CBT Releases Southern-Western Timetable
With the latest phase of double tracking completed, ARTA have just release the revised timetables for the Southern, Western and Eastern lines. But what if you want to go from Mt Albert to Middlemore? How do you know the best connections? What's needed is a timetable that shows you the connections between the Southern and Western lines. Introducing the Campaign for Better Transport's Southern Western Optimised Timetable (SWOT).
Effective 2nd July 2007, the SWOT merges the Southern and Western timetables together, and includes the wait time at Newmarket between connections. Optimum connections are highlighted in bold.
- Download the PDF Southern to Western Timetable here.
- Download the PDF Western to Southern Timetable here.
The timetable changes now mean some significant improvements to travel times. For instance a Mt Albert resident that starts work at Middlemore at 8:30 will now get there 7 minutes faster. The return trip home after 5:30 is even better - now it is 38 minutes instead of 59.
At the CBT we aren't sure if this is by good luck or good design. Some annoyances about the new timetable are:
- On the West to South timetable, the 7:23am train from Waitakere just misses a connecting train at Newmarket by 2 minutes.
- Same for the earlybird 6:40am train from Henderson
- On the South to West timetable, the 7:14am express from Pukekohe again misses a connecting train at Newmarket by 2 minutes, forcing a 19 minute wait on happless commuters.
There are 5 instances where connecting trains arrive at exactly the same time. It remains to be seen if the trains will wait for their connecting passengers, but we are seeking clarification from ARTA and Veolia at the moment. There are also 5 instances where connecting trains are a minute apart. Again we will let you know what the protocol will be for these services once we know more. Happy transfers!