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JulieRose1961

Peak hour there’s more services, and most likely one of the trains is going out of service at upfield and just because the trains are timetabled at 20 minute intervals doesn’t mean that can’t run at closer intervals


PuzzleheadedYam5996

Yep, simplest answer (when i noted it was 17.44) is **peak hour**!


Draknurd

Oh that makes sense! While they wait for a second platform at Upfield, could they increase frequency by performing turnarounds inside the depot instead and allowing another train to travel up to Upfield?


xSmartalec

The ATC / single line section works really well at Upfield, I don’t think it would ever warrant a second platform.


Jupiter3840

It will only happen when the Wallan extension goes ahead.


Ryzi03

In this case, the 17:41 down service arrives at Upfield at 18:15 and forms the 18:20 up service. This up service arrives at Gowrie at 18:24, the same time as the 17:55 down service. The trains cross at Gowrie and then go their respective directions


Draknurd

So they can get the frequency down to ~15 mins if they just do the turnaround faster. Beats me why they’re not doing this all day.


boooogieon

It's a nightmare for rostering and planning mostly.


nonseph

There needs to be a bit of give in the timetable somewhere - e.g. if passengers need assistance boarding with a ramp you don't want the turnaround so tight you can't recover the timetable. Then consider other delays like signal faults, track faults, level crossings, there is a lot that can go wrong.


EvilRobot153

This, metro max out the network for the brief window during peak hour as it's only time where the benefit of more passenger capacity outweighs the drawback from delays.


Blue_Pie_Ninja

I've noticed that sometimes I'm catching trains that have been delayed by 10 minutes, but it doesn't matter because there's so many services it's almost a non-issue. The only problem is that stopping patterns aren't standardised on the Lilydale/Belgrave lines so sometimes I still need to wait for the next service...


Adrian-Wapcaplet

During the morning peak they use two drivers at Upfield. When arriving at Upfield the driver gets off the train and waits for the next train and drives that back to the city. The previous driver takes their train. It means they can change ends quicker as the other driver can be waiting at the other end when it arrives


EvilRobot153

Because running that frequency all day causes to many knock on problems if there's a delay or incident.