Categories
PTUA transport

Melbourne’s slow confusing infrequent buses (no wonder most people drive)

A few years ago they fixed what was probably Melbourne’s most confusing bus route, but plenty of others are still running confusing, spaghetti-like routes around the suburbs. Often your trip from A to B travels via the rest of the alphabet. A PTUA report out today tries to measure how much buses meander, by comparing  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Lynbrook station design – more than meets the eye

Sorry, I meant to post this ages ago. I went along to the official opening of Lynbrook station in April; there was a big turn out from the community, including local councillors and a couple of MPs, as well as media. And a sausage sizzle! I had an interesting talk to the architect, who said  ... [More]

Categories
Bentleigh transport

New 40kmh limit on Centre Road: our community is not your highway

The new 40 kmh limit now applies along Centre Road in Bentleigh, 7am to 7pm, every day. This is good news, particularly as earlier this year it appeared the plan was for it not to apply on Sundays — one of the busiest shopping days. It’s official recognition that the street is not just for  ... [More]

Categories
transport

DMA992, even if you drive a Mercedes, you have to stop for tram passengers

Even if you drive a Mercedes, you have to stop for tram passengers. You must stop level with the rear of a tram at a tram stop until the doors close and passengers have cleared the road, you may then proceed but must not exceed 10km/h while passing the tram. — VicRoads Time: about 9:10pm,  ... [More]

Categories
transport

#Myki myths 4: You have to give them your name and address – No, you don’t

Some people seem to be a little paranoid about this: There is no requirement to provide a name and address to get a Myki card. You can buy a full fare Myki card from a vending machine. No details given, using cash or credit/debit/EFTPOS card to pay. You can buy a full fare or concession  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Should Metro move driver changeovers out of Flinders Street, and confine drivers to line groups?

Seems the stuff in today’s Age to do with moving train driver changeovers out of Flinders Street is a bit controversial. I don’t particularly want to discuss it in the myriad of places I’ve seen people (mostly train drivers, I suspect) leave me comments about it, so I’ll do so here instead. From the article:  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Metro changes to achieve punctuality: good and bad

The Herald Sun reports today that Metro punctuality figures have improved markedly in the last 12 months, including the figure on the Frankston line jumping from 68.4% to 87.1%. Certainly this is due to some changes in the way the trains are run. The question is, are these changes good, or bad? Good: Departing platform  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Parking promotion: “Why are you still on the train?” Lots of reasons actually.

Someone was handing these out at Flagstaff station the other day. The bloke was in the exit area at ground-level, and was not on the public footpath. If it were Southern Cross station, where the security guards are super-vigilant about this kind of thing, he’d have been moved on unless he had a commercial arrangement  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Myki cards can (sometimes) be shared

With little fanfare, there was a change last year to the ticketing rules that appear to allow Myki cards to be shared, so that for instance you can keep one at home to lend to visitors from interstate or overseas, or a company office can keep one handy to lend to employees who don’t use  ... [More]

Categories
transport

PSOs to check tickets, but won’t have #Myki readers? That won’t work.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay, talking about deployment of Protective Service Officers on stations: “From time to time they will check tickets. When these PSOs see a group of young people that they believe are up to no good on a railway station a really helpful tool is to say, ‘Show me your ticket’.  ... [More]

Categories
Friends and loved ones transport

The train network from a new user’s perspective

My cousin Justin’s move to Melbourne gives me an opportunity to see the public transport network from the perspective of a brand new user. He’s pretty well travelled, having spent extensive time in Europe recently, mostly based in London, but with plenty of travel to other cities. So he’s used PT systems in many other  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne transport

1929 metropolitan plan: “the tramcar is the most efficient user of street space”

From page 54 (Chapter 2, part 1) of the 1929 Melbourne Plan for General Development, commissioned by the Metropolitan Town Planning Commission. Other highlights include Chapter 2, part 7, which has a bunch of stuff about railways, including a discussion of a railway to Doncaster (page 132) and a strong argument for a combined transport  ... [More]