Appears in the weekly Toxic Custard newsletter
I wrote years ago that it was stupid to throw away 145 years of brand recognition when they renamed Spencer Street station to Southern Cross. Good news – it turns out they’ve just named it back! This is a great idea. The name “Southern Cross” is meaningless. “Spencer Street” is meaningful, it tells you where ... [More]
Another in my series of ten year old photos; here’s March 2008. ACMI’s Game On exhibition had some great old games to play. Here’s son#1 Isaac playing Pong. …but it was the 80s-era arcade machines that I really enjoyed the most, re-living my teenage years. (I’m still tempted to buy an old machine.) The old ... [More]
Britain is a place many Australians look to with fondness, with many of us having relatives there, and it being a top destination for Australian tourists. As a result, London is sometimes seen as a city to emulate, especially as our cities get bigger. Our current crop of public transport managers certainly have links to ... [More]
One of the fundamental problems with transport planning in Australia is that politicians see it as demand-led, when basically transport systems are supply-led. Demand-led thinking has them looking at congested roads and thinking “we need to build another one”. Another one gets built, and it fills up. Rinse and repeat. (More people in cars = ... [More]
Another in my series of ten year old photos. In late-2007/early-2008 there was a stoush around the banning of bicycles in zone 1 during peak hours. In February 2008 the ban was reversed. Notice that this sign is ambiguous: are the bikes banned on any train that serves zone 1 during peak, or just banned ... [More]
When you’re house-hunting, there’s a continuum of numerous factors weighed against each other, including indoor space, outdoor space, location, walkability, and plenty more, including of course price. By walkability, I mean the walking distance to amenity such as parks, good public transport, shops. (Walkscore attempts to measure this.) From some points of view, perhaps the ... [More]
Just a quickie… A senior politician (I won’t say who, or which side) once told me something which, at the time was somewhat surprising to hear, but in retrospect it’s obvious – and puts a lot of things into perspective: For politicians, the number one priority is to get elected / to get re-elected / ... [More]
Happy new year! Noting that the most-viewed and commented-upon blog posts of last year were all transport-related (yeah this blog has moved to mostly transport in the past few years), I’m wondering what topics people might be interested in for posts this year. I have a number already in the works, but if you’d like ... [More]
Here’s another in my series of ten year old photos, this time from December 2007. Rain at Flinders Street Station. This shot captured a particular problem with the drainage which saw water gushing down past the door of this Hitachi train. Hopefully that issue is long since fixed, or at least being resolved in the ... [More]
(To just see transport-related blog posts, you can use this link — which is also on the top navigation menu) For years I’ve resisted air-conditioning at home. Partly it was the cost, partly it was that I really wanted to pursue passive cooling as much as I could — measures that used little or no ... [More]
All of Melbourne’s suburban railway stations have step-free access to the platforms. Except one: Heyington. To get to either platform involves steps. Heyington is set into the side of a hill. From the street you go down some steps to the citybound (“up”) platform. Or if you want the outbound (“down”) platform, that’s down some ... [More]
ZOMG, for the first time since I started this series, I forgot to post photos for October 2007 in October. And nobody noticed. Not surprising; I suspect I’m the most amused by these. Here they are. First, here’s the classic pic of Flinders Street Station. Basically the same nowadays, but covered in scaffolding for the ... [More]