Categories
driving transport

Want roadside assistance but don’t want to fund RACV’s lobbying? Plenty of alternatives – cheaper too

This has come up again since RACV are resisting the removal of a lane of traffic on Princes Bridge to give cyclists more than the part of a busy footpath and the mere sliver of roadspace they have now: What alternatives are there to RACV road service? Because if you disagree with the RACV’s stance  ... [More]

Categories
transport

#HighSpeedRail may not happen anytime soon, but it’s critical that the corridor be reserved

The Phase 2 Report from the High Speed Rail study was released last week — predicting that although HSR would cover its recurrent (running/maintenance) costs, it’d first take some $114 billion and 45 years to build it. As I’ve said before, I think a 3-ish hour trip from Melbourne to Sydney would be time-competitive with  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Clever placement of Dumb Ways To Die characters in stations

A lot of the unfortunate jellybean characters are depicted around CBD railway stations at the moment as part of Metro’s Dumb Ways To Die campaign. I was amused at the placement of this one: …but this one is even better. (Only a short video — don’t bother with the sound; it adds nothing.) Perhaps I’m  ... [More]

Categories
Politics and activism transport

Thatcher and her privatisation legacy

It’s inevitable that the passing of Margaret Thatcher would provoke mixed responses. Such polarising figures often do. She may have been a trailblazer for women in power in the western world, but I don’t remember her time as Prime Minister fondly. I was young and perhaps it was a naive viewpoint, but I remember the  ... [More]

Categories
Politics and activism transport

Abbott reckons the Commonwealth doesn’t fund railways… Of course they do. Here are some examples.

“We spoke to Infrastructure Australia and their advice was that the most pressing road priority in Melbourne was the east-west link,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Frankston on Thursday. “Now the Commonwealth government has a long history of funding roads. We have no history of funding urban rail and I think it’s important that we  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Latest in the Myki saga: a newly discovered Myki Pass bug

Guess what? Another bug has been found in Myki. (No, this is not an April Fool’s joke.) You know how you can load a Pass (weekly, month, yearly etc) onto your Myki, and use it, and load a second Pass which won’t activate until the first one has finished? Well there’s a bug which sometimes  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Why are train cancellations rising? Is it because the government skimps on signalling?

Mr Lezala also took a swipe at the State Government for failing to invest properly in signalling. “We have new signalling systems here … with no redundancy in them so when we get a thunderstorm it fails – brand new systems – because we didn’t have enough money to build redundancy in,” he told a  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Some thoughts on PTV’s rail wishlist, umm I mean Network Development Plan

I had been writing a blog post about proposed rail lines, and even went to the trouble of drawing a map of what was known about the various proposals floating around. Yesterday a very detailed PTV Network Development Plan for the rail network was released with lots of much prettier and more comprehensive maps. The  ... [More]

Categories
transport

How many errors can you find in the Parkiteer map?

Parkiteer is a good programme… from my observations, more and more people are using it for secure bike parking at stations. But how many errors can you spot in this bike cage map that has been appearing in MX for the past few weeks? “Glen Waverly” spelt wrong “Glen Waverly” in the wrong spot —  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Should parking at Melbourne railway stations be free?

Here’s something I didn’t know: Perth’s Transperth transport system has some paid parking, and you can pay for it with a Smartrider card. Pay ‘n’ Display car parks are also fenced, but are patrolled by car park attendants between 7.00am and 9.00pm Monday to Friday excluding public holidays. A flat fee of $2.00 per day,  ... [More]

Categories
transport

How long does it take to top-up cash onto a #Myki card? 1-2 mins? No, about 30 seconds.

One of the reactions to the news of top-ups on buses was that it would slow down buses because top-ups take too long. Some people claimed it can take well over a minute to do a top-up. I was doubtful about this, so I tried it. I used a note and a couple of coins  ... [More]

Categories
transport

#Myki topups coming soon to buses (but will they avoid the issues of slow transactions and security?)

Leader Newspapers is reporting that Myki topups will be allowed on buses from next month. A maximum of $20 will apply. Well, that’s about time. This is good news for passengers. Firstly, it means the Myki consoles will be activated, with Metcard equipment removed. The coexistence of the two systems has caused a lot of  ... [More]