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]
Category: transport
All forms of transport, including gunzelly
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]
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]
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]
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]
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Competing Myki top-up adverts
Noted at Flinders Street Station the other week, on one of those automatic rotating advertisement things: competing ads for Myki. “Even the shortest queue can be avoided with Myki auto topup” A few seconds later: “Top-up at 7-Eleven now!” (The third ad in the sequence was not Myki-related… after that it flipped back and repeated ... [More]
In an ABS survey in 2009, 4.0 million people (18.5% of the population) reported having a disability. Of people with a disability, Mobility aids used by about 15% of them. So about 600,000 people nationwide use mobility aids of some kind: walking sticks, walking frames, wheelchairs. Additionally, the 2011 Census says there are 1,457,571 people ... [More]
Say what you like about VicRoads, they know how to do forward planning. For example, there’s a stretch of Ballarat Road in Footscray, just west of where the dual carriageway ends, where this is a common sight: Lovely, isn’t it. Derelict wasteland, left to rot. A look at Google’s aerial view reveals quite a few ... [More]
There’s a legendary excuse for late-running trains in Britain called the wrong type of snow (fallen on railway lines). Apparently the wrong leaves are also blamed sometimes. I recall a Yarra Trams person telling me that while they love Melbourne’s leafy streets, some of our local trees drop the wrong leaves (I’m paraphrasing mind you, ... [More]
Overheard near Nagambie, about travelling to Melbourne: “A lot of people go to Seymour to catch the train. There’s one once an hour from there.” Yep. At stations beyond Seymour, where the Shepparton and the Albury line branch off, there’s usually only about 3 trains each way per day. But at Seymour, there are 20 ... [More]
A while back I was talking about train load standards, which as you’ll recall is 798 per train (or 133 per carriage). Similar desired load standards exist for trams, but they vary much more widely because the tram fleet is much more diverse in size. These are found in volume 2 of the tram contract, ... [More]
Yesterday’s closure of the Monash Freeway outbound at Warrigal Road due to an accident shows one reason why the “second river crossing“/”backup for the Westgate” idea wouldn’t work. The Monash Freeway is 4 lanes for most of its length. So is Dandenong Road (aka the Princes Highway), which runs more-or-less parallel to it, and was ... [More]