Last Saturday some of us from the PTUA did a tour of the Regional Rail Link project. Here are some photos and notes. The RRL project, for those who haven’t being paying attention, is basically a brand new railway from somewhere west of Werribee, through new stations in the fast-growing suburbs of Wyndham Vale and ... [More]
Category: transport
All forms of transport, including gunzelly
I assume this Anti-Hate advertising campaign from the Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission is a response to some well-publicised incidents recently: The small print says: The only thing more painful than racism is the silence that follows. If someone’s abused on this train, let them know you’re on their side. Help stop the hurt. ... [More]
If Tony Abbott’s Coalition won’t build rail, why do they include a rail icon on their infrastructure policy? At least, I’m assuming it’s an icon for rail — not giant white picket fences to keep out asylum seekers, or something like that. (The above is from the summarised version. The slightly more detailed policy document ... [More]
It’s often said that there hasn’t been a suburban rail line built in Melbourne since the Glen Waverley line opened in 1930. To be precise, that year it was extended from Darling to Glen Waverley. Others built or extended since then have either been electrification along existing lines, or re-openings of lines along old alignments: ... [More]
You might recall I did a recent poll on three public transport questions. I posted about the first two here. The third was about frequent network maps. Here’s the thinking: Frequent public transport services are an order of magnitude more useful to people than infrequent ones. Nobody likes to live their life by a timetable, ... [More]
My time on the PTUA committee only overlapped with Paul’s by about a year or so. I was newsletter editor in his final year as President. But I remembered him from my days as an “ordinary” member in the 90s, and in my time as Prez and afterwards, I encountered him regularly around the traps. ... [More]
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Down in the Metro station at midnight
For the first time in many years, I caught the last train home last night. So was it the dark, dingy, delayed and dangerous experience many assume it is? No. 12:06am — Waiting at Flinders Street Quite a few people were on the platform for the last train The train ride itself? Peacefully quiet. Along ... [More]
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Incident at Glenhuntly
Yesterday morning. The thump at Glenhuntly made me look up. Further up the train carriage, passengers were milling around. One of them had taken a fall — tripped in the doorway, it appeared. It was an old man a senior gentleman. Others helped him up and into a seat. The train doors had shut and ... [More]
The other week I experienced a Myki triple-whammy. Three modes, three stuff-ups. Tram (one with all Metcard equipment removed) â at least one reader that was initially out of service… another was running, but was incredibly slow. Bus (ditto; no Metcard equipment on-board) â one reader near the back door not working or switched-off (display ... [More]
I was pondering awareness of a couple of things, so decided to try a quick online survey. Over about 24 hours it got just over 100 responses… unfortunately unless I pay SurveyMonkey $19 per month, they’ll only tell me about the first 100. I think I’ll just go with those for now. (Some people didn’t ... [More]
Isaac just turned 18. (Yeah, I know.) Anyway, I was talking to him about getting a photo ID that shows his age, so (if he should choose to) he can exercise his rights as an adult. Many his age would get a Learner’s permit as part of learning to drive. But he has zero interest ... [More]
The claims that the East-West link would somehow help the road network cope with yesterday’s horrible Citylink accident are truly mystifying. It really does appear as if the motorway boosters have tried to make use of this high-profile event to promote their cause in the hope that nobody thought too much about what they were ... [More]
The way the state budget has been framed in terms of transport was almost inevitable: the East-West motorway (stage 1) vs the Metro Rail Tunnel, with the motorway winning this round. While they are quite different projects, serving (mostly) different markets and (attempting to be) solving different problems, I thought it might be interesting to ... [More]
The Frankston line is to get upgrades worth $100 million — signalling changes to allow X’Trapolis trains to run, more shelter at stations, better CCTV, and better passenger information, including about connecting buses and trams. The Premier, Public Transport Minister, local (Coalition) MPs, heads of PTV and Metro and even the Mayor of Glen Eira ... [More]
The flaws of the proposed east-west road are well-known, but let’s briefly re-cap. Most traffic from the Eastern Freeway is headed for the city, not cross-town. It wouldn’t be a backup for the M1 (Westgate/Citylink), because it would have its own traffic, and for most road users, it’s too far north. It wouldn’t prevent traffic ... [More]
Next Tuesday’s state budget is probably the last chance the government has to fund Southland station as promised and have work well underway by the time the next election comes around. Given a string of seats along the Frankston line swung on public transport issues, if it doesn’t get funding, I reckon there’ll be some ... [More]