Categories
transport

Nine carriage trains – could they work?

Today’s Herald Sun raises an issue that has been pondered for some time: 9 carriage trains to relieve overcrowding. This would seem like a good opportunity to dig out my Bargearse remake video. The reasoning behind adding carriages is that it’s close to becoming impractical to add more trains in peak onto the busiest lines,  ... [More]

Categories
transport

My old Myki Short Term Ticket still works

I’ve already posted about the mess that may ensue if once Myki is fully rolled-out, there is no option of a single-use ticket. Today it’s been confirmed flagged as probable that some 50 million of the unused Short Term Tickets will be pulped, and also that almost 500 vending machines originally intended for trams are  ... [More]

Categories
Photos transport

Silhouettes on platform 1

Categories
Food'n'drink transport

Lunch on the Restaurant Tram

It was actually a present from my last birthday: a lunch on the Restaurant Tram. Boarding was at 1pm sharp near the casino. Presumably they don’t like to hold up service trams coming from St Kilda or Port Melbourne. It was a fleet of three out for lunch, and we were told to board the  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne transport

If Melbourne didn’t have trams, would every CBD street look like Lonsdale Street?

Here’s something to ponder… If Melbourne didn’t have trams anymore, would every CBD street look like Lonsdale Street? (Seen on Twitter recently: “Lonsdale St is the scariest, least bike friendly St in CBD. Discuss.”) PS. Lunchtime: I’d just note that I deliberately chose Lonsdale Street over the (arguably more attractive) Exhibition or Queen Streets because  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Two things you can’t do while driving

As Gordon Price says: My travel time is far too valuable to waste actually driving.

Categories
Melbourne transport

Pic: On the train in Bourke Street

Categories
PTUA transport

An end to secret tramways business

One day in 2008, M and I went to a party, and I blogged about the trip there on mysterious tram route number 7. I concluded: In my book, in most cases the secret numbers shouldn’t be used. If a tram is travelling along a substantial part of the route, it might as well use  ... [More]

Categories
Culture transport

The surrealist tram

(Probably my favourite lightbulb joke when they were all the rage was: Q. How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb? A. Two. One to hold the giraffe and the other to fill the bathtub with brightly coloured machine tools.)

Categories
transport

Govt plan: you must have a Myki to travel

This is a Short Term Ticket. Part of the Myki system, they are available in regional cities using Myki, for two-hour or daily fares, for people who don’t have a reusable Myki smartcard. Something that was missed in the announcement last month was that it’s not just trams where you won’t be able to buy  ... [More]

Categories
Culture transport

Art on local stations

Some local railway stations seem to have gained a lot of art in the last few weeks. Patterson station’s road underpass got a mosaic mural, with local schools contributing to a project devised by Pamela Irving. There’s some quite good pieces: It’s all aimed at improving the look of the station and reducing graffiti. THE  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Rail project “characterised by costly mistakes”

This week’s Regional Rail Link shutdown is not, of course, the first time major works have been done on the railways. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Fascinating stuff from The Argus, 17th October 1914: CAULFIELD RAILWAY. COSTLY DUPLICATION WORKS. ESTIMATE GREATLY EXCEEDED Provision has been made for the expenditure of  ... [More]