"Run over the bastards"

Five segment tram

I asked the tech guy at the final "information session" before the close of the exhibition period what kind of emergency braking will be used by the LRVs. He said that that would be left for the PPP (Public/Private/Partner) to decide. He also claimed that current trams could stop in the same distance or better than rubber-tyre buses - not physically possible. In the past some trams used electromagnetic controlled blocks between the wheels of the bogies that dropped onto the tracks to dissipate kinetic energy but modern trams use the equivalent of ABS braking on rubber-tyre vehicles to stop them going into the infamous death slide where the driver saw the tram accelerate as the wheels locked. The point at which antilock braking cuts in depends on the friction between the small-diameter steel wheels and the steel track. This depends on whether the track is wet or dry and on the cleanness of tracks level with the road surface but it is low - Chris Lock told the meeting at Sydney High School repeatedly that trams cannot go up grades greater than 7% as they "cannot stop". They cannot swerve to avoid a collision as well.

Hey Kids, ain't trams fun to play with?

Goldlinq tram cutout

The companies that manufacture segmented tram chassis internationally are few and far between but their web sites give no information on emergency braking, and what would be the point of speculating on where the PPP would source the trams. The Gold Coast is the only place in the world that will run seven segment trams, in small part, through existing streets so we will use this as an example.

The Gold Coast trams are undergoing testing for safety this year. Kid's activity packs and colouring-in books have been issued and school kids are being lectured on the "science" of trams. Queensland is the only state where tradies died through not turning off the power when installing ceiling insulation so safety would be an important consideration. Contrary to the conventions of the Westminster System, North Shore politicians set up a Royal Commission and released redacted Cabinet documents. The former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd successfully had restrictions on the information removed and in his testimony did not suffer the "massive memory losses" experienced by Sinodinos and O'Farrell and other politicians at ICAC hearings. The Royal Commission has given family members of the four workers who died a multimillion dollar platform to rend their sackcloths, but more importantly, under the tit-for-tat rule of politics, a Royal Commission into Transport for NSW following the inevitable deaths and serious injuries by trams will be able to access the Cabinet deliberations of the Baird government if the Project is approved.

Tram stopping Gold Coast traffic

The safety campaign states that safety is a shared responsibility but the message is that if you are hit by a tram it is your fault. This will no doubt be challenged by contingency law firms - the PPP is apparently being indemnified by the State Government and Gold Coast Council. The web site emphasises that the tram tracks are separate from the from the road tarmac and have a different colour. For the most part the tracks are completely separate from the road system, having their own bridge across the Nerang River and travelling alongside the Gold Coast Highway.

Gold Coast Hospital, Nerang Street 

The exception is where the trams make a dogleg along Nerang Street and Scarborough Street to provide stops at the Gold Coast Hospital and the Southport city centre. The stop at the hospital occupies roadway formally used for 90 degree central parking - the tracks are separated from the roadway with raised kerbing except for the ambulance-only crossing (top right). There are separate lanes for turning and straight-through traffic at the few minor crossings where right-hand turns across the tracks are permitted. The differences between the situation in High Street at Prince of Wales Hospital could not be more stark.

 
The stop at the hairpin bend into the Southport retail centre is the only place in the system where the trams pass through a pedestrianised area - it is only one block long. Pedestrians are being instructed to cross the rails only at signalised crossings. The black lines presumably represent where trams are required to stop when pedestrian movements are taking place. It is of course physically impossible to stop people crossing the rails at tram stops but the crossings are at the natural pedestrian paths. In Devonshire Street the only signalised crossing between Crown Street and Elizabeth Street will be at Marlborough Street which is not and never will be a pedestrian path. Contingency lawyers will have little difficulty in arguing that it was not a realistic expectation for pedestrians to divert to this crossing.

The light rail feasibility study

The Goldlinq project had a long gestation period. It was first mooted in a Gold Coast City Council Transport Plan in 1996 and the Queensland and Federal Governments funded a professional feasibility study in 2002 - the draft summary report was released in 2004. Alignment diagrams for the entire route have been published and show the lane direction arrows in adjacent roads. The Queensland Government committed $464 million to the project in 2009 supplementing $365 million provided by the Federal Government and $120 million from the Council and contracts were awarded in June 2011.

In NSW the route for a light rail project was determined on the whim of the then Premier. The project has never been subjected to a feasibility study and has never been endorsed by successive Federal Governments. Alignment diagrams for the portion of the route through areas in the jurisdiction of the Sydney City Council were inadvertently released in the Council's submission for the EIS but these have been superseded in the Preferred Infrastructure Report.

"There are winners and losers"

The Deputy Director General Transport for NSW Chris Lock told the Randwick Business breakfast in April 2013 that there are winners and losers. I for one had already raised concerns to the Minister about the unacceptable hazard that the design would impose on pedestrians and passengers - the losers would not only be those who lost their livelihoods but also those who lost their lives. There has been no attempt to address these concerns.

Cancerous growth on High Street

Nelune Cancer Centre, Avoca Street

The Health Minister Jillian Skinner and the member for Coogee Bruce Notley-Smith announced on 4 December 2013 that plans for the Nelune Comprehensive Cancer Centre at Prince of Wales Hospital would be on public exhibition until December 13. The exhibition period closed the day after the first disclosure of the plans for the tram rails through Randwick.

Construction site at High Street/Avoca Street corner

The plans are for the demolition of the present oncology unit, which is replaced by a building with facades right up to the street boundaries of of the block at High Street. There can never ever be a bus stop in High Street between Avoca Street and the University of NSW. The first stage, a deep excavation for underground levels up to the Avoca/High Street corner of the block, is under construction.

The red markings on the road may have something to do with the tram rails. Devonshire Street is being closed for road works on the weekends but Randwick City Council is clearly treated with more respect than the undemanding Sydney City Council.

High Street frontage of Prince of Wales Hospital

In fact, there will never ever be a bus stop in High Street to the east of Wansey Road. The revised EIS relocates the tram stop at the south end of Wansey Road into the middle of High Street diverting the single westbound lane into the grounds of the University of NSW. For Coogee/Parramatta Road bus services there will be a new bus stop way to the south in Perouse Road (according to the dubious access diagrams prepared by Aecom) and the next stop will be god knows where west of Wansey Road - the bus stops will be further apart than tram stops!

But the disadvantage for Coogee residents pales to insignificance beside the disadvantages for Eastern Suburbs commuters. Bus services from Bondi Junction use Clara Street to access High Street from Belmore Road since there is no right turn from Avoca Street.

Bus turning into Clara Street

In order to physically turn into Clara Street bus drivers must swing into the centre lane after leaving the bus stop - car drivers are required to give way. They must "encroach on the light rail alignment" making the passengers sitting ducks to be run down by cattle cars with priority signalling. The redeeming feature of the design is that children injured on buses run down by trams will not have to wait for ambulances to thread their way, god knows how, through lanes of grid-locked traffic: the stretchers can be wheeled directly into the Children's Emergency Unit at Prince of Wales. Through traffic in the single eastbound lane of High Street will be blocked from travelling in parallel with tram movements not only by buses turning right into Avoca Street but also by buses turning left into Clara Street.

The Bondi Junction to Rockdale bus routes (numbers 400 and 410) are arguably the most important regional bus routes in the Sydney metropolitan area. They connect the Eastern Suburbs with Randwick, Prince of Wales Hospital, University of NSW, Maroubra Junction, Mascot and the Airport terminals and thence to the southern rail line.

The Eastern Suburbs are the natural catchment area for Prince of Wales Hospital - with the closure of Prince Henry Hospital the only other teaching hospital is St Vincents and this was threatened with closure. The revised EIS chortles: "The relocation of the UNSW High Street stop into High Street would provide ... more convenient access to the medical and hospital precinct to the east". The government is obliterating the bus stops used by services from the Eastern Suburbs to give priority to a radial transport system from the Manly ferry terminal. It should be noted that the submission of Randwick City Council to the exhibited EIS suggested that if the stop was relocated it might withdraw its opposition to the High Cross Park terminal.

The Knutters of the Round Table

The 13 December 2012 brochure listed the Members of the Sydney Light Rail Round Table. Among them were:

• University of NSW
• University of Sydney
• Randwick City Council
• City of Sydney
• Transport for NSW
• NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure
• NSW Treasury
• Infrastructure NSW
• Member for Coogee, Bruce Notley-Smith, MP

I wrote to the University of Sydney, my alma mater, asking if they could provide more information than was provided in the brochure - no response. When the Member for Sydney, my MP, was inducted to the Round Table I wrote to his office. His website reported that the meetings were "closed" - members were sworn to secrecy. There was not even any information on the individuals that took part. It was at these secret meetings in 2012 that the routes of the tram rails were decided.

It should be noted that Transport for NSW that prepared the exhibited EIS and the revised EIS and NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure that has the statutory obligation to assess the EIS (or should that be EISs) were both on these Round Tables.

Revised down

The exhibited EIS cropped the indicative plan of the High Cross Park terminus to conceal that Belmore Road, the sine qua non arterial between Eastern Australia north of Kirribilli and Coogee, would be reduced to a single lane culminating inexorably as a right turn lane. This would not be revealed until the Preferred Infrastructure Report was released months after the exhibition period had closed. The diagrams included in the Technical Papers by Booz & Company deceptively showed two southbound lanes in Belmore Road.

Members of the Round Table included the "honorable" Bruce Notley-Smith and the Randwick City Council and they would have been fully aware that the residents of Coogee and Randwick were being deliberately deceived to deny them any opportunity to raise objections. They are clearly contemptuous of the people who elected them to office and pay them enormous salaries and pensions for life.

There is one startling difference in the revised plan and the diagrams that preceded it: the switch points in front of the oncology department have been deleted. The buildings shown in the revised plan are of the old, to be demolished, oncology department, so the revised plan was prepared before the EIS was exhibited and was deliberately repressed. But why delete the switch points? Booz & Company insisted that only one rail into High Cross Park would be in use at any one time but Parsons Brinckerhoff suggested that trams would alternate between platforms. If the revised plan is approved by the assessors Parsons Brinckerhoff will have triumphed.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption

Barry O'Farrell told the ICAC on Tuesday: "PPPs have been a fact of life since they were introduced by Nick Greiner,  like it or not". I was still surprised when I learned when writing this post that he had followed the career path of Nick Greiner and will resign as Premier after irrefutable evidence emerged that he had lied to an ICAC inquiry.

Misleading the ICAC about a $3000 bottle of Grange red wine is pitiful but it is revealing about the way the state Liberal Party has gone about business from the days of Robin Askin. The Light Rail Project was conceived in meetings where the participants were sworn to secrecy; the underlying assumptions behind the decisions made were never revealed; the public has no information on the individuals who were involved in the decision making; when the project is announced to the public they are told that no change is possible.

It has gotten a whole lot worse than it was under Askin with a deliberately contradictory Environmental Impact Statement that with-held information on matters of public safety and made public servants from across the public service complicit in approving the project without there not being proper disclosure of the impacts on traffic and on the public bus services.

News Corp archive - O'Farrell succession

Just when you thought it could not get any worse, the picture above lifted from News Corp was tagged farrel-succession.

Dial M for Mindless obliteration

Technical Paper 1

Randwick and Coogee have the best public bus services in Sydney. People, including myself, had to make the effort to achieve this in the 1980s, and it is sad to see these services being utterly debased. Currently bus services in the Randwick retail centre that grew up along the nineteenth century tram routes in Belmore Road give direct access, without changing buses, to Bondi Junction, Sydney Airport, Rockdale (routes 400, 410); to Central Station and Railway Square (route 372); express to Bent Street in the CBD (route X73); all stops to Circular Quay via Oxford and Elizabeth Streets (routes 373, 377); to Central and then Circular Quay via Foveaux Street (route 376).

As well as these there is the M50 service direct to Drummoyne. Using the Oyster (aka Opal) Card one can switch destinations from a bus stop in Elizabeth Street, say south of Bathurst Street, to other Metrobus destinations - Chatswood via the freeway and Gore Hill via the Pacific Highway; and potentially other destinations. One can of course also switch to destinations further along Victoria Road.

M50 route

Public transport users in Randwick, and also in Coogee and northern Maroubra who may need to switch destinations in Belmore Road, can directly access every destination in the CBD and the major centres north of the Harbour. None of these services are anywhere near reaching capacity accept for the two services that pass through the mother of all "pinch points" in Elizabeth Street northbound.

The M50 and 372 services set down passengers at the entrance to the Devonshire Street entrance to the Central Station platforms and swift train services to Town Hall, Wynyard and Circular Quay Stations, and all the other stations in Rail network.

As can be seen in the diagram above from the Technical Papers in the EIS every one of the public transport services above, except for the express AM peak service to Bent Street, will be obliterated by a privately-operated tramway that only gives access to a trio of stops at Town Hall Station, Wynyard Station, a duo of stops at Circular Quay Station, and one other stop at China Town. The only buses passing though the Belmore Road retail strip will be buses that have been forcibly terminated at the triangular Highcross Park and forced to travel to Randwick Junction at the northern end of Belmore Road in order to physically turn round.

Mother of all right-hand turns

Go figure 8

The thing to note about the figures above of the Highcross Park interchange: only one of the rails will be in use in the morning and evening peaks, with the crossover occurring just before the Avoca Road intersection. But buses need to make return journeys at all times of the day! As we shall see, the number of buses in High Street will be horrendous at all times of the day.

Booz & Company assert disingenuously in the Technical Papers: "Metrobus routes M10 and M50 are not proposed to operate in the Eastern Suburbs as their function is largely undertaken by the CSELR." In fact, the raison d'etre for the Metrobus services was to provide extra services that did not send buses through the "pinch points" in Elizabeth and George Streets north of Market Street. A tram service that dumps passengers at Central Station and carries on empty to Circular Quay is the antithesis of these services.

TfNSW is obliterating the M50 service to Victoria Road, Drummoyne because it desperately needs the route for another purpose. Buses using this route along High Street, Anzac Parade, Cleveland Street and Chalmers Street will not continue along Elizabeth Street, they will be turned into Eddy Avenue and the newly created "pinch point" in Pitt Street. TfNSW will be terminating Parramatta Road bus services displaced from George Street at Coogee Beach rather than Phillip Street, Circular Quay. It is a binary choice: force displaced buses through the mother of all "pinch points" in Elizabeth Street northbound; or though the newly created congestion in Cleveland Street, Anzac Parade at the Carlton Street tram stop, and High Street.

Commuters in Coogee will also have a binary choice:

1. Catch a bus that goes to Central Station and transfer to a train to Town Hall, Wynyard and Circular Quay.
2. Transfer to a privately-operated cattle car that takes them to the same destinations plus one more, China Town. It is just a short walk from an Eddy Avenue bus stop to China Town!

Needless to say, TfNSW will be eliminating bus stops along High Street and other Randwick bus routes, making the stops 800 metres to 1 km apart, so the buses will be as inconvenient as the privately-operated trams. But bus stops can be easily restored by electing a state government and local councils that do not have an ideological imperative to force commuters from Public Transport onto privately-owned transport.

If this ridiculous project is approved the voters of Randwich an Coogee will have the job ahead of them, like the boy with the wheel barrow. Cleansing the Randwick stables will be a Herculean task but it has to be done.

Randwick cries "hold, enough".

Randwick tram reserves, Kynaston Avenue

More than 30 years ago Professor Stephenson mentioned at a community meeting in Surry Hills that he had to attend another meeting in Randwick. This was the first that I was aware that there had been concern in Randwick as well as Wolloomolloo and Surry Hills. Randwick was way out in the sticks.

In 1999 a friend was diagnosed with leukaemia and without hesitation opted for chemotherapy at the oncology department at Prince of Wales Hospital. I rang the trip finder line to find out which bus to get to go to the hospital. The operator told me which stop in Albion Street to go to. I figured out for myself that a Flinders Street service was the best way home. I was spoiled for choice. O'Farrell will be obliterating these services - you will be told in the future to walk almost the entire length of Surry Hills to catch a privately-operated tram.

My friend did the whole course of chemo and attended Sunday Mass, where he was singled out by the priest for returning to the Church and experiencing a recovery. He celebrated with a few drinks that afternoon and was dead that evening. But that's another story. In the meantime I had made many trips to Randwick. Rather than just wait for a bus I sometimes explored the shopping and civic centre along Belmore Road, catching the bus further on. I recall noting the number of traditional church buildings that had closed down and been recycled by cult institutions.

Historically, the old tram lines went along Cowper Street and an exclusive tram reserve (shown on maps as Kynaston Avenue) to Belmore Road, and this would have led to the main retail and religious buildings in Randwick developing along Belmore Road. The bus services that replaced the trams replicated this route, along Cowper and Cook Streets. The Randwick retail strip has continued to thrive for the 60 years since the replacement of the trams.

Thriving Belmore Road shopping strip

Randwick Junction

O'Farrell will be changing all that. After transferring their passengers to privately-operated trams public buses will travel on empty along Belmore Road to make a right-hand turn into Alison Road where they will terminate or carry on to inflict co-lateral damage on the Eastern Suburbs bus services at Bondi Junction.

The trip finder will tell anyone wanting to reach destinations in the CBD from places in Belmore Road to walk south the entire length of the road to catch a tram at the southernmost end. Commuters realise full well that the time a trip takes is the time taken to reach a stop plus the time spent on the vehicle. Priority at traffic lights will not make trams competitive with the excellent bus services to Randwick, so O'Farrell will have to terminate them.

Businesses in Belmore Road will not only be affected by the diversion of bus passengers; vehicle flows in Belmore Road will be affected by traffic making right-hand turns at Alison Road and Avoca Street for the first time.

Randwick Council has responded to the howls of protest from their constituents and has made much the same objections raised by this blog. You can read the Randwick Council submission to the EIS here: http://yoursayrandwick.com.au/document/show/685

Last Exit from Barangaroo (expurgated version)

The Menzies Government banned the novel "Last Exit to Brooklyn" - it contains naughty words. Now the O'Farrell Government is redefining the definition of "obscenity".

Deceptive diagram of City Roads in 9/11 13 brochure

Vehicular access to Darling Harbour and Barangaroo from the south is from George Street via Hay Street which is not shown as a one-way road in the 9/11 13 brochure. Vehicular access to the CBD west of George Street from the south and from the Eastern Suburbs is from Liverpool Street, into Kent Street, which is not shown as one-way west of Elizabeth Street and inexplicably ceases to be a "priority route for general vehicle traffic within the city centre" from Elizabeth Street to Pitt Street and west of Kent Street.

Vehicles from New South Head Road have other options: they can access Kent Street from Druitt Street and Barangaroo and Darling Harbour via the cross-city tunnel.

Cross-City Tunnel exit

There are at least five lanes of traffic (the yellow  lines) plus two more from Pier Street, and the Cross City Tunnel, feeding vehicles into Barangaroo and Darling Harbour. Unfortunately, the only way traffic can return to the Eastern Suburbs from Barangaroo via the cross-city tunnel is by looping from Sussex Street into Liverpool Street then into Harbour Street North: Sussex Street is the only exit to the Eastern Suburbs and the southern suburbs whether they use the tunnels or the surface roads. Needless to say, Sussex Street is slowed to a crawl throughout the evening hours on week days - it is quicker to walk.

Binary choice, turn into Bathurst,

or continue to Liverpool Street

Attempts to force drivers to pay the cross city tunnel toll by generating congestion in Bathurst Street and William Street have failed dismally. Nationalizing the loss-making Cross-City Tunnel, in line with Liberal Party ideology, and reducing the toll, will not mitigate congestion in Sussex Street. The Tunnel is a cause of the congestion. Pedestrianizing George Street between Market and Bathurst Streets will force vehicles from the off-street parking in Pitt Street north of Park Street into Sussex Street, and congestion will get much worse as Barangaroo is built.

Private cars can exit Sussex Street, eventually, into Harris Street via Ultimo Road, but Public Transport must get back to Railway Square. Buses could turn into George Street from Bathurst Street but would be forced into one lane to pass  the World Square and Chinatown tram stops and would be hit by traffic displaced from George Street returning with a vengeance from Liverpool Street. Goulburn Street is two lanes each way west of George Street and there will never be right-hand turns into George Street.

Goulburn Street, no way back for buses

The only place where buses can turn efficiently into George Street and make it back to the depot in Lee Street is from Druitt Street. The 13 Dec 20012 brochure stated: "Most people arrive in the CBD via public transport. This means we can see 370 buses moving along George Street outside Town Hall in the morning's busiest hour". This would indicate to a rational person that the section of George Street from Market to Bathurst Street is the most important road for Public Transport in the state, and indeed it is the key to providing efficient services. It can never be "pedestrianized". Turning George Street over to a service for commuters from Maroubra and Prince of Wales Hospital achieves nothing, and apparently makes it impossible for TfNSW to provide public transport for Barangaroo.

"Proposed bus network"

The 13 Dec 12 brochure contains this diagram entitled "Proposed bus network" with the dotted yellow line labelled "Western CBD/Barangaroo corridor" starting with a dot and passing through the middle of Paddy's Market and ending with an arrow at a one-way section of Harris Street. The Deputy Director General of the Transport Projects Division TfNSW, Chris Lock, was more forthcoming at the Community Forum at Sydney High School in April. He confirmed that it had been decided not to proceed with the previous Government's commitment to evaluate building a tram service to Barangaroo - it would not be commercial, he said, since commuters would use the pedestrian tunnel to the underground platforms of Wynyard Station. He said there would be a bus service from Circular Quay, presumably passing under the Harbour Bridge. To reach Barangaroo from Parramatta Road you would be transfered to a cattle car at Rawson Place then back onto a bus for the tortuous trip under the Harbour Bridge.

9/11 13 brochure (full size)

In the 9/11 13 brochure, Barangaroo is only accessible from bus services from the north of the Harbour. There are linkages along Erskine Street, which ends at Wynyard Park, and King Street ending at York Street. There is no indication of how the buses will be turned around.

There have been three completely different indicative plans for bus services issued by TfNSW in less than a year, in the course of developing an Environmental Impact Statement, which we are told will be issued in the next few weeks. None of the plans contain any details whatsoever that would allow them to be independently assessed. Transport for NSW is so dysfunctional as to be beyond belief.

The director-general of TfNSW, Les Wielinga, has retired and the Roads Minister announced his successor yesterday. It will be a Queensland public servant, David Stewart, who was sacked by the Newman Government. He will be walking into an Augean stables when he starts his job later this year or early next year. It is not to much to expect a public servant to have an ethical compass whatever their level of competence. There will be further posts about the above diagram.

The eye of a needle

The one and only Bus Corridor (green)

The brochure released on December 13th, 2012 contains the figure left, reproduced in full size. This diagram is deliberately deceptive, like most of the diagrams in the brochure. The arrows show only outbound bus movements concealing the fact that northbound traffic into Elizabeth Street and Wentworth Avenue from Chalmers Street will be reduced to one lane at most and probably no lanes. Traffic flow in Foveaux Street appears to be reversed. The greatest deception is the the corridor is shown to be the same width for its whole length. In reality, Phillip Street, from Hunter Street to Circular Quay, is only four lanes wide, and always will be.

The trams will only ever carry, voluntarily, off peak passengers from the Prince of Wales hospital and the University of NSW. To establish a business model, the privately-operated trams must crush the public bus services. This occurs for bus services using Anzac Parade primarily in Anzac Parade, but for other bus services, as well as Anzac Parade services, it occurs mainly in Phillip Street.

Phillip Street bus terminus

Buses that have a terminus from Phillip Street circulate clockwise, setting down passengers in Young Street, waiting if necessary for their scheduled start, in Young Street then picking up passengers on the north side of Alfred Street. Alternatively, the buses circulate anti-clockwise, setting down passengers in Phillip Street and picking up passengers on the south side of Alfred Street. In general Flinders Street buses circulate anti-clockwise and the rest circulate clockwise. This arrangement is necessary because of the limited curb space available in Alfred Street east of the Customs House.

O'Farrell would have you believe that all the bus services using George Street and Castlereigh Street will be terminated at this Phillip Street terminus as well as the existing services, and services from the north shore using the Cahill Expressway. O'Farrell's contempt for the intelligence of residents of the Eastern Suburbs knows no bounds.

Up yours

Ve vill tell everyone they vill be going to Circular Quay

then ve will terminate them at secret locations

It ain't broke, but Randwick businesses will be. Y?

Belmore Road  Randwick Civic Centre

Randwick and Coogee have the best and most efficient Public Bus Services in NSW, and they ain't broke. Public transport to beach suburbs is never commercial because they lack a hinterland to feed transport into the routes. When these public bus services were under threat by plans to narrow Flinders Street to one lane each way and then to close the exclusive bus road, people in Surry Hills and Woolloomoloo, including myself, rallied to maintain these services.

Now O'Farrell will be spending $1.6 billion on a tram Project that must close down bus services through the Randwick retail and civic centre in order to have a business plan.

Hospitals do not care for patients just from 9 to 5 and must roster staff though out the day. Visiting hours are not scheduled for the morning or evening transport peaks. Currently transport for the Prince of Wales hospital is met by bus services using rolling stock that would otherwise be idle and by drivers that must be rostered on either side of the morning and evening peaks, defraying the losses that would otherwise be incurred.

Passengers from the hospital currently cross High Street and use bus stops in the Belmore Road retail strip, generating much of the pedestrian traffic and business that these retail outlets rely upon. The tram system is designed to divert passengers away from the established civic centre strip.

We are told that trams will be arriving at the terminus every two or three minutes during the morning peak, regardless of how many passengers can be herded onto them, simply because they can only turn around at the terminuses. To achieve this there will need to be two tram rails crossing Avoca Street into the Randwick Triangle park, and there will need to be a rail for trams entering the park to pass trams waiting to exit the terminus. The rails in the park will be presumably be in the form of a tuning fork with the actual tram stop in the south east corner. Passengers using the trams will not go near the retail centre, and the next stop will be in Wansey Road adjacent to the horse stables.

The design of the Randwick terminus provides insight into the length of the cattle cars. Clearly the length of the carriages is in no way related to the passenger loadings that the cattle cars will ever carry. Transport for NSW has simplistically made them as long as possible so they can chant infantile slogans like "the service can carry up to 9,000 people per hour in each direction". So why not make them the length of say 10 buses, then they would not have to be coupled together to shuttle between the underground events platform at Moore Park and Chalmers Street, "back and forth, back and forth". The answer is that the rails in the Randwick Triangle must be more than the length of two cattle cars. There is currently no right-hand turn from High Street into Avoca Street, and the tram tracks will entrench this. To turn right traffic must use the Cuthill Road slingshot using the curved lane at the south-east corner of the triangle. This presumably is what set the length of the cattle cars.