Categories
transport

Death on platform 4

It apparently happened about 8:30am overnight, but was only noticed at 8:30am. A 20 year old man decided to do a bit of “train surfing”. He touched the wires. Zap. Dead. By the time I went through at about 9:30, they were cleaning up the scene. Not that you could see anything; bystanders were kept  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Moving the trucks

My street is a leafy side-street, well away from industrial land. We see the supermarket trucks rolling through our suburb, but other than that, few big freight vehicles are seen. In fact a bigger volume of freight probably goes through Bentleigh on the steel trains from Hastings than on trucks on the streets. Not so  ... [More]

Categories
transport

I like cycling, but…

I love the concept of commuter cycling. While my trip to work is a little too far, I love the idea of riding to places like my sister’s house or my mum’s house or my dad’s place (all just a few km away) on the bike. I love the idea of taking the whole family  ... [More]

Categories
transport

The man who knew too much

Perhaps sometimes it’s a disadvantage knowing too much about all the transport options. When mild interruptions occur, it might make one more inclined to take the alternatives, even when ultimately it doesn’t really save any time. Take, for example, Tuesday morning’s commute. It started with two SMSs. The 8:36 and the 8:52 from Glenhuntly to  ... [More]

Categories
News and events transport

Cabbies protest

It was easy to find a taxi this morning in the city, but more difficult to find a driver — or at least one who would take you anywhere. Taxi drivers were protesting about driver safety, blocking the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets. Quite a few empty cabs were parked nearby. Despite claims of  ... [More]

Categories
PTUA transport

Revving up the rev heads

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]

Categories
transport

Radio traffic news

I know 774’s traffic and train updates are done directly in the studio (I saw it happen when I was in there the other week). Channel 10’s are done from a helicopter — you get to see the lady in it as she talks. What about the other radio stations? Many of them make it  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Train stuff

1. Contrary to this report in the Geelong Advertiser, the term “bustitution” has been around for years. I don’t know who first coined it. A number of regular services to and from Geelong have been replaced by coaches through April, giving rise to a new term being coined by the Public Transport Users’ Association –  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Personal mobility

You know what narks me? It’s the argument that we have to build lots more roads because people have to drive so that they have personal mobility. It’s an argument from the road lobby that is basically saying wherever you go, you have to be able to take your car. And it gets traction because  ... [More]

Categories
Politics and activism PTUA transport

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]

Categories
transport

Optimising the commute

I’m sure anybody who drives a particular trip regularly has in their mind their thoughts on optimising it: which route to take, which lane to be in when, best time to set out, alternate routes available if there’s a major snarl — like there was on Wednesday. What about PT users? Do they think this  ... [More]

Categories
News and events transport

Frantic day

One of those frantic days. E Day — the Eddington report came out. Age story. In summary: do we really want to blow $20 billion on tunnels, when one (the road tunnel) appears to serve no purpose (hardly anybody drives NE to W) and the other (the rail tunnel) tries to solve a capacity problem  ... [More]