Marathon man faster than Sydney train

Thanks to Jo for passing along this information.


Marathon man faster than Sydney train - June 29 2006

SYDNEY'S trains have become so slow under CityRail's 2006 timetable it is faster to travel between key stations on foot.

Veteran marathon runner Steve Moneghetti has exposed the farce at the heart of the State Government's face-saving schedule by outrunning a train over four inner-west stations.

The grand old man of Australian distance running set off from Summer Hill and beat the 8.14am all-stops to Stanmore.

He had to negotiate peak hour traffic and cross two arterial roads on his way but made it with enough time to board the train at Stanmore.

The 43-year-old's victory was made possible by inflated 30-second waiting times at stations that were injected into the ponderous new timetable when it was overhauled by RailCorp.

Under the previous schedule the Olympic veteran known as "Monner" would have had to set a world record time to keep up with the train.

The bloated schedule - which has added as much as 15 minutes to some metropolitan trips - has been branded a cynical attempt by the Iemma Government to get trains back on time.

Punctuality has improved to about 90per cent as a consequence but commuters now complain of "agonising" trips on "dawdling" trains - especially on daytime and off-peak services.

Semi-retired Moneghetti clocked a creditable 7 minutes 7 seconds for the 2.5km run, managing to stay in front of the train as he strode past Lewisham and Petersham stations en route.

He had no help crossing at traffic lights at busy Old Canterbury Rd, Lewisham and Crystal St, Petersham.

Chuffed with his win in The Daily Telegraph's CitySnail Showdown, evergreen Moneghetti said he was surprised he could outrun a commuter train.

"On the pure maths of the timetable I knew I had a chance if I kept to my rhythm and had some luck with the traffic along the way," Moneghetti said.

"The luck came and it was a dream run but I was surprised that it was possible to keep up with a train in Sydney. I'm not sure you could do that in Melbourne.

"I was glad when the train seemed to wait a bit longer at Petersham, which gave me the chance to consolidate a lead as I powered uphill and then down into Stanmore."

Excruciating waits at stations not only paved the way to victory for the runner, from Ballarat in Victoria. They are also emerging as the biggest headache for train drivers.

They say leaving ahead of schedule is a bigger problem than lateness because they have too much time on their hands from one stop to the next.

A Campbelltown to Circular Quay service takes an extra 8 minutes than a year ago. Train journeys take longer today than they did when the first electric-powered red rattlers hit the tracks in the 1930s.

Off-peak passengers have been hardest hit under the new schedule, which ripped 270 services from them and increased trip times in line with peak services for reasons best known to RailCorp.

The State Government has never acknowledged that the slower schedule was designed to improve on-time running statistics.

Transport Minister John Watkins has consistently blamed recommendations out of the Waterfall inquiry.

The judge who presided over Waterfall recently torpedoed those claims, saying none of his 127 safety recommendations mentioned slowing down ordinary suburban services.

The reduction in services has also created a glut of drivers who are being paid to do nothing.

About 150 CityRail drivers on full pay are stuck with nothing to do but watch DVDs and hope for a shift.