I finally took a ride on the Regional Rail Link last night. In summary: Trains from the city to Geelong depart regularly, but from numerous platforms — when I was there in peak, it was 5A, then 7A, 15A, 1, 3A… and when I’d been there at lunchtime, 2B had also been in the mix. ... [More]
Category: transport
All forms of transport, including gunzelly
It’s tax time, and if you’re anything like me, every charity you’ve ever thrown money at has been writing to you to see if you’ll give them some more. In the spirit of this, I’d like to put in a quick plug for donating to the Public Transport Not Traffic campaign — this is the ... [More]
I’ve been watching The Killing Season, the story of Labor and the switches in power between Rudd and Gillard. It’s really good, and episode one goes into some detail about the Global Financial Crisis, and the Rudd/Swan stimulus packages (two of them, totalling almost $60 billion) to fight it off. The stimulus package was intended ... [More]
Another in my series of photos from ten years ago… This month almost everything (bar some family snaps) was transport-related. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The south end of Elizabeth Street. Hasn’t changed much apart from, as with the rest of the city, being busier with pedestrians, and that particular tram stop has ... [More]
Yesterday’s collision between a police vehicle and a tram stop barrier has raised the issues of whether those barriers are a good design. Source: ABC News Thankfully the two policemen will recover. The barriers are intended to stop pedestrians crossing the tracks at tram platform stops. It’s hardly surprising that people do this, given many ... [More]
At a conceptual level, I navigate this city by rail more than by road. For instance, if I’m trying to focus on rain around home, the proximity to railways is far more useful to me than the proximity to major roads. So to make the Bureau of Meteorology’s rain radar map more useful to me, ... [More]
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Farewell MX
Freebie afternoon commuter newspaper MX finishes its run today after 14 years of publishing in Melbourne (and shorter runs in Brisbane and Sydney). Melbourne Express was its awkward morning competitor for a short time in 2001 — it was never going to last because morning distribution is so difficult. That brand name lives on in ... [More]
I noticed there’s a 2015 version of PTV’s network revenue protection plan on their web site. It’s a lot less detailed than the one The Age FOI’d in 2010… perhaps because it was intended to be made public. Some points of interest, with my notes in italics: Pages 5-6 talk about the background — total ... [More]
It’s not every day a major new suburban rail line opens in Victoria. In fact it’s been 85 years since the last one. Finally all the details of the Regional Rail Link (which despite its name, runs entirely within the metropolitan area) have been released, including the timetables for the line, and connecting bus services ... [More]
Melbourne’s getting a new double decker bus. It’s been on display at a trade show at Jeff’s Shed (that’s the Melbourne Exhibition Centre for those not in the know), and a PTV contact passed these photos on… Inside, as you’d expect, the low ceiling makes it seem a little more cramped than single deck buses. ... [More]
Here’s another in my series of ten year old photos. Arise Lord Vader — episode 3 got a lot of promotion. Or, as I joked at the time: Connex was aligned with the Dark Side. The Dungeon: platform 13 at Flinders Street. The screens have been replaced with a flat model, and an escalator was ... [More]
For some time – since well before the introduction of the Free Tram Zone – I’ve seen uniformed Australia Post employees with small delivery carts on board trams in central Melbourne. At first I wondered if this was a good use of space on a tram, given how crowded they can get. But I think ... [More]