Street then Hay Street and Darling Harbour and the Hungry Mile - Skyhigh would be able to determine how much non-bus traffic turns from Lee Street into Pitt Street.

Lee Street, Railway Square

Railway Square bus interchange

This is fortuitous for the Public Bus services since traffic in Chalmers Street has a minimal effect on the entry of buses to the CBD, which can continue regardless of congestion in the central lanes. Prior to the construction of the bus parking area in Lee Street, "Railway Square" bus services would circle the bus island using Little Regent Street, now they are vulnerable to traffic densities in Lee Street, and in particular to traffic turning into Pitt Street.

So, reducing Chalmers Street to one lane forces the traffic it carries into Lee Street and Pitt Street. TfNSW is not only stuffing up the Elizabeth Street bus services, whether they are terminated or carry on to Circular Quay, the "Railway Square" bus services are collateral damage.

And TfNSW does not stop there. The congestion in Pitt Street caused by the incompetent attempt to terminate Parramatta Road and City Road bus services in Pitt Street will force traffic to find yet another alternative route. The only other route that accesses the same destinations as Wentworth Avenue and College Street is Crown Street.

Crown Street in 2005 (page 33, k5sy4) was carrying half the traffic that Chalmers Street carried during the morning - less than 700 vph. The sample station is just south of Devonshire Street. The photo shows the traffic in this section around 8 AM on a Friday.

Crown Street, south of Devonshire Street

The intersection of Cleveland, Baptist and Crown Streets is operating at around capacity at this time so Crown Street is carrying as much traffic as it can. Currently, Devonshire Street distributes north-bound traffic to Bourke Street, Riley Street and Surry Hills west of Crown. The tramway will put a stop to this. Even so Crown Street is currently operating near to capacity further north at Foveaux Street.

Crown Street, south of Foveaux Street, 8 AM

North-bound traffic displaced into Crown Street will have a devastating impact on businesses in Redfern Street, Baptist Street and Crown Street, but most significantly it will cripple bus services that run along Crown Street.

With the master stoke of narrowing Chalmers Street to one lane, O'Farrell will have crippled every bus service south of Sydney Harbour that enters the CBD.