No-shows railroad commuters
A lack of staff has been blamed for 87 tram services – more than one a week – being cancelled in the past financial year.
And statistics also reveal the busy Gawler train service is Adelaide’s most unreliable.
TransAdelaide punctuality reports obtained by the Sunday Mail reveal 152 services on the Glenelg to city tram line were either cancelled or ran late in 2008/2009 because of staffing problems, including driver errors.
But 87 were cancelled altogether because the train and tram operator did not have enough staff to run its scheduled services.
TransAdelaide general manager Bob Stobbe said the staff shortages occurred because of employees taking sick leave at “short notice”.
“While every attempt is taken to bring in substitute drivers – again, often at very short notice – this is not always possible,” he told the Sunday Mail.
“It should be noted that 35 additional tram drivers have been recruited during the period September to November 2009.”
The punctuality reports – released by the Transport Department under Freedom of Information laws – also show the Gawler train line recorded the greatest number of late or cancelled services in the past financial year.
The documents – which do not list all late or cancelled trips – reveal that Adelaide’s northern train line had 1216 journeys which were late or did not run at all because of problems such as track speed restrictions, electrical faults and mechanical problems.
The Noarlunga line recorded 770 late or cancelled trips, the Outer Harbor line 633 and the Belair line 298.
A train is deemed to be late if it does not arrive within six minutes of the time listed on the timetable.
Mr Stobbe said punctuality had improved significantly across the network over the past 12 months, with a major focus on removing speed restrictions across the network.
“Excluding the impact of extreme heat conditions, TransAdelaide now consistently meets/exceeds its on-time running target of 93 per cent,” he said.
“A major focus on the Gawler line has seen on-time running improve to 93-95 per cent in recent months.”
Mr Stobbe said $293.5 million would be spent upgrading and electrifying the Gawler rail line, which would be changed over in 2013.
Track work is expected to begin in the first half of 2010.
Sotira Moraitis, 44, of Burton, who catches buses and the Gawler line train to get to work at North Adelaide, said the public transport system was “not synchronised”.
“Very rarely do I get to work on time,” she said. “But I don’t want to drive into town, it’s too expensive.
“I have to walk from the train station to King William St to take a bus to North Adelaide and if the train is late I miss the bus . . . and sometimes I have to run to catch the connecting bus.
“If trains are going to be late, they could at least let passengers know.
“I do want to use public transport, it’s more convenient for me, but if they are always running behind it really puts you off.”
