Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.
Another day in Lyon, and we’d heard about a riverside market not too far away, so made that our first port of call. The old centre of Lyon sits between two rivers – the Rhรดne (which runs through Switzerland and France) and the Saรดne, which flows into it just south at La Confluence. We were ... [More]
Good morning Lyon! Some Googling overnight, and I felt like we could navigate the local public transport. Step one: the Lyon Metro. It’s got four lines and 42 stations, and carries a similar number of passenger trips as Melbourne’s suburban rail system – pretty good going for a metropolitan area with about half Melbourne’s population. ... [More]
A couple of newish things in the world of public transport info that have flown under the radar. Metro now has realtime info for rail replacement buses. Perhaps it’s a soft launch because I can’t see a link to the info on the excellent Planned Works page on their web site. Instead, if you browse ... [More]
As the Louvre gets raided, we head out of town at high speed
Good morning Paris! We took a morning walk to find some baked goods for the excursion later. At 9am on a Saturday, the streets were pretty quiet, even at the famous Moulin Rouge. Moulin is French for mill, by the way, eg red (wind) mill. It was our last full day in Paris, but we’d ... [More]
More sights in Paris
Another fine Paris morning. We hopped on the Metro… I was beginning to think everything in Paris is about 30 minutes away: a 10 minute walk to the Metro, a 10 minute Metro ride, and a 10 minute walk at the other end… but of course it was a product of where we were staying ... [More]
We’d been warned about scams and pickpockets in Paris. This seems to be backed up by any number of online videos showing examples of the problems. Apparently it’s phones rather than wallets that are the most commonly stolen items. Phone theft is also a problem in London. Seems like the thieves have worked out that ... [More]
(Backdated post. I’m falling a bit behind on these, but expect more soon) Time to change countries! We packed up our luggage and walked to Edgware Road tube, which we caught to St Pancras. (Looking at this picture, I just realised I’ve misspelt Edgware in an earlier post. It only has two Es. Now fixed.) ... [More]
One last full day in London before we headed elsewhere. After breakfast we hopped on the Circle Line and headed to Blackfriars -the train was packed, and it’s an indirect route but potentially the fastest by avoiding changes. From there we walked along the river to the Tate Modern. It’s in an old power station ... [More]
Sunday! After breakfast in the hotel, we had a morning walk around the neighbourhood, ending up back at Hyde Park. The Royal Parks Half Marathon was underway, with organisers cordoning off paths, getting ready for the energetic people to come through. Though busy, the park was still enjoyable, and while overcast, it was looking like ... [More]
Surviving jet-lag
(backdated post) Friday morning: time to head for Europe! Thankfully not an early morning flight – they are not my favourite. I finished packing then caught a train to Footscray to collect my travelling companion, then (for reasons of speed and convenience) we caught an Uber to the airport. They recommend arriving 2-3 hours early ... [More]
Inspired by Alon Levy’s quick-fire Bluesky threads full of transport ideas, here’s some quick-fire points from me: These are some priorities for fixing on Victoria’s public transport network. I’m excluding anything already underway (such as bank card fare payment and Melbourne Airport Rail), and for the most part I’ve focused on system-wide issues rather than ... [More]
(backdated post) How fast can you get a passport renewal? Pretty fast if you’re prepared to pay. With about a week until the holiday, the travel agent pointed out that I had just five months left on my passport. I was already aware of this. I’d checked, and five was enough for the countries we’d ... [More]
So busy at the moment, but here’s another post in my regular series of photos from ten years ago: September and October 2015. The “New” Spirit of Tasmania at the old dock at Port Melbourne. It’s since moved down to Geelong, in a spot pretty much inaccessible by any means other than car.(What’s the person ... [More]