All forms of transport, including gunzelly
So much for Weekly/Monthly/Yearly tickets being valid in any zone on weekends. From January this benefit will be removed. You’d think they’d be trying not to discourage people from using these tickets, since they help cut down queues and encourage PT loyalty… but it looks like it’s a simplification of the rules to make implementation ... [More]
I thought the police were having issues with high petrol bills. Apparently not, as they’re going to patrol nightspots in Hummers. Maybe instead they should have gone for Police Priuses. They’d be distinctive. Did you know that a Prius actually has more legroom than a Hummer H3? Seriously, inspired by a comment from Tony H, ... [More]
M and I were heading from her place in Footscray to her friend Clare’s party in Armadale. Train into the city, then either: train to Armadale (quicker, but a 15 minute walk) or tram 6 (slower but much closer). The train had just gone (next in 15 minutes), so we walked over to the tram ... [More]
When I was a kid, my dad would take us to Camberwell Civic Centre every April or so, to see the huge model train exhibition they had there. We’d wander around for a couple of hours and I would dream that one day I’d have a really big, detailed train set. Early on I had ... [More]
I’m at home today, not well. So here’s a brief post. I keep forgetting what this is called: Parkour closely related to Free running. Basically pedestrianism for superhumans. This video from Top Gear shows it off well. You can skip the first minute if you’re not interested in the Peugot 207 that James May is ... [More]
The zone system has its faults, such as anomalies with the boundaries, and a big jump in fares when you cross a zone boundary. But it’s one of the best things about Melbourne’s public transport. Its introduction in the 1980s led to a big boost in patronage, and in terms of ease of use, it ... [More]
Something I’ve been meaning to blog about for… oh, over a month. At the Climate Change forum last month, a question was asked about the car pollution impacts on cyclists. Elliot Fishman from the Cycling Promotion Fund (and who looks uncannily like my sister’s husband) replied that because cyclists are higher up, they don’t get ... [More]
The Age today has a give-away poster of the Art Deco exhibit Spirit of Progress ‘Matthew Flinders’ picture. It’s not quite as massive as the poster on the side of the gallery. Hmm, that’d make a great framed print for my house. Err, slightly smaller that is. Not sure where I’d put it though.
Most unexpected question from the media pack at 1 Treasury Place this morning: Should Premiers Lane have a possessive apostrophe? (That Brendan is a joker.) I gave a mock answer for that one, which wound up proceedings, and a quick discussion followed on the merits or otherwise of punctuation in street signs. As it turns ... [More]
I almost did a double-take when I saw this on the news last night. Why? Because I recognised it as being this, snapped by me on my phone, and originally used on my blog: …plus a little bit of this, snapped by me and originally used on the PTUA web site… It looks like a ... [More]
The other week I wrote: Personally, Iâd rather eat than drive any day. Evidently not everybody agrees: Pensioner Josephine Simsa says she would rather not eat than give up her car and her treasured independence. She doesn’t mean it literally of course, but the article goes on to describe how she specifically shops for cheap ... [More]
Where is that damn train? Flinders Street Station, 1920s (or maybe 30s?) (From the Public Record Office Victoria) Flinders Street Station, 2007 Yeah the angles don’t match, but I reckon it’s not bad given that I took the new picture last year, before seeing the older one. AND it’s exactly the same platforms in shot. ... [More]
A Herald Sun article last week quoted figures showing that ditching cars and switching to PT could save you between $4,000 and $10,000 per year. (Seriously, it’s not just fuel — if you take into account finance, rego, insurance and repairs, it adds up fast.) Problem is that somewhere in the sausage factory that is ... [More]
In an ideal world, you would hope that when a new estate is settled, they’d provide good quality public transport into it from day one, so that people don’t move in and establish car-oriented travel patterns (eg buy one car per adult, and from thence-forth drive everywhere). Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. The Aurora ... [More]
Despite the cold, there’s a surprising number of people on the Sunday morning 9:58 to Frankston. Two uniformed sailors heading perhaps to the naval base at Crib Point after a night out (this train connects with the Stony Point train); a lady who insists on standing all the way to McKinnon, papers in her hand, ... [More]
Spot the difference… From the $5 million Eddington report (full version) page 84, section: “What other cities are doing” From urbanrail.net, a rail enthusiast web site run by Robert Schwandl Shanghai (China) — The Shanghai metro is one of the youngest in the world and among the most rapidly expanding. The first line opened in ... [More]