All forms of transport, including gunzelly
Yesterday there were demonstrators outside the SX building in Exhibition Street, with brochures, a big banner calling for a Royal Commission. Into what? I’m not sure to be honest; it wasn’t obvious. I didn’t look too closely and I didn’t take a brochure as I had other things on my mind. The Premier John Brumby ... [More]
I’m sure anybody who drives a particular trip regularly has in their mind their thoughts on optimising it: which route to take, which lane to be in when, best time to set out, alternate routes available if there’s a major snarl — like there was on Wednesday. What about PT users? Do they think this ... [More]
One of those frantic days. E Day — the Eddington report came out. Age story. In summary: do we really want to blow $20 billion on tunnels, when one (the road tunnel) appears to serve no purpose (hardly anybody drives NE to W) and the other (the rail tunnel) tries to solve a capacity problem ... [More]
I’m not convinced that I’ll participate in Earth Hour. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a terrific idea for raising awareness of climate change and energy issues. But I’m already well aware of those issues, thanks, and I’m working on reducing my emissions every day, not just one hour per year. And besides, I’m ... [More]
Oil prices went over US$100/barrel again last week. Caltex expects people to pay more than $3 a litre in the next ten years. Meanwhile the interim Gaurnaut report came out, warning of the need to cut emissions. Recently when petrol nudged $1.50 per litre, I heard Wayne Swan on the radio having a whinge about ... [More]
Rather delighted about Craigieburn — MP3, 9 seconds, 147Kb. (I guess they got the lady back in to record that extra word for the lexicon last year)
Now I’ve seen everything. On the 8:05pm to Werribee last night… PS. Sunday 7:45pm. Post title modified. Yes, he was a real hairdresser.
If you thought $494 million was a lot to pay for the new “Myki” smartcard public transport ticketing system, hold onto your hats… today it was revealed the actual cost is more than double that — $1 billion dollars, no less. Somehow the government are now claiming they needed to add the operating costs, which ... [More]
Given there are magazines for just about every topic under the sun, I suppose you can tell a lot about a person’s interests from which ones they buy. A lot of those that I buy (or subscribe to) are pretty geeky. But I don’t normally buy railway-related magazines. Many of them I find overly-gunzelly, which ... [More]
My old mate Brian once described his car as being an air-conditioner on wheels. Which got me thinking. When I go for a drive on my own, the engine in my car is moving me (75 Kg) and the car itself (1356 Kg). Therefore 94% of the energy involved is spent moving the car. It’s ... [More]
Happy Gravy Day. Last night I saw the Bourke Street decorations by night for the first time. But I was in a bad mood this morning. After a recent good run, I had two hassle-filled commutes in a row — last night at 10:30 the trains were still stuffed after the storms, and this morning, ... [More]
Who is Vladimir, and why does Connex think he’s affected more than anybody else when the trains are out?
Andrew blogged on this subject on Friday, so I though I’d jump in too. The Pakenham bypass ($242 million) opened over the weekend, and is already expected to cause traffic problems further south. The Tulla-Calder interchange ($150 million) is almost finished — which may be why it’s still showing red on the Vicroads Travel Time ... [More]
Monday Perhaps ironically given a story in yesterday’s Herald-Sun about public transport causing stress, I got a bit narky on the train yesterday morning when a gaggle of De La Salle boys started mucking about with the train doors at Caulfield. With apparently no consideration for the other thousand people on the train, they blocked ... [More]
In what might become a tradition (by my count this makes the fourth time in the last few months) Premier Brumby and Public Transport Minister Kosky took a train ride yesterday to make an announcement, this time at Jolimont, then caught a train to Parliament. (You could tell Brumby doesn’t catch the train much; the ... [More]
I could grumble about the trains yesterday, and the apparent lack of security on the last weekend of the school holidays that allowed 16 trains to be vandalised, but I won’t, since I already did that on Twitter (live from the scene, as it were). People complain about railway station car parking. That there’s never ... [More]