Another in my series of photos from ten years ago. This rather cool Warholesque tram design was marking 100 years of Melbourne’s electric trams. Well, 100 continuous years. (The Box Hill electric tram ran from 1889 to 1896. The Victorian Railways St Kilda trams ran from 1906. Read all about it here.) Siemens train paralleling ... [More]
Year: 2016
Rickrolled in Bunnings
It wasn’t just a 37 day project
What they got done at Bentleigh, Mckinnon and Ormond during the 37 day shutdown of the Frankston line to remove the level crossings was very impressive, and I’m told the project team are (rightly) proud of the results. 37 days of round-the-clock works, 3 of the worst level crossings gone. Watch them disappear in 3 ... [More]
A transport podcast I’ve just discovered is Transit Insight. There’s a key difference with this one: it’s run by, and features, people who actually work in the public transport industry. There are a lot of other good podcasts out there, but almost all of them feature advocates or academics. I’m working my way through their ... [More]
It’s Census night. Normally it’s relatively uncontroversial, but this time it’s different — a number of concerns have been raised by people, especially those interested in privacy and data security. Some of the issues raised include: Names and addresses to be kept for four years. This obviously creates a risk of privacy breaches if the ... [More]
My local suburb is increasing in density, and (not entirely disconnected from that) it’s also interesting to see how the retail strip is doing. The shopping centre has grown around the railway station, which is still the epicentre, though the east side of the tracks is where most of the busiest shops are located. The ... [More]
Mckinnon station is open
After the big 37 day Frankston line shut down, the trains are back, and the new shiny Mckinnon station has re-opened. The other two stations, Bentleigh and Ormond, will open late in August. Here are some pics from Mckinnon from the past month… 28/6/2016 – the station had been closed since 25th March, a couple ... [More]
It’s the last day of July, so here’s my monthly post of pictures from ten years ago, from July 2006. Cooking a stew on my ancient stove, with my cast iron pot. Delicious, as I recall. I really should do this more often. All the other photos below were snapped with my then brand new ... [More]
With Ormond likely to get its tower (whatever the height might be), what of other nearby suburbs? The transition is already underway in Bentleigh and many other areas. Around the station, numerous developments are going up. And in principle, I have no problem with this. Melbourne’s population continues to grow. People have to live somewhere, ... [More]
Although it won’t reopen until the end of August, Ormond station has been coming along… Here’s how it looked on Saturday: Under the station building facing North Road is the deck for the concourse, as can be seen in the plans: But further north from that, a second deck is taking shape. It’s actually easiest ... [More]
I can be a bit of a pedant, so this photo caption in Saturday’s Age caught my eye: “Former NGV director Patrick McCaughey” pictured in 1986 — so was he the former NGV director back then? No — the article text makes it clear he was the director in 1986. There’s a simple way of ... [More]
I sometimes wonder if motorists driving in and out of car parks get irritated by pedestrians walking through. Often the pedestrians have no choice. These pictures are from Caulfield Plaza – with the major drawcard inside being the Coles supermarket. There is obvious pedestrian traffic from the railway station and the university campus to the ... [More]