The new train timetable, scheduled to be rolled out next month, won’t be an improvement for everyone.
Daily commuter David Briggs said he is already out of the house for 12 hours a day as it is, including bus rides to and from Bligh Park, but under the new timetable will be away each day for another hour – assuming the bus company aligns with the new timetable.
His current train is the 7.34 from Windsor which gets him to Central at 8.42. It stops all stations to Blacktown, then Seven Hills, Westmead, Parramatta, Strathfield, Redfern and Central.
Under the new timetable it will be all stations to Parramatta. He said there’s no point stopping at all the extra stations. “The whole train fills up, including standing room, at Seven Hills.”
Then coming home he normally gets the 5.25 from Central, getting into Windsor at 6.32. But with the new timetable, trains leave Central at 5.07 and 5.37, and he can’t get there in time for the first, after knocking off at 5pm, so it’s an extra 22 minutes he has to wait for his train.
Alex Rogers catches the train in the morning from Mulgrave, and said the new timetable will also add an hour to her day. She said on her station all the commuters were similarly unhappy about the situation.
“If you stood on Mulgrave station and talked to everyone about it, everyone is spewing,” she said.
“It’ll be back to all stations to Parramatta. Yes there will be extra trains, as they say, but they will be late at night and on the weekends.
“We all find it a bit incredible with all the massive development in the area.
“In the evening, trains leaving Central at 5.07 or 5.37 is not workable for people working nine to five [who catch the train from Central]. I never get a seat before Parramatta. It’s dangerously packed. It’s almost like we’ve gone back to the old timetable [the one before the current one].
“It’s disappointing we’ve been screwed over again. Why does the Hawkesbury always get treated like a third world country?
Hawkesbury MP Dominic Perrottet hinted in an earlier timetable story that timetable overhauls were about doing the greatest good.
"Managing train services always requires balancing the interests of all commuters, and I am always open to hearing feedback from Hawkesbury commuters about ways we can improve our services."
