In this second post of the mini-series about what features make a metro railway, let’s see how timetable planning can improve metro-style operations.
Turn up and go
The transition of a historically evolved suburban railway system to a metro-style operation is a major step change which may require a close look (and potential slaughter) of some “holy cows”. One of those cows is a clockface timetable, and the question is, do you really need one for a metro.
I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of things in my head. A lot. The last thing I need on top of that is memorising that my morning train leaves the station at either 6:05, or 6:12, or 6:18, or 6:27, or… And then I’m lost if I slept in and come to my station after 7, not knowing my train times.
But wait, there are printed timetable leaflets, courtesy of a mindful rail operator. Sure, that helps. I need one, for my train line into town, and one for the other train line I change to. And for the other line which some days take me to my project site. And for the feeder bus line bringing me to the station. And for … wait, my bag runneth over!
If I “tell you what I want, what I really really want” is the assurance that I NEVER have to wait longer than five (or four, or three) minutes on the next train, regardless when I get to the station during peak hour. And never more than ten minutes to wait off-peak, including on weekends. That’s all the timetable I need, thank you very much.
This is called “turn up and go”, my friends. It is modern, it is hip, it is cool, it is the future, and it drives old-school timetable planners crazy. But in fact, it is a lot easier on timetable planning as well, as soon as you can let go of the old notion that you have to return to an on-the-minute timetable the moment you get out of peak hour. You don’t, trust me. If people want to read, don’t give them timetables but inspirational quotes for a change, together with a brief and simple explanation how that new “turn up and go” thing works. They will like that much better.
Consistent stopping patterns
The other things worth mentioning regarding metro-style timetables, and another holy cow waiting for the abattoir, is the love for “express trains”. In most cases I have seen, the use of express trains (trains that do not stop at every station) is a nice-sounding spin of the fact that the railway could not afford to buy enough trains.
Operationally, express trains are disruptors to traffic flow. You may have heard me using the conveyor belt analogy before as comparison for an ideal metro operation. All items on the belt (or trains on the metro line) are travelling at roughly the same speed. Imagine an “express item” on a conveyor belt. See? Nonsense.
Buying enough trains to allow for a “timetable” (or turn up and go service) where every train stops at every station is great. Some stations previously missing out from “express services” suddenly have twice the service frequency, imagine that. If I was transport minister, I would milk the living daylights out of that. One station per quarter, over the entire election period, with press, photos amongst very happy councillors, ribbon cutting the whole monty. Positive publicity on a repeatable basis, for the mere costs of 2-3 more trains? No-brainer, right?
Metros are there for connecting people. Express trains with rush past half the stations don’t do that. And in a high capacity operation, they will get stuck behind all-stoppers, guaranteed, and then how much “express” is left?
You want to run express trains, do the same as you would on roads: build an extra lane and you are in business.
