Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.
The State Budget was last week, and included some good investments in public transport. I haven’t had time to write up everything (so busy!), but I thought I’d quickly show a couple of key indicators. Total public transport service kilometres (in blue; left axis) Public transport service kilometres per person (in red; right axis) Service ... [More]
A remark on social media inspired this: a quick comparison of suburban train punctuality in Australia. We have suburban rail networks in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, and all of them publish monthly punctuality data. So here’s a quick graph comparing them since January last year: Some caveats: Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide consider “on-time” ... [More]
Another in my series of posts of ten year old photos, and this time they’re 100% public transport related. Around the network, Myki was slowly taking over, but some of the Metcard vending machines were still hanging on. One benefit of Myki was that it handled the weekend saver cap automatically. There was a Myki ... [More]
Not a transport post I’ve been having annual eye tests for a few years now. It was prompted by noticing floaters for the first time about five years ago. Initially they said there were no issues… well, apart from my right eye which has been nearly blind since birth, but nothing can be done about ... [More]
The continuing use of masks on public transport came up last week when Premier Andrews remarked that they’d be around for some time yet. (For a segment on this topic on ABC Radio Melbourne last Thursday with me, listen here – it starts at roughly at 1:55:40.) So I thought I’d quickly review what the ... [More]
Official data shows the busiest railway stations and tram stops
It’s the end of the month – here’s another in my series of posts with photos from ten years ago. When McKinnon station had a level crossing, this was a common and slightly unnerving sight – cars driving across just before the booms went down and citybound trains (two of them) came through. It’s not ... [More]
Thanks to the Metro tunnel team (specifically the guys at Cross Yarra Partnership) I managed to get a ticket to the tour of Arden station held yesterday. Arden Station is named after nearby Arden Street, and will be located in a new urban renewal precinct of the same name. The station will be between Footscray ... [More]
Free public transport is back in the news this week. In the wake of high petrol prices, the Victorian Greens have proposed it to help provide relief and switch people onto public transport. In recent weeks, New Zealand has halved its public transport fares for three months, and Tasmania has made theirs free for five ... [More]
We’re now two years into the pandemic. For many Melbourne people, the start was marked by the sudden cancellation of the March 2020 Formula 1 Grand Prix, followed just over a week later by the early start of school holidays and the shift to Work From Home for most white-collar workers – which for many ... [More]
Not a transport post. In years gone by, I scoffed at the idea of paying $50+ a month for Foxtel pay TV, and I wasn’t the only one – apparently by 2012, only 28% of Australian homes had a pay TV subscription. I suppose Foxtel needed to cover their delivery infrastructure costs, unlike today’s streaming ... [More]
I’ve written before that Victoria (and Melbourne) was the only major jurisdiction in the country not publishing patronage data more regularly than once a year. Well, kudos to the Department of Transport: just recently they started publishing monthly patronage data, alongside updated annual station entry data for Metro and V/Line. (I know Philip Mallis had ... [More]