Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.
Continuing my monthly series of photos from ten years ago… By mid-2003 it was almost four years since privatisation of trains and trams, but as you can see from this photo in Swanston Street (at Lonsdale Street), many trams still had The Met liveries. This tram stop (with interchange to many Lonsdale Street buses) has ... [More]
Magazines aren’t quite dead, but they’re in trouble. While places like MagNation in Elizabeth Street are often busy, that might hide the fact that it replaced at least two older specialised magazine retailers (Technical Book Shop and McGills) that were in the CBD previously. At Southland, the newsagency that had been there for decades has ... [More]
It’s often said that there hasn’t been a suburban rail line built in Melbourne since the Glen Waverley line opened in 1930. To be precise, that year it was extended from Darling to Glen Waverley. Others built or extended since then have either been electrification along existing lines, or re-openings of lines along old alignments: ... [More]
A few thoughts on Federal politics from the last few days. I think Gillard did some great stuff. Carbon tax (some don’t like it, but it works), National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Royal Commission into child abuse, and (along with her predecessors on both sides) keeping the economy afloat in dire economic times — and ... [More]
It was present over much of the metropolitan area, but here are some pictures of the fog around the city on Monday. William Street: Little William Street: Bourke Street: (Contrast this last one to a similar pic from autumn last year)
You might recall I did a recent poll on three public transport questions. I posted about the first two here. The third was about frequent network maps. Here’s the thinking: Frequent public transport services are an order of magnitude more useful to people than infrequent ones. Nobody likes to live their life by a timetable, ... [More]
My time on the PTUA committee only overlapped with Paul’s by about a year or so. I was newsletter editor in his final year as President. But I remembered him from my days as an “ordinary” member in the 90s, and in my time as Prez and afterwards, I encountered him regularly around the traps. ... [More]
Some of those of us who hang around the city are truly amazed at the number of motorists who ignore the “No Entry” and turn ban signs and drive along streets they’re not meant to. So it’s nice to know that — just occasionally — they do get pulled over by the police. Unfortunately others ... [More]
For the first time in many years, I caught the last train home last night. So was it the dark, dingy, delayed and dangerous experience many assume it is? No. 12:06am — Waiting at Flinders Street Quite a few people were on the platform for the last train The train ride itself? Peacefully quiet. Along ... [More]
Yesterday morning. The thump at Glenhuntly made me look up. Further up the train carriage, passengers were milling around. One of them had taken a fall — tripped in the doorway, it appeared. It was an old man a senior gentleman. Others helped him up and into a seat. The train doors had shut and ... [More]
An obscure music video from 1993, twenty years ago. I caught this video on Rage one night, and got into the band Jellyfish from there. I’m not even sure quite why I like it. The quirky music video (it was never clear enough on VHS, but it is here — all the band’s shots are ... [More]
Continuing my series of posts of 10-year-old photos… The Railway Museum at North Williamstown is closed currently, due to safety issues. As a kid I’d visited many times, and I was able to take my kids there too. Selfie with the kids, from the top of Heavy Harry. Near the museum, parked in a siding ... [More]