Categories
Photos transport

The station by the sea

Categories
Politics and activism transport

Sometimes it pays to be a packrat

Don’t throw away your February Met ticket: Connex will have to offer compensation for the first time ever to all Connex Melbourne train customers who hold a monthly or longer ticket from February. They got caught by a mere 0.01%, with 91.99% arriving within 5 minutes of their scheduled time, just barely under their 92%  ... [More]

Categories
Politics and activism PTUA transport

Kyoto, transport, all that guff

Today the Kyoto protocol comes into effect, at least in the countries that have signed up to it. Of which ours isn’t one, so unlike most industrialised countries, we (along with the US and China) can blissfully keep pumping CO2 into the air, with no legal consequences. A lot of the contributions to emissions come  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Magical Mystery Tour

A somewhat circuitous commute this morning. 9:05. Get to Glenhuntly station. Note large crowd on platform — never a good sign that late in the morning. 9:10. Connex lady is leaving for the day, but mumbles something about problems. Green button for latest info refuses to talk to me. I hang about at the front  ... [More]

Categories
Photos transport Travel

Adventure in Warragul

It started with an observation from one or both of my offspring: “I’ve never been on a sprinter train!” So I thought ah, one more week of holidays for me, I’ll take them on the train down to Geelong. They’re well-versed with travel on the suburban trains (it’s all part of my “Dad’s taxi”-avoidance scheme  ... [More]

Categories
Photos transport

Mural

Mural, Canterbury Street, Yarraville. (Hands up who remembers the red rattler trains?)

Categories
Politics and activism PTUA transport

NYE

The whole New Year’s Eve debacle saga that I wrote about a few months ago came bubbling back up to the surface today. The trains will run all night, as well as more frequently straight after the fireworks. Herald Sun: Trains all night on New Year’s Eve The Age: Public transport plan to avert New  ... [More]

Categories
Ranting transport

Indicator rant

Look, I know it’s hard to use your car’s indicators properly. Having that little switch so close to your hands on the steering wheel, and remembering to use it to… err… indicate… obviously there isn’t enough training in this when learning to drive. I’ll give you a few specific hints though. To the guy in  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Alarm

After the puppetry, we sat in the train on Friday night at Flinders Street, waiting for the 10:12pm departure (for Sandringham — not my usual line — long story), munching on the banana cake and sipping our hot chocolates from the concourse snack purveyor. Both were, frankly, much better than I expected them to be,  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne transport TV

Nostalgia x 3

Spotted the Chrysler PT Cruiser Police Car in Collins Street yesterday. Some kind of initiative to help the police reach out to youth. Despite my joking on seeing it (“That’ll get the glue-sniffers and vandals’ attention! Hey kids! Stop spraypainting and check out our cool car!”) hopefully it does have a positive effect. It is  ... [More]

Categories
Culture Melbourne transport

Good news, bad news

The marks on the road were a rather obvious reminder of last night’s apparently spectacular tram mishap outside Glenhuntly Station. Two scores in the road, about ooh 4 foot 8 and a half inches apart, veering away from the tracks at the catch points, across most of the railway crossing, then back onto the tracks.  ... [More]

Categories
transport TV

Thunderbirds are go!

Ten points to the train driver the other night who announced something along the lines of: “Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Tonight we’ll be remembering the Thunderbirds. Shortly we’ll be touching down at the planet South Yarra, where voyagers for Sandringham galaxy can change. Then we’ll be travelling at warp speed, express to Caulfield, before  ... [More]