Transport Sydney: 2013 in review

Happy New Year. 2013 has been an eventful one. This blog received almost 138 thousand hits during a year in which:

• A Badgerys Creek airport was put back on the agenda by a coalition of interest groups, to the point where now a decision to build an airport there has all but been announced
• The Opal rollout continued, ahead of schedule but raising some controversy due to a lack of fare integration and because some will end up paying more under the new fare structure
• The “biggest timetable change in a generation” was implemented in October, the effectiveness of which will be measured in the coming months once detailed data becomes available
• Plans for the WestConnex freeway, the North West Rail Link, and CBD bike paths were all finalised
• Major changes were made to how Sydney commuter rail system operates, including the end to CityRail, the creation of Sydney Trains/NSW TrainLink, and a bumpy transition from Transit Officers to Transport Police/Revenue Protection Officers

In the coming year, we can look forward to the opening of the Inner West Light Rail extension to Dulwich Hill and the completion of the Opal rollout (currently scheduled for the end of 2014). Meanwhile, expect the major parties to begin to announce their transport plans ahead of the next state election in early 2015, with things like a Second Harbour rail crossing, a Western Sydney light rail network, Bus Rapid Transit for the Northern Beaches, and potentially plans to privatise the state owned electricity transmission network as a means to pay for all the much needed infrastructure all likely to feature prominently.

But until then, here are some of the major events and stories from the past year, as posted, shared and commented about on this blog —

Posts with the most hits

1. Draft 2013 timetable (part 1): Introduction 20 May 2013 (7,959 hits)
2. 2013 timetable re-write (part 3): Untangling the network 22 February 2013 (4,844 hits)
3. What the 2013 timetable might look like 13 May 2013 (3,908 hits)
4. Draft 2013 timetable (part 2): AM Peak 22 May 2013 (1,430 hits)
5. WestConnex plan finalised 19 September 2013 (1,296)

The new timetable drove a lot of traffic to this blog over the previous year, particularly when a draft of the timetable was leaked in May.

Posts with the most comments

1. 17km Macquarie Park light rail proposed by Parramatta Council 30 August 2013 (50 comments)
   
2. How might the NWRL work? 16 October 2013 (49 comments)
3. Should the North West Rail Link be a metro? 8 February 2013 (47 comments)
4. How might the CBD and SE Light Rail work? 9 October 2013 (46 comments)
5. North West Rail Link – policy or politics? 11 June 2013 (43 comments)

The clear thing in common here is the North West Rail Link (NWRL), which tends to generate a lot of discussion back and forth in the comments section. The post on the Macquarie Park light rail was the most commented on post and not actually about the NWRL, but the comments soon shifted towards discussing the NWRL.

Posts with the most activity on social media

1. All Day Challenge (October 2013), 1 October 2013 (89 shares on Facebook and 3 tweets on Twitter)
2. Draft 2013 timetable (part 2): AM Peak 22 May 2013 (43 shares on Facebook and 8 tweets on Twitter)
   
3. The worst sort of NIMBY 25 September 2013 (27 shares on Facebook and 6 tweets on Twitter)
4. Opal running 4 months ahead of schedule 28 August 2013 (31 shares on Facebook 2 tweets on Twitter)
5. Western Sydney makes its case for an airport of its own 15 February 2013 (11 shares on Facebook and 9 tweets on Twitter)

This probably understates the level of sharing over Twitter as tweets are only counted once, regardless of how many times that one tweet may be re-tweeted, whereas Facebook shares are each counted uniquely. That said, the most shared posts have tended to be driven by shares on Facebook rather than tweets on Twitter.

Most searched terms

1. westconnex (635 searches)
2. cityrail map (323 searches)
3. westconnex map (257 searches)
4. transport sydney (170 searches)
5. sydney train map (170 searches)

WestConnex was by far the biggest generator of hits from web searches, with the home page being the destination rather than the post itself (preventing those posts about WestConnex from ranking higher) and reflects the fact that the car remains the primary mode of transport for Sydney residents. This is in contrast to activity in the comments section and social media, both of which are more likely to be transport enthusiasts, neither of which had WestConnex in their respective top 5 for the year.

This does perhaps provide a reminder to some advocates of public transport (the writer of this blog included) that there remains some disconnect between them and the regular person on the street when it comes to enthusiasm for public transport and dislike of cars or roads.

Favourite posts of 2013

No full post this week due to time constraints. So instead, here are some links to some notable posts from the current year to date.

NWRL: metro or not?

Rail expert says infighting led to decision to build metros

Commentary: Are the NWRL tunnels too narrow and too steep?

Overcrowding and on time running

2013 timetable re-write (part 1): The context

Why is Cityrail getting less reliable?

October 2013 timetable

Draft 2013 timetable (part 2): AM Peak

When the October 2013 timetable comes online, a significant portion of the inner Sydney rail network will have 10 minute frequencies all day during the week. Click to enlarge. (Source: Cityrail, modified by author)

Where to use public transport and where to build freeways

Is WestConnex worth building without a CBD link?

100,000 hits later

Transport Sydney racked up its 100,000th hit late last night (ironically while I was watching the transport episode of Shitsville Express on ABC2). A big thank you to all those who have visited, liked, shared, and commented on this blog during the last almost 2 years. That includes those who did so by voicing dissenting views to those aired here – we may not always agree on the specifics, but its great to see people passionate and interested about the important issue of transport infrastructure!

I must admit that it is humbling to see that something which started out as a way for me to express some views of interest for my own purposes has grown into something which is read so widely.

I’d also like to apologise for the lack of content recently. I began a new job last week and this has eaten up much of my spare time. I will try to continue to do about one post per week, though posts on recently occurring events/news may be somewhat delayed until I have time to gather my thoughts and turn them into something in writing.

In other news, today is also my 30th birthday. Wishes of a happy birthday in the comments section (purely for my own ego) are welcome!

Transport Sydney reaches 150 posts

This is post number 150 for this blog, which has now been running for almost 2 years since it began in August of 2011, the month after the author of this blog visited every station in the Cityrail suburban network in one 24 hour period using only the rail network to get around (video below).

In recent months, a typical week will see this blog get 1 or 2 new posts, receive about 1,000 hits, representing 500 unique visitors, generating 3 comments, and being shared 3 times on social media. About 100 of those visitors are regular readers (RSS feeds, email subscriptions, etc) or referrals from social media, while the remaining 400 are split fairly evenly between web searches and image searches. Last month, this site passed the 50,000 hits milestone.

It’s worth re-visiting some of the posts which were read and commented on a lot during that time.

Posts with the most views

1. Media fooled by UNSW monorail hoax 31 July 2012 (4,809 views)
2. Point to point vs zonal ticketing 2 September 2011 (2,058 views)
3. Light rail extension update 15 February 2012 (650 views)
4. History of Cityrail: Eastern Suburbs Line (1979) 8 November 2011 (645 views)
5. Are there alternatives to the metro plan? 11 October 2011 (601 views)

The most viewed post was one which was not really covered by the TV, radio, or online media, other than ones falling for the initial hoax. The lack of any competing source covering this story led to this particular post going viral, with 85 tweets and 178 shares on Facebook, including by the University of New South Wales, resulting in 3,270 hits on 31 July 2012 alone.

Foundation day prank - media fooled by UNSW monorail hoax http://t.co/vgMCZa00

— UNSW (@UNSW) July 31, 2012

The second most viewed post, written in the first few weeks after this blog was started, is about different ways in which fares can be calculated. It is likely to remain an item of interest as Opal is rolled out and the possibility of integrating fares in Sydney is considered.

Posts with the most comments

1. Should the Northwest Rail Link be a metro? 8 February 2013 (30 comments)
2. Problems with the M4 East and Strathfield Metro 24 October 2012 (15 comments)
3. Western Sydney makes its case for an airport of its own 15 February 2013 (13 comments)
4. Infrastructure NSW Report (part 3): The ugly 6 October 2012 (13 comments)
5. Infrastructure NSW Report (part 2): The bad 5 October 2012 (10 comments)

It is interesting to note that none of the 5 posts in the first list (most viewed) are repeated in the second list (most commented). As a general rule, people are more likely to comment on a post when they disagree with it, while they share it on social media when they agree with it (leading to more views). That probably explains the difference in each list.

The posts about the Northwest Rail Link and Sydney Airport in particular were great examples of commenters who disagreed with the contents of the post. Both the articles, along with the comments and follow-up responses, are a fantastic read for anyone looking to get a more in-depth discussion of those particular issues (but doesn’t who want to dip their feet into the world of online transport discussion forums).

Happy 2013

I’m spending Christmas and New Year with family, so apologies for the lack of posts during this time. Instead, here’s some stats about Transport Sydney over the past 12 months. Many thanks to all those who visited this site in the past year, especially to those who commented on and shared posts.

See you all in 2013, in which hopefully we will see a continued rollout of Opal to the Manly ferries and City Circle trains, the completion of the Kingsgrove to Revesby quadruplication, and a major revamp of the Cityrail timetable!

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 41,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 9 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Transport Sydney in world cloud form

Something a little bit different today. Before finishing yesterday’s post, I decided to run all my previous posts though a word cloud generator (I used Wordle). Here’s what I got:

Back to regular posting in 2 days!