Saturday, August 3, 2013

Is a Segway faster than the Doomben Line?

A rare Doomben Line train!
With Segways now permitted to be used on footpaths in Queensland, BrizCommuter had a look to see if travelling by Segway is faster than using Australia's worst suburban train line - the Doomben Line. Whilst Segways can travel at 12kph, BrizCommuter has used 11kph to take into account waits at pedestrian crossings.

Saturday evening - depart Doomben at 6pm for evening out in the Valley (5.9km).
Segway - arrive Fortitude Valley at 6:32pm (32 mins)
Train - arrive Fortutude Valley at 6:29am Monday! (36 hours 29 mins)
Due to complete lack of trains on the Doomben Line during the evenings and on Sundays, the Segway wins by nearly 36 hours!

Weekday afternoon - depart Central at 1:30pm after lunch in CBD (7.6km)
Segway - arrive Doomben at 2:11pm (41 mins)
Train - arrive Doomben at 2:34pm (1 hour 04 mins)
After a lunch at JoJo's, even with a stomach full of overpriced steak and chips, the Segway rider still beats the train by 23 minutes. That's what happens when trains only run hourly to Doomben (note: even Adelaide's short Tonsley Line will soon run trains every 15 minutes off-peak).

Weekday peak - depart Bowen Hills at 4:45pm for commute home (5km)
Segway - arrive Doomben at 5:12pm (27 mins)
Train - arrive Doomben at 5:34pm (49 mins)
This commute is actually performed by one BrizCommuter's work colleagues, who finds it faster to walk than use the Doomben Line due to a horrendous 45 minute gap between train services in the peak.  Well if walking is faster than using a train, then so will be using a Segway which is 22 minutes faster.

So as we can see, if you use the Doomben Line, it may be faster to use a Segway, or just walk, or just crawl on your hands and knees. Just keep that Segway away from any cliff edges!

Next blog post: Is a Segway faster than the Ferny Grove Line?

3 comments:

  1. Route 300 buses are more attractive anyway over the Doomben line given that the Doomben line is circuitous. Regardless of frequency though, still would prefer to drive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry, am going to have to strongly disagree with you Anon1. I travel from Hendra to the city each day. At 8am on a weekday, the train is MUCH less painful then the 300. Not only does the 300 battle all the near empty BMW 4x4s to work, but there are also the hold ups with passengers not having change, or asking the driver directions.

    Consider this (8am Mon to Friday):
    Hendra to city via 300: ~40mins.
    Hendra to city via train: ~17mins!

    Plus if I was to take the train in from Doomben station it would add a whopping 4mins travel time.

    Yahoo, Doomben line goes into Ekka mode for a week v.soon! That's the week we feel like normal rail commuters :)

    Anon2

    ReplyDelete
  3. Next blog post: Is a Segway faster than the Ferny Grove Line?

    So when is this blog post appearing?

    ReplyDelete

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