All forms of transport, including gunzelly
I hate to say I told you so, and I hate even more to see enthusiasm and investment defeated, but it’s looking that way with the Wyndham to Docklands ferry. After much anticipation from some quarters, it kicked off this week in a blaze of publicity. Just to recap here’s the deal: The ferry departs ... [More]
Ten years ago today, the Bracks Government’s “Meeting Our Transport Challenges” plan was released. MOTC for short. It wasn’t the first of the 1999-2010 Labor Government’s transport documents, nor would it be the last. It came following a stinging assessment of Melbourne’s public transport a few months earlier by Professor Peter Newman for the Metropolitan ... [More]
Last Thursday the state government announced more details around the Metro rail tunnel, and related projects. High Capacity Signalling Upgrading existing rail lines to High Capacity Signalling (HCS) has the potential to boost track capacity by up to about 50%, though to reach that, you would need to remove level crossings too. Originally HCS was ... [More]
I’d been reading this article about the proposal to narrow a section of Mountain Highway through Bayswater when the level crossing is removed — from 3 lanes in each direction down to 2. Bayswater state Liberal MP Heidi Victoria has submitted the petition against the plans to State Parliament and urged the Government to intervene. ... [More]
OK, back to level crossing removals. My local ones are going full bore, and I thought I’d post an update and provide a Q+A opportunity. The project summary Originally removal of just the Ormond level crossing was funded by the Coalition. The project was expanded to include adjacent crossings at Mckinnon and Bentleigh after Labor ... [More]
Wednesday’s State Budget has a lot of good rail projects funded. It seems the State Government is serious about upgrading the rail network to cope for the future. Going through the press release and also the Budget Papers (Budget Paper 3 “Service Delivery” has always been my favourite; it has all the juicy stuff in ... [More]
Back in September 2010, the then-Brumby government announced an $807 million investment in new trams and infrastructure: Dandenong based company Bombardier will design, construct and maintain 50 new low floor trams for Melbourne as part of an $807.6 million investment by the Brumby Labor Government including a new tram maintenance and storage depot at Preston. ... [More]
If ever you want to see what the priorities really are, look at the resources they’re given. At this tram stop — Bourke/Spencer Street westbound — the few in cars have clearly been prioritised over the many in trams. While passengers are squashed into a narrow pathway, motor vehicles (if any turn up) are given ... [More]
It used to be that the fashionable bridge for high vehicles to crash into was the Spencer/Flinders Street rail overpass — eleven hits in five years. But it’s been usurped by the Montague Street tram bridge. At lunchtime on Tuesday I went down to have a look. Certainly no shortage of warnings signs. In this ... [More]
We survived! Ten days of bustitution is over… well, almost. Just to be clear — because some of the information is either vague, misleading or missing: The Frankston line is running again, including to Bentleigh station. Bentleigh station will close for demolition and rebuilding in June. But Mckinnon and Ormond stations are closed and demolished. ... [More]
A few more observations on the Bentleigh/Mckinnon/Ormond update — sorry to obsess over this, but it is a huge project directly affecting my local neighbourhood, and similar works will come to many areas of Melbourne soon… Some more pictures of construction Just south of Bentleigh station some serious work is going on re-routing a storm ... [More]
The second big (longer than a weekend) shutdown for this project has commenced, so where are we at? The project summary Click here for my long post on the project details, or here’s a summary: Originally just removal of the Ormond level crossing was funded by the Coalition. The project was expanded to include adjacent ... [More]
So, today Google Transit (Maps) enabled public transport planning in Victoria, including right across Melbourne. Hallelujah. This has been a long time coming. Google Transit and the GTFS file format originated about ten years ago, and quickly took hold in North American cities, as well as elsewhere around the world. Around the same time, the ... [More]
On the weekend I was chatting about the Dandenong skyrail proposal to rellies at their house near Hughesdale station. They are keeping an open mind; they are not immediately under the rail line, and they can see the obvious benefit from getting the level crossings removed quickly, but are concerned about some aspects, which it ... [More]
From time to time I’ll refer to the Frankston line on Twitter with the abbreviation FKN. I’m not just trying to get a cheap laugh. Well okay, perhaps I am, but what people might not realise is that’s actually the official station code for Frankston. Good morning #Bentleigh. They’re not lying about the 30 minute ... [More]
A few people have asked me about this in the past few months — what if Bentleigh had got “skyrail”? It’s interesting to consider, though it was never going to happen. Firstly, the timing was wrong. The Coalition had fully funded the Ormond level crossing for removal in May 2014, with designs already having determined ... [More]