All forms of transport, including gunzelly
Things have been busy, so I’m a bit behind on blogging things. A few things in brief, then the big news. Wednesday night delays Last night saw major delays affecting the Mernda and Hurstbridge lines between about 4pm and 5:30pm, impacting peak hour. This was due to a track fault at Flinders Street, and it ... [More]
Channel 9 and The Age got hold of a previously unpublished rail plan, or at least the summary maps from it. Age: Leaked rail plan shows few extra services for regional commuters Channel 9: I assume the headline-writer got a little carried away. Metro 2 isn’t really a secret. The stages The staging appears to ... [More]
Just a quick post while I work on something more substantive. I want to talk about Passenger Information Displays (PIDs for short) at Metro stations. For a while, it looked like suburban stations would all be getting two line LED PIDs. They show the scheduled time, destination, minutes to departure, and a summary of the ... [More]
The May 2018 Metro and Yarra Trams passenger load surveys were released last week. Media coverage: Herald Sun (paywall); The Age It’s worth noting that load surveys are measuring what happens when the service is running as planned. It’s not designed to look at crowding during disruptions, it’s designed to guide future investment. Trains Here’s ... [More]
On Wednesday the Coalition announced a pledge to upgrade all the main regional rail lines to 200 km/h, cutting travel times. ABC report: Coalition promises 32-minute trips from Geelong to Melbourne under regional rail upgrade Melbourne is bursting, we must take control of population growth by decentralising growth. The Liberal Nationals 200kmh high speed rail ... [More]
The other day I had cause to catch a train from Gardenvale to Balaclava. It’s interesting to compare these two stations. They are both elevated over main roads. Both have shopping centres that have built up around them. Both have connecting street-based public transport. Gardenvale station opened in 1906 as an additional station on the ... [More]
Longtime readers of this blog may recall that back in 2010 an apartment block was being advertised at Caulfield, smack bang between where the Frankston and Dandenong lines diverge. It was never built. Google Street View shows by 2014 the site was still empty, and the advertising sign was covered in graffiti. Around 2016 the ... [More]
Despite living in a sports mad city in a sports mad country, I’m not the world’s biggest sports fan. But as a public transport advocate, I embrace big sporting events, because it’s amazing the things they can help get done in transport. This is only natural. Such events are often a showcase, particularly in Melbourne, ... [More]
Some more thoughts on the Suburban Rail Loop — which in this post, I am going to cheekily call Metro 3 for short, since it’s been proposed after Metro 1 (currently under construction) and Metro 2. A week and a half on, many questions remain, but the idea still looks like an incredibly forward-thinking, positive ... [More]
Okay, I didn’t see this coming. Orbital rail for the middle ring of Melbourne, announced on Facebook this morning. Labor say they want to build a 90km suburban rail loop from Cheltenham (by which they appear to mean Southland), Clayton, Monash, Glen Waverley, Deakin Burwood, Box Hill, Doncaster, Heidelberg, Latrobe Uni, Reservoir, Fawkner, Broadmeadows, Airport, ... [More]
On Sunday I went out to see the Mernda rail extension. The Level Crossing Removal Authority, who built it (well, it does involve new stations and grade separation of an existing disused rail corridor, so it kinda makes sense) ran a community open day, with free shuttle trains between South Morang and Mernda. After catching ... [More]
It’s been very busy the last week or two, which is why the blog has been a bit quiet. Apart from the day job, this week I’ve been to two MTF transport forums (Melbourne, and Glen Eira), and a PTUA committee meeting. There are more MTF forums (fora?) in the coming weeks, and if you’re ... [More]