Categories
Consumerism transport

Car culture

Now THIS is car culture. Come to Kingston Central Plaza! Bring your hulking great four-wheel drive! In fact WE DON’T EVEN ALLOW compact cars in our car parks! Yes, we’ve built a shopping centre just for you, where we wanted it, on cheap land. Why stick to the designated activity centres in the Melbourne 2030  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Missing the tram

If there’s one thing I miss since moving to the middle burbs, it’s the trams. Some people talk about public transport culture vs car culture. Car culture is where the default is to jump in the car to go anywhere. PT culture is where the default is to go to the local tram, train or  ... [More]

Categories
PTUA transport

Platforms 7 and 8

The pictures in the Heckler section on the back page of The Sunday Age this morning may look familiar… I originally posted them here.

Categories
transport

You’re welcome, but your car isn’t

Neil Mitchell in the Herald Sun last week, has some strange ideas about the City: Second, there’s transport. It is difficult to get into the city and difficult to move around it. As Jeff Kennett said this week, those monster tram stops have clogged traffic and undermined the principle behind the magnificently simple design of  ... [More]

Categories
PTUA Sport transport

Directions to Waverley

The new Customer Information Centre at Flinders Street Station is a funny looking structure. The native grasses growing out of the sides… well, I don’t know who thought of it, but it’s certainly distinctive. Staff will answer customer queries there, and additional staff will be on the platforms from November. Extra staff on Melbourne’s busiest  ... [More]

Categories
PTUA transport

Ticket checking at the Show

I couldn’t fault the trains on Tuesday going to the Show. But despite all the talk of fighting fare evasion, things at the Showgrounds station on Tuesday were incredibly sloppy. While the Show tickets were individually scanned on entry, we didn’t have our train tickets checked when arriving or departing. And when we left, we  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Myki — what goes next?

The government backed down on one of the January fare changes — making Seniors Dailies only available in packs of 5. Not in a pack, really, but on a single ticket. Which meant a couple wanting that fare would have to cough up $33 in one hit. (Some might argue that Seniors shouldn’t get any  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Etiquette and crankiness

MISCONDUCT IN FRANKSTON TRAIN Although there have been many convictions for rowdy conduct in the trains to Frankston at weekends, offences of this kind constantly occur. At the Malvern Court on Monday, before Mr. Cohen, P.M. and Messrs. Patterson, Hattam, and Carroll, J.P.’s, the Railway Department proceeded against Bernand Molloy, 214 George street, Fitzroy, and  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne transport

MATHS stations

The stations between Malvern and South Yarra are colloquially known as the MATHS stations. Malvern Armadale Toorak Hawksburn South Yarra The first four of them (that would be MATH) also match architecturally. I’m assuming they were all built around 1915 when the line was quadruplicated. I can’t think of any other station group names of  ... [More]

Categories
PTUA transport

Ghost trams

Not for the first time, a blog post of mine has been adapted into a newspaper story. Today’s Sunday Age reports on “ghost trams”: On our tramway’s secret service. Interestingly, Yarra Trams uses the term “ghost tram” for something else already — a tram that’s out of radio contact. Last year The Age did a  ... [More]

Categories
transport

So much for that

So much for Weekly/Monthly/Yearly tickets being valid in any zone on weekends. From January this benefit will be removed. You’d think they’d be trying not to discourage people from using these tickets, since they help cut down queues and encourage PT loyalty… but it looks like it’s a simplification of the rules to make implementation  ... [More]

Categories
News and events transport

Humming along

I thought the police were having issues with high petrol bills. Apparently not, as they’re going to patrol nightspots in Hummers. Maybe instead they should have gone for Police Priuses. They’d be distinctive. Did you know that a Prius actually has more legroom than a Hummer H3? Seriously, inspired by a comment from Tony H,  ... [More]