All forms of transport, including gunzelly
Melbourne’s expanding fleet of low-floor trams are being allocated to tram routes that lack wheelchair-accessible stops, while accessible tram stops are being built on routes that have no low-floor trams. — The Age: New accessible tram stops not on the level for those most in need in Melbourne Let me present a prime example. This ... [More]
I was thinking about what makes good cities work effectively, and it occurred to me that a prime example is the Restaurant Tram. That day we took the Restaurant Tram, we made our way from the train at Southern Cross Station to the pick-up point next to Clarendon Street. The convention centre (Jeff’s Shed) was ... [More]
The RACV has again cited choice as a reason to go ahead and build huge road projects, including the East West Link which the Andrews government has a clear mandate to scrap. (Remember, a survey showed only 38% of RACV members support East West Link.) Ah yes, choice. Let me give you an example of ... [More]
The metro rail tunnel concept is about ten years old, having first publicly emerged in late-2005. In some quarters, it’s been seen as an unnecessary white elephant — an expensive way of providing for extra passenger capacity in the CBD, when other cheaper ways were available to cope with increased patronage. But time has passed, ... [More]
East West Link is now that it’s dead, buried and cremated (to coin a phrase). Though I’m not sure that’s how you destroy zombies. Some closing thoughts on the project… The $339m payout is less than a single year of the expected $345m annual Availability Payments that would have been paid if it had been ... [More]
Here’s a quick followup to Tuesday’s post… that had a summary of 1939 vs 2006 vs 2015 timetables in the 5-6pm peak, but here’s the line-by-line breakdown. to 1939 2006 2015 St Kilda 10 Port Melbourne 5 Williamstown 7 3 3 Altona/Laverton 2 See Werribee 3 Werribee 1 4 5 St Albans/Sunbury 2 5 9 ... [More]
This video is inspired partly by a shot in the House Of Cards titles, and partly by something my dad used to tell me — that you could stand at Richmond station in the evening peak and see trains on every track coming out of the city. He may have been exaggerating a tad, but ... [More]
Last year the Coalition announced they were going ahead with an unsolicited proposal: to upgrade the Dandenong line. In summary, it included: grade separation of 4 level crossings, 3 stations associated with those rebuilt, planning and early works on 5 more grade separations, high capacity signalling, 25 new trains, a maintenance depot at Pakenham, and ... [More]
Information is power, so they say. So it follows that good accurate information on public transport services is needed to make the most of them. Back in 2005, before the first wave of Real smartphones prompted by the iPhone, Google launched Google Transit. The idea is simple: with access to all of a region’s public ... [More]
This morning The Age published more detailed train service data than we usually get to see. Some information is routinely published, but we rarely get an insight into the breakdown between AM, PM and off-peak punctuality, for instance. In some ways the data was no great surprise — in the first week of March, hundreds ... [More]
Via a couple of stories in the last few days, The Age has revealed proposed changes to the tram network, probably to take place from mid-year with the next big round of timetable changes. Some context First, some context. All the changes need to be seen in light of fleet changes, and growing patronage. The ... [More]
I recently read a book I bought a couple of years ago after seeing an interesting article about it: Moving Minds, Conservatives and Public Transit, by American conservatives Paul Weyrich (who passed away in 2008) and William Lind. It’s an interesting read, providing a perspective on transport issues which isn’t often seen prominently, at least ... [More]
I remember when Labor and the Coalition both pledged to build Southland station. It was 2010. I told my kids, who were excited. They were 15 and 12 at the time, just the ages when they were looking forward to exploring the city and suburbs on their own, going to places like Southland with friends. ... [More]
One of the advantages of rail over road transport is the ride quality. Well, that’s in theory. If enough care and funding goes in, trains can be extremely smooth. In practice on a rail network like Melbourne’s, with aging infrastructure, it can be a bumpy ride. Now, I don’t have a major problem with a ... [More]
Metro has been trying modified carriage layouts on the trains. Some Comeng trains have had seats removed near the doorways, and now a Siemens train has shown up with a similar treatment. My immediate reaction (from a quick ride a few minutes ago)… The pros: the larger doorway area should help speed up loading and ... [More]
Victoria’s first big 21st century rail megaproject is almost complete. Regional Rail Link was started and mostly funded by Labor (State and Federal, in part as stimulus money during the Global Financial Crisis), and largely built under the State Coalition. Construction itself is now complete, with driver training and other preparatory work happening ahead of ... [More]