The Melbourne Press Club have put up the MP3 recordings of last month’s “Public Transport: Ticket to Where?” debate. Their web page is a bit confusing (you have to click on the Quicktime logos), but here’s a summary of the MP3s: 1. Introductions — Not really worth listening to. 2. Paul Mees — You can’t ... [More]
Category: PTUA
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People say the darndest things
Complete strangers say odd things to me sometimes. And it’s not just asking for directions. Middle-aged tipsy lady on the way to the football one Friday night: It’s that man off the TV! Me: [non-committal] Lady: Yes, you are… who are you… the opposition health spokesman or something? Me: Umm no, I’m a public transport ... [More]
The Age yesterday ran a report on the PTUA’s submission to the Garnaut inquiry on climate change, with the headline being “Ban new freeways: transport group” — above another rather good article about cars not being on average any more efficient than 40 years ago. It didn’t take long for the rev heads to spot ... [More]
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Missed opportunity
Yesterday there were demonstrators outside the SX building in Exhibition Street, with brochures, a big banner calling for a Royal Commission. Into what? I’m not sure to be honest; it wasn’t obvious. I didn’t look too closely and I didn’t take a brochure as I had other things on my mind. The Premier John Brumby ... [More]
Many people like to whinge about the price of fuel, but Steve Fielding’s idea of cutting fuel taxes is a very bad idea — it would inevitably lead to more usage, and cutting prices is the last way you want to try and fight oil shortages. This opinion piece for ABC Online goes into more ... [More]
If you thought $494 million was a lot to pay for the new “Myki” smartcard public transport ticketing system, hold onto your hats… today it was revealed the actual cost is more than double that — $1 billion dollars, no less. Somehow the government are now claiming they needed to add the operating costs, which ... [More]
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Today’s article
Oh thank goodness — they didn’t use that horrible old picture in the print edition of the Herald Sun article today. Though perhaps the one they did use (which from memory was taken in late-2006 in Swanston Street) wasn’t much better. There was a bit of a typo in the article that appeared during production ... [More]
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There’s an election on
In case you hadn’t heard, there’s an election on. From yesterday’s Sunday Age “Heckler” page: THE DIRT: Politicians are trying to stack the outspoken Public Transport Users Association. The association is facing elections and there has been a flurry of nominations by Labor and even Liberal political staffers. What happens if Team Brumby takes over ... [More]
For his birthday, Andrew asked for a few bloggers to post something on a topic of his choosing. He asked me for: The time you had such a bad experience on public transport that you rang the minister or one of his minions, or similar. I had a think about this, and I don’t think ... [More]
In what might become a tradition (by my count this makes the fourth time in the last few months) Premier Brumby and Public Transport Minister Kosky took a train ride yesterday to make an announcement, this time at Jolimont, then caught a train to Parliament. (You could tell Brumby doesn’t catch the train much; the ... [More]
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Somewhere in the city
Some pics from the last few days… These people really really really really really like Sunkist. They bought probably about 50 x 1.25 litre bottles. (Why not buy bigger bottles?) They also bought over 100 Milo bars. Someone, somewhere is having a Sunkist and Milo Bar party. The checkout staff seemed quite bemused by it ... [More]
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No time Bellamy, no time
Sorry, too busy today to say much. Age: Public transport call to Canberra. Full report: Moving Australians Sustainably. Age: New rail tunnel proposal gains momentum Herald-Sun: Rail system daily ordeal for 300,000