Petrol crisis fuels bus, train crush (too many passengers, not enough capacity)

[depakid]

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/05/29/train_crowd_wideweb__470x311,0.jpg

SOME rail passengers are being left behind on platforms and bus commuters are enduring long queues as motorists baulk at the soaring price of petrol and switch to public transport.

Morning peak-hour numbers on CityRail vastly exceed the State Government's "high-growth" predictions, and bus corridors are suffering a commuter crush.

There has even been a surge in demand for inter-city Greyhound coach services.

The rush for public transport comes as motorists begin to ration their petrol use. Sales of unleaded petrol fell by 4.4 per cent in the first three months of the year.

Garry Glazebrook, urban planning lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney, said traffic growth was beginning to slow because fewer people could afford petrol. "In Sydney, the price of petrol and the tolls combine with interest rates and inflation, and there is less room in the budget," he said. "Something has to give."

<snip>

The Government is pinning its hopes on its new underground metro lines to tackle the mounting crisis. Although it has invested in several infrastructure upgrades and the new Epping to Chatswood line, capacity improvements are still urgently needed.

More: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/petrol-crisis-fuels-crush/2008/05/29/1211654221491.html?page=2

[Vogon_Glory]

1. US Intercity Rail Has Been Capital Starved For Years

US intercity passenger rail service has been capital-starved for years. Amtrak, the US government owned corporation that runs most long-distance US passenger trains, has had to eke out an existance and as often as not had to beg for its life, especially during the trifecta period when the Republican Party controlled both Congress and the Executive Branch. Demand for Amtrak's rail service has risen with the ever-higher cost for gasoline, and Amtrak needs expanded capacity. Amtrak not only needs to repair the many passenger cars (That's carriages to Brits and Aussies) and locomotives it has out of service as well as order new ones.

The National Association of Railroad Passengers (www.narprail.org) is a passenger rail advocacy group here in the USA.

[phantom power]

2. One observation about this:

it suggests the limits to fast adaptation. Right now, transportation is in a cherry-picking phase of reaction. Making the elastic changes to adapt to fuel prices. Once the fuel crunch exceeds the limits of cherry-picking, the adaptations become much less elastic.

[depakid]

3. An astute observation

and it applies quite well to the ongoing (as in decades long) controversy about replacing the I-5 bridge between Portland and Vancouver Washington.

For some strange reason(s) Washingtonians have an aversion to public transportation- and Vancouver area citizens voted down a light rail extension into the city back in 1996, and to this day, continue to voice irrational fears about light rail somehow "changing the nature of their city."

Odd because downtown Vancouver is every bit a skanky as the worst parts of Portland. So it's quite literally been gridlock- and no one's happy with the current proposals, which include both light rail, bike lanes and a wider road.

The Green's don't like (and question the need for) increased car capacity, based on the idea that there won't so many cars on the road once it's finally built and so instead, they want a hefty toll on the existing structure to deter traffic.

So the process drags on, seemingly with no end in sight (except to federal revenue sharing- which will be scarcer in the coming years.

Had the light rail extension simply been built back in the roaring 90's, Vancouver folks who come here every day to work and shop tax free could cherry pick the light rail, instead of wasting petrol and clogging commerce on a major interstate.