Many of Melbourne’s train seats look like this: Look closely. Those are not all just random shapes designed to hide the dirt. Anything look familiar?
Categories
Category: transport
All forms of transport, including gunzelly
Massive billboards to remind us about how great the government is? It’s part of the plan. That’s Richmond Station; there’s others at South Yarra and Malvern and no doubt elsewhere. Mind you, the first of the new trains apparently hasn’t actually made it into service yet. It’s a bit like Myki. Lucky they’re not putting ... [More]
Categories
Myki newsflash
This was my favourite Twitter post of the week, which I’m repeating here while it’s still timely: NEWSFLASH: Govt to change state to the Assyrian Calendar, giving 3 more months to get #Myki right “by the end of the year” (W00t — Retweets!) And yes if you’re wondering, I had done some research before posting ... [More]
Categories
Stickers everywhere
Someone’s been busy with stickers. In their contract, Metro had until Monday to rid the train system of any mention of Connex. The Franchisee will apply stickers to cover all references to Connex, both internally and externally, on all Rolling Stock. These works will be undertaken at the various depots and sidings where the Trains ... [More]
Categories
One step closer to escalator victory
Seen at Flagstaff station: “Stand to the left of the escalator”… Now to get signs saying that on the escalators themselves.
Categories
The benefits of WestLink
Letter in The Age today from Tim Pallas, Roads and Ports Minister: I AM happy to assure people (Letters, 5/12) that 1000 homes will certainly not be acquired for the WestLink project. The Government recently announced a $10 million study to work with the community to develop the best location for the tunnel and road. ... [More]
Categories
…and hello Metro
New uniforms for most staff, and new automated announcements (“Welcome to Metro”) are the only noticeable changes so far. My train was on time, but others were cancelled according to the upgraded Metro web site. Channels 7, 9 and 10 were all down at Flinders St Station along with The Age Online to interview passengers, ... [More]
Categories
Farewell Connex
Connex took over running the Caulfield and Northern group lines on 18th April 2004, and to mark the occasion they put up a Welcome to Connex banner at Caulfield station. Evidently from day one, things didn’t go entirely to plan. Over the past five years they’ve seen the strain of record numbers of passenger trips, ... [More]
Yesterday’s great website discovery: nearmap.com, which shows high resolution (and recent) satellite pictures of Melbourne and other places — a leapfrog over anything currently on Google Maps. And I discovered that Ormond station has its official three-letter code, OMD, written on the top of it. How odd; I wonder why? View it at nearmap.com Alas, ... [More]
Categories
The most useless map ever
The Myki people finally posted some useful information on their web site, just days after the PTUA posted a Myki Q+A. They’ve also posted this gem on the Myki web site: Under Maps / Metro trains, it purports to be a “Metro train zones” map. What an utterly pointless creation. No reference point other than ... [More]
Categories
Myki – confusion reigns!
JOHN Brumby has defended ticket changes to public transport that will see commuters paying more for late trains, trams and buses. — Herald Sun Let’s just be absolutely clear about this: IT DOES NOT APPLY TO TRAINS. It’s only an issue for trams and buses. Let’s say you have a ticket that runs out at ... [More]
Categories
Platform 7 is rebooting…
Here’s what the new platform Passenger Information Display Screens (PIDS in transport lingo) at the inner-city stations look like: They show much the same information as the old screens, but now it’s widescreen, and clearer. (I haven’t checked to see if they still abbreviate Greensborough to “GREENSBORO” when it’s the destination.) If only I could ... [More]
Categories
Yes, your bum does look big in that
Yes actually, your bum does look big in that.
Categories
Myki: Good news and bad news
The good news is it appears they’ve sped up the response time on the Myki scanners. Looks to be about half-a-second, heaps better than the speed in Bendigo last month. If all the scans are that quick, it should allay fears of long delays due to scanning. (Though getting off trams will still be a ... [More]
Categories
Getting ready for Myki
The Myki Mates (or Myki Mutes, as on seasoned observer called them, given their reluctance to talk to anybody just yet; perhaps they’ve been ordered to not speak unless spoken to) are out and about at CBD stations. All the machines have been turned on, which means those of us who were mischieviously holding up ... [More]
Categories
Everybody scramble!
Oxford Circus in London has just opened its new scramble crossing. The Brits seem suitably amazed by the whole concept. [Mayor of London, Boris] Johnson said the crossing, controlled by traffic lights, was “a triumph for British engineering, Japanese innovation and good old fashioned common sense”. — BBC News Online While it beats me how ... [More]