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]
Category: transport
All forms of transport, including gunzelly
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]
The Herald Sun reports the government is planning big changes to Melbourne public transport fares: The radical changes, being unveiled today ahead of the State Budget, would cap maximum daily fares at the Zone 1 rate across Melbourneâs entire tram, rail and bus network. And CBD and Docklands trams would be free under the changes, ... [More]
The Steamrail Open Day a couple of weeks ago was good fun, though in some ways very similar to the previous one in 2012… But I’ll post some pics anyway. This is a Tait train (“Red rattler”) — dating back to the 1910s, and very common when I was growing up, but phased-out in the ... [More]
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PTV’s plan for a frequent network
We could have a vastly more usable PT network; PTV has a plan. It just needs funding.
I was thinking the government ads about transport upgrades back in 2009-10 (Labor) are pretty similar to 2014 (Coalition). How would it be if I got them both and dubbed the audio of one over the video of another? The 2010 version is mostly about trains; the 2014 one has been chopped a tad to ... [More]
One of the issues in public transport is “dead running“. This blog post cites a local example, but it’s a widespread issue. At various times of day, trams trains and buses move out of service between their runs and their depots or stabling. This is dead running. Sometimes this is taken to extremes. Most route ... [More]
To the surprise of many, the state government yesterday announced a major $2 billion upgrade of the Dandenong/Pakenham/Cranbourne lines — they’re saying it’ll be enough to boost capacity by about 30%. The government’s press release is here, or you can watch a video: What’s included? 25 new high-capacity “next-generation” trains. They’ve been talking about this ... [More]
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Safety around trams
This short safety video was produced for the new “GoldLinq” light rail system on the Gold Coast, which opens this year… but the tips in it are just as relevant for Melbourne. Of course for our local ads, we’ve got skateboarding rhinos. PS. In light of two newspaper polls over the weekend (they’re like trams/buses, ... [More]
OK, so you’ve seen a big problem, and since you carry a very capable camera in your phone everywhere you go, you’ve decided you want to get footage of it so the world can find out about it. Great! This really helps activists, and can get problems fixed. When you’re filming or snapping photos, here ... [More]