Mckinnon station was the site an infamous incident in 2010 that perhaps, more than any other, solidified popular support for the state Coalition’s policy of two Protective Service Officers on every station after 6pm. It was an unusual event, but very frightening for those involved: passengers coming home from Friday night football. Passengers had to ... [More]
Category: transport
All forms of transport, including gunzelly
I’ve remarked upon this before in comparisons with Perth and Brisbane, but of all the flaws of Myki, the top one must be the inconsistent and slow response times. Marcus Wong has captured this superbly in a video: Note that many of the people in the queue know that you can touch before the gate ... [More]
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Rail tunnel plans compared
There’s plenty of confusion over the various rail tunnel proposals. The Coalition is pushing theirs, Labor’s saying they’ll stick to the original plan. On the bright side: The major parties aren’t arguing about whether a rail line should be built, but which route it should take. Both schemes appear to achieve the goal of separating ... [More]
The metro rail tunnel has been renamed again. What has been at various times “Metro 1+Metro 2”, “the Metro Tunnel”, and the “Metro Rail Capacity Project” is now “Melbourne Rail Link”. The plans for the revised version are not as bad as first thought. The Frankston line will run from South Yarra to Domain and ... [More]
UPDATE 7:30pm: The government has released details which vary from the assumptions in this post. See this followup post. Oh lordy. As some have feared, it looks like the Napthine government is about to stuff-up the metro rail tunnel, which is proposed to connect the Sunshine/Sunbury and Dandenong lines. The Herald Sun reports: WORK on ... [More]
I think it’d be true to say that Melbourne hasn’t done high-density development in the suburbs very well. For example, this monolith in Camberwell, a bit too far away from the railway station, out of scale with (some of) the buildings around it, and I’m sure not well liked by many of the locals. But ... [More]
First I knew of last night’s Trainageddon was when my son Isaac rang at 7pm. He and his friends were at South Yarra — stuck. I said No problem! Catch a Sandringham line train, I’ll meet you at Brighton… oh, that line’s out too. Yes, a trackside fire at Richmond affected signalling, knocking out the ... [More]
The new Springvale station opened earlier this week as part of the $159 million grade-separation of Springvale Road. Yesterday I took a quick look around. Arriving on platform 2, it reminds me a bit of Box Hill, with part of the station being under the road, which means plenty of rain cover is provided. Note ... [More]
I swear I wrote most of this blog post before reading last Friday’s Age article regarding contract law experts including Dr Nick Seddon. It confirmed my suspicions: Should Labor win the November state election, there is no legal impediment stopping it from tearing up the contract for the East West Link if it is sincere ... [More]
Update October 2014: There’s a later draft PTV are trialling a new train network map. They’re seeking feedback on it, and you’ll see it at some stations now (Bentleigh, Malvern and Moorabbin, I think). Note, just to remove all doubt: unlike the PTV network plan, it’s not a concept for new rail lines; it’s a ... [More]
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Napthine promises Airport rail
Victorians will be able to catch a train to the airport with Premier Denis Napthine today announcing that the upcoming State Budget will outline the Coalition Government’s commitment to build a new rail link from Southern Cross Station to Melbourne Airport. — Coalition Government commits to Melbourne Airport Rail Link in State Budget Really we’ll ... [More]
For some reason, while the government have been crowing about train punctuality this week… Our record investment in PT = 23 months of punctuality above 90%. Congrats to staff at @metrotrains #springst – Tez pic.twitter.com/8bclsZOyXh — Terry Mulder (@TerryMulderMP) April 9, 2014 …they haven’t been talking much about Service Delivery, aka Cancellations. I wonder why ... [More]
This is very cool. Similar to tools Jarrett Walker often talks about that show how far you can get in X minutes on public transport, here’s a map prepared around 1925 or so (I’m guessing) by the Melbourne Town Planning Commission showing how long it takes to get into central Melbourne from various suburbs by ... [More]
Last Wednesday in State Parliament: The SPEAKER — Order! I have accepted a statement from Minister for Public Transport proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion: That this house congratulates the coalition government for improving affordability, safety, reliability and punctuality on public transport, and its investment in rail and road infrastructure, and notes ... [More]
Just a little tip — because it seems a lot of people don’t know this: For metropolitan services, you can touch-on a Myki and travel with any balance which is non-negative, that is, zero or above. It doesn’t matter if the card balance is less than the fare. This means if you find yourself needing ... [More]
While some are hailing the government’s plan (backed by Labor) to apply zone 1 fares (as a maximum) right across Melbourne, I thought it might be worth looking at the per kilometre cost for various trips — including some V/Line trips. The table below shows a sample of trips, both with the current fares, and ... [More]