Strange Sydney Metro Train Manoeuvres in the Dark!

[@patrolmaverick]

I love how you can stand at the front and see everything that you normally couldn't see easily

[@michaelmclachlan1650]

The front seats on the CPH railmotors were much sought after for the same reason. I was able to "bag" these seats a few times when I was a schoolboy - great fun!

[@greaterglider]

its cool

[@HugoBrown]

I like to sit on the seats near the front/back and still trips me out no ones driving especially when its taking a corner pretty fast, hopefully we dont have to wait too long for the completition of line to bankstown and hopefully a new suburbian metro will be annouced/started soon would be nice if it was in the south of the city

[@theDjItchybeak]

Isn't it the best!!!! 😊

[@nadnerb2k]

Possibly a rust run. On the legacy Sydney Trains network, a train must travel every piece of track at least once every 72 hours to keep it certified. Known as a "rail clean" or a rust run because the primary reason was that the train would clear the rust from the rails to allow reliable track circuit operation. Late at night you'll see Sydney Trains and NSW Trains services using crossovers and loops they don't usually use. Sometimes it even happens in peak, a V set skip stopper in the afternoon usually runs through the relief line at Valley Heights. I don't know if Metro uses track circuits - I suspect it might not, but rust runs would still be useful to keep points certified.

[@raph6931]

Sydney metro does have to do that, but that's not why this arrangement happened. It was due to trackwork

[@Woodland26]

@@raph6931 no cross over in Victoria Cross, so have to pre-cross to the other side?

[@raph6931]

@@Woodland26 the only crossovers between Chatswood and Sydenham are at Barangaroo

[@dulcinealee3933]

@@nadnerb2k So rust run is nothing to do with the water drips in the video?

[@ray2208aus]

Sydney metro doesn't use track circuits for train detection. Axle counters are used at points (for crossovers or turnouts). If you look at train cab videos in high resolution you can see them at tallawong, chatswood and sydenham.

[@matthewalker]

Next video: What happens when a transport vlogger gets locked in a metro overnight?😊

[@TransportVlog]

Now that would be an interesting video!

[@darren4852]

Will never happen, too many checks and balances occur

[@Robert-um6fr]

I took this late night service to Victoria Cross last week on Tuesday and Wednesday. A bit shambolic, in truth, when it came to the customer-facing side of it. The trackwork notification advertised trains would go as far as VC but there were no platform indicators showing any destination at all at Gadigal, and the station's control room announcements inaudible because they were turned up too loud. Once inside, the trains' displays said only Barangaroo. The on-board announcements from the control room again inaudible. People tried to get some clarity from platform staff when the train arrived at Barangaroo, and were assured it would go to Victoria Cross. Then at Victoria Cross staff had to check literally with each passenger before the train reversed direction, as about half of the passengers had no idea they had to alight for a replacement bus to Mac Uni where another train awaited. They did this operation four nights in a row and still didn't get the passenger info displays fixed. They need some PID templates to cover these type of arrangements. Then on Sunday, very frustratingly, there was trackwork that closed the Epping-Tallawong section from the highly unusual time of 17:15, maintenance that hadn't appeared on the weekly trackwork poster.

[@TransportVlog]

Yes it was pretty poor on the passenger information front. I did this on Tuesday and it was very poor. By Thursday, it was better, but still could be much improved greatly.

[@Rheilffordd]

That is commitment to be there that late to record this movement! This video is worth giving a ‘Like’ too!

[@TransportVlog]

Yes it is! - I was actually on my way home from dinner with friends!

[@TransitSydney]

This is an exciting video, I saw these services and wondered if anyone would go to film it, certainly didn’t expect you to Paul! Looking forward to watch this a little later (assuming it’s those Victoria cross/Barangaroo services that ran a week or so ago).

[@aussiejohn5835]

Oh, Paul 😮 just when I was feeling reasonably comfortable with the Metro, you take us on a journey that confuses this old fossil. We travel on the south line to go north, and the north line somehow goes in both directions. We have signals that are not signals while signalling the direction of travel to absolutely nobody into a watertight underharbour tunnel that is leaking profusely. The train is announced that it terminates at Barangaroo but continues to Victoria Cross. I NEED a SEDATIVE AND A NAP after this video 😂. I am so happy that this video is just over 5 minutes long because, any more of this confusion, I could surely expire 😢 Obviously, I jest and I really enjoyed this video. Well done, Paul 👍 👏

[@KyrilPG]

Ah ah, sure this can be a bit confusing. I remember having terrible doubts when encountering comparable situations when riding a late evening Eurostar high-speed train between Paris and London and entering the tunnel by the "wrong" portal, the one on the right instead of the left one, then later crossing over to the left tunnel deep under the sea. That usually happens when maintenance is done in one of the tunnels' sections, so they open the giant doors of the huge "crossover cathedrals" to let trains switch from one tunnel to the other. This here is pretty much the same principle, it's just using one tunnel section in both directions, on the shortest length possible to minimize service disruption, while the corresponding tunnel section on the other side is probably being maintained. Though indications on the screens, in Barangaroo, which said that the train approaching goes to Barangaroo, were quite confusing. They should change that and indicate what the train will actually do.

[@donttalkcrap]

Well done Aussie John... you explained my anxiety perfectly

[@aussiejohn5835]

@donttalkcrap I am very happy that I am not alone. 👍

[@greaterglider]

lol

[@TransportVlog]

Hi John, glad you enjoyed this video and saw the funny side!

[@FromtheWindowSeat]

Nice catch Paul! Would have loved to catch such a service.

[@TransportVlog]

Thanks Adam,, Yes it was fun!

[@SandBoxJohn]

Back in 1977 the Washington Metro in the USA did this for several months after the opening second segment of the system as the interlocking used to change the direction of trains beyond the Stadium-Armory station was not ready normal operations. During that period trains were crossed over at Eastern Market and doubled back from Stadium-Armory on the same track.

[@jakez6851]

Thank you, as always, Paul. Love your work 😊.

[@KyrilPG]

Wonderful! This reminds me of the "wrong tunnel" runs and deep underwater tunnel switches via the "crossover cathedrals" in the Channel tunnel between Paris and London. Sometimes, when there were maintenance works in certain parts of one tunnel happening at night and a section of one tunnel was subsequently closed, you could encounter this situation when riding a late departure service and your train would switch from one tunnel to the other mid journey, or would enter by the "wrong portal" before switching back to the normal tunnel. Or ride most of the crossing on the normal tunnel and run the last section of the other one, exiting via the other tunnel entrance. If I recall correctly, each tunnel of the Channel tunnel is divided into 3 sections. There's a North tunnel and a South tunnel, let's name them N and S. You would enter the tunnel and run section N1, then crossover to section S2, then crossover again back to the usual tunnel in section N3. Or enter the other tunnel and run section S1 before crossing to the usual tunnel and continue the journey through sections N2 & N3. After the major fire in one tunnel several years ago, and after reopening, the trains had to use a combination of both tunnels for quite some time while they worked to fully repair the damaged tunnel section. They always try to close only one section when maintenance needs to be done, in order to avoid impacting capacity too much. It's, of course, usually done at night. That's because even if the high-speed Eurostar services don't run at late night, the other services for cars, trucks, and freight do run 24 hours a day. How much was the service reduced by this alternative routing? What was the service frequency? How many crossovers are there on the currently open Sydney Metro? Great video, as always! Greetings from Paris.

[@CMurdoch-n3t]

I believe there are currently 3 crossovers on the new Chatswood - Sydenham section, at Chatswood, Barangaroo, and Sydenham. On the old ECRL section, there's 3 one way crossovers, between Chatswood and North Ryde, after Macquarie Park, and before Epping. Then the Northwest section has another 3, two way ones: at Castle Hill, between Kellyville and Bella Vista, and Tallawong.

[@KyrilPG]

@@CMurdoch-n3t Thanks a lot! But what is the ECRL section?

[@prismaticmarcus]

@@KyrilPG Epping Chatswood rail link. it was built as a regular train service and became part of the metro.

[@TransportVlog]

Yes I remember that fire in the Eurostar Tunnel, and how that affected services. Great to hear that you're watching my videos from Paris. The new City Section has crossovers at Sydenham, Barangaroo and Chatswood only. It was every 10 mins, the usual evening peak frequency, and that was quite doable on a single track. The northbound train would wait at Barangaroo for the southbound train to arrive, before departing and taking the crossover.

[@prudencepineapple9448]

1:11 The sound those trains make as they accelerate always reminds me of the starship USS Enterprise's warp speed engines from Star Trek (original Series).

[@snipeowned]

Nice one Paul!

[@ruysclan]

That's quite cool and unusual. Thanks for sharing!

[@serendipity6988]

Love your work, Paul. ❤

[@DMack6464]

Is the trackwork fixing the vibration during travel?

[@flamingfrancis]

Hope so. I was like every wheel had a flat spot when I went from Crows Nest to Central. The wheels were also very noisy approaching Martin Place...could not hear the onboard announcements.

[@DMack6464]

@flamingfrancis for me it was side-to-side movement on straight sections of track

[@robertcoleman4861]

Nice thanks Paul.🍺

[@Woodland26]

is the dripping water inside the harbour tunnel normal?

[@jeffreyborg]

Yep and if water wasn’t dripping in I would be worried. Tunnels are meant to leak a bit.

[@MarkGovern]

Water leaks in between the precast concrete tube sections from the harbour above but these cracks are resealed often. It’s normal for a tunnel constructed with concrete tube segments to have water seepage.

[@dulcinealee3933]

@@Woodland26 Should someone get off at Gadigal and run to the local city hardware store and get some Spakfilla rapid or Spakfilla heavy duty then?

[@Woodland26]

@@dulcinealee3933 no those filla is not waterproof. I would be tempted to use heavy duty sealant ;-)

[@derser541]

@@jeffreyborg Worried about what?

[@darylcheshire1618]

When the Melbourne Underground Loop opened in the late ‘70s it was stated that the wooden Tait trains won’t run through The Loop, but in the first week some Taits did run through The Loop and I rode on one. Basically trains were assigned randomly. Another wrong routing was that The Loop changed directions at noon and the next train was an L class electric loco and a load of bricquettes. I wonder if the odd bricquette could be still found in The Loop today? The train would have to stop at every station and would have ended up at at Spencer Street station facing the wrong direction. I wonder how long it would have taken Control to figure that one?

[@ForTheBirbs]

Good stuff, Paul. The Metro was terminating at Epping on Sunday night (17th). Cheers

[@TransportVlog]

Yes I heard. I think trains were using the crossover south of Epping Station to switch tracks.

[@berenscott8999]

You can't terminate the train at Barangaroo Station because the crossover occurs after the station and doesn't occur at Victoria Cross. So, in order to terminate at Victoria Cross, you need to run it down the wrong tunnel. Now, it was because buses were replacing trains at Victoria Cross right? So, the reason you could do this, is if every second train runs down one side and the other down the other. So probably the next train probably went down the left side whilst your train was stopping at the right hand side platform.

[@TransportVlog]

Yes it was because buses were replacing trains at Vic Cross. All trains ran through the southbound tunnel in both directions. The train at Barangaroo going north would wait for the southbound train from Vic cross to come into platform 1 before departing.

[@berenscott8999]

@TransportVlog that doesn't make sense that all trains would run through the same tunnel. I think perhaps they would be alternating. Often a train line terminates at a 2 platform station and they alternate. If they don't alternate, it means the frequency of trains would have to reduce because the next train would have to wait for the previous to come back.

[@staryoshi06]

Very interesting maneuver indeed. Wonder why the PIDs weren’t saying Victoria Cross? I was on the metro yesterday evening when it was terminating at Epping. It switched tracks just before pulling into Epping station.

[@markparkson]

That is something i have never seen before...

[@ranger8237]

Yesterday (17th) at 5pm M1 terminated at Epping from the City I wonder if you could have limited stops from Tallawong to Sydenham

[@RGC198]

Hi Paul, Wow!! Talk about exciting!!! Riding the Metro, running in reverse at 80kph along a possibly haunted line under Sydney Harbour. You are certainly a braver man than me for sure. I am getting a bit anxious just watching this video!! LOL.Did they even know that you were on the Metro, as all the other passengers had got out from what i could tell? And yes, I do have to ask, did you survive the trip or will I need to call in the search parties to dredge Sydney Harbour??? Seriously though, that must be one of your most exciting videos for sure. Absolutely awesome!!! It reminds me a bit of when I rode one of the test trains running on the Eastern Suburbs train line through underground Redfern, which then had not been opened and was in pitch darkness. I was the only passenger as the guard let me take a ride. Anyway, take care. Rob in Melbourne Australia.

[@suchdevelopments]

😁Good day from Goonellabah, NSW, Australia. How things have changed✅✅✅✅ - Cheers, Ian Cleland

[@LegosheepIsAwesome]

I find it odd they would "terminate" the train at Barangaroo. If it's going to Sydney Harbour, why not declare that it's terminating there?

[@PaulFisher]

This is particularly galling since that extra stop is a huge distance away, across the water. If I had gotten off the train to transfer to another mode to get to the actual destination, and then found out that I could have stayed on board, I would be upset! I wonder if the passenger information systems are too tightly coupled to the switching/routing, so that the train not travelling the “correct” tracks* onward meant that the PIS had to assume it was exiting service. That would surprise me-you’re going to have to single-track from time to time no matter what, so it wouldn’t make sense to have that restriction baked into the control systems. * Of course, the system operates on the wrong-side tracks most of the time, and this journey was one of the rare cases where the train operated on the correct track.

[@TransportVlog]

I did speak to one of the MTS guys, and they said that the PIS are very flexible, and should be able to display Vic Cross as the terminating destination. I think its just a learning curve, so hopefully the passenger information will be better next time.

[@SydneyTransitVlogs]

When it comes to Victoria Cross. It reminds of the ECRL line between Epping and North ryde

[@donttalkcrap]

The Taking of Pelham 123

[@dulcinealee3933]

interesting video. Any chance of a signal malfunction? And was there water dripping in the video?

[@MarkGovern]

Its seepage from the harbour above.

[@dulcinealee3933]

@MarkGovern I remember walking through the Sydney Harbour Tunnel before it opened to traffic and there was seepages everywhere and what looked like Spakfilla.

[@johnlatham7092]

What is this rubbish ! Traveling on the wrong side of the track ? Never would have happened if Sir Robin Askin were still in charge ! Great video (again) Paul keep them coming ...

[@Andrew-mz4ec]

i enjoyed that. interesting how it works.

[@gonanianengineer]

did you use night vision or something? That's definately wort seeing!

[@greaterglider]

No the tunnels are just lit up

[@ec7152]

Wonder what happened yesterday(sunday night) when trains terminated at epping

[@jackpubbo]

Nuh I’ve been watching your videos for a while but somehow only realised how British you sound did you grow up in England?

[@SamSitar]

interesting that it works like that.

[@lawrence.lee6]

Hold on why didn’t it turn back? What’s going on. It kept going to Victoria cross why is this?

[@pgchase4578043026]

So... what was the purpose of their doing this sort of maneuver?

[@greaterglider]

Track work i think

[@k.jespersen6145]

How cool! Usually, they keep the Washington D.C. metro tunnels dark, so passengers don't see that much detail. Were the tunnels on the Sydney metro lit for the track work, or are they always like that?

[@daveg2104]

Every time I've caught the Metro it's been lit up. The same goes for the old City Circle Line under the CBD (Downtown). There is at least 1 video on KZbin of a Sydney City Circle drivers view if you want to check it out. I assume it's for safety.

[@nomadtales]

They are kept lit, I assume in case of emergency evacuations. The best spot on the train is at the front to watch it weave and snake through the tunnel.

[@k.jespersen6145]

​@@daveg2104 That is truly excellent. Thanks for answering my question!

[@k.jespersen6145]

​@nomadtales Count me a bit green with envy-- that sounds like such a wonderful situation. Thanks for answering my question!

[@KyrilPG]

I'm wondering if that is a new "best practice" thing because here in Paris, the new tunnels are also kept lit. Like the 8km of tunnels of RER E's Western extension are now always lit, especially the walkway on the side. Same for the Northern and Southern extensions of M14, which are also quite lit compared to the older sections which are quite dark (sure, the tunnel being new, it's whiter than the older parts that have darkened since the late 90's, but it's more than just dirt shade differences, it's actually clearly more lit). A couple months ago, I asked a station attendant about the lit RER E Western extension tunnel, and she told me that's their new policy to keep new tunnels fairly lit. Though, if it's a new international best practice or not, I do not know, but it would be a fairly logical assumption, wouldn't it?

[@DonPraveen]

Please tell me the video title took inspiration from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (famous for the song "Enola Gay")? 😂

[@TransportVlog]

Yes it did! OMD are one of my favourite bands! They’re coming to Australia next year!

[@somebotsareatstevanshouse]

wait, so how did he not get kicked off the train?

[@DanielLefko-wj1dx]

Trains are thebest

[@gunglegeorge7213]

Why?

[@ralphbyles142]

Why is it so?

[@utareangara5529]

shat was the reason?

[@PaulFisher]

Doubt it. William Shatner has almost no influence on Australian mass transit operations.

[@brianquinn5060]

AI, Playing games.

[@Marco-uq5yb]

The platform announcements sound like the embarrassing Aunt trying to sound cool and hip in front of the kids!

[@TrainsForNSWVlogs]

Am I first?

[@Kylo452]

Yes