All forms of transport, including gunzelly
I was going to blog a few quick things from the past couple of weeks. That post grew too big, so I’m splitting it up… Bustitution is coming With the number of rail projects underway, it should be no surprise that there seem to be major works happening somewhere, every school holidays. In fact for ... [More]
Sometimes I notice tiny things, and wonder what they’re about. Have you noticed that some bus stops have a small colourful stripy bit of tape? Intriguingly, many of them seem to match the colours of the logo of the bus operator for that route – even if the buses themselves are now all in the ... [More]
On Saturday night at the Croxton Bandroom we saw They Might Be Giants playing a 1990s vs 2000s concert. The night before they’d done a 1980s vs 2010s concert. It was great stuff, very enjoyable. Now that I’ve heard Instanbul, Doctor Worm and Birdhouse In Your Soul live, I can die a happy man. And ... [More]
On Saturday I participated in an Infrastructure Victoria session on transport network planning. It was described as a kind of speed-dating session – seven speakers doing quick 12 minute conversations with groups of 4-5 people. They suggested kicking off with an introduction to your view on the topic, then seeing where the conversation takes you. ... [More]
I’m sorry to go all Neville Shunt on you and drone on about railway timetables again, but I’m going to do it anyway. In an ideal metro system, that is a rail network designed to maximise capacity and frequency, one of the key things is to separate the busiest lines so they don’t share tracks. ... [More]
Rail Projects Victoria has released some draft plans for parts of the Metro 1 project. The plans include both portals (where the tunnel connects to the existing aboveground tracks) and the western turnback – a facility to be added at West Footscray station to turnback (terminate and/or originate) train services through the tunnel. Below are ... [More]
Last year the government announced that Myki would be coming to mobile phones. Early testing happened late last year, and last week PTV opened up the trial to up to 4000 participants. The technology allows you to load a “virtual” Myki card onto your Android phone within Google Pay, and use it for travelling on ... [More]
(I’m hoping to blog about the Myki Mobile trial in the next few days, so hold those thoughts) Some time in the last few days, a subtle addition appeared on the platform screens at Flinders Street Station: a countdown to departure. This has been on other displays around the network for decades, but some clever ... [More]
In the past year or two, the Cranbourne/Pakenham rail line has seen numerous upgrades to prepare for the High Capacity Metro Trains to start this year. Some of the upgrades are to power systems. I’m not normally one to write blog posts about new items of infrastructure, but have you seen these bad boys installed ... [More]
Last Monday’s meltdown soured the return of trains after upgrades on the Dandenong and Frankston lines – which included works for the Metro tunnel, and also power upgrades and extensions to some platforms. So, how long is a railway station platform? Generally, as long as the trains that serve it, plus a bit for spare. ... [More]
I’ve been on a break at home, having a rest and trying to get stuff done around the house. Alas, this is now at an end, and while I guess I’ve had a rest, I certainly haven’t got all the stuff I planned done. And people telling me “nobody ever does” isn’t helping. My break ... [More]
The other day I went and took a look around the new Frankston station, upgraded last year by the Level Crossing Removal Authority alongside the nearby Skye Road level crossing removal, and in parallel with Vicroads upgrades to Young Street. In a similar manner to Southern Cross, there’s been an extensive renovation and replacement of ... [More]
Last year I wrote about Chadstone’s Boxing Day bus debacle: delays, heavy demand, traffic jams, queues, and not a single additional bus deployed. So, how was it this year? Spoiler: Almost the same. Here’s some video, or read on. So I wanted to head to Chadstone to look for a bargain. It’d be crazy to ... [More]
One final blog before Christmas. PTV published this data some time ago, covering Melbourne’s train/tram/bus patronage from 1947 to 2011, but I’ve added the most recent figures using numbers from the Budget Papers. The data starts just after WW2, with the highest number of trips shown being 587 million in 1948-49. There was a big ... [More]
State government annual reports season ended up hitting late this year due to the election. It’s usually in September, but this year everything got tabled in Parliament late on Wednesday. I usually like to browse through the V/Line and PTV reports for interesting factoids… Here are some things I noticed during a quick skim. V/Line ... [More]
The Age’s Timna Jacks got hold of some bus punctuality figures via FOI, and published this story last week, which is worth a read: Late every second trip: Life on the delayed 232 bus The data provides a glimpse of something not normally in the public eye. Regular bus users know that some routes suffer ... [More]