All forms of transport, including gunzelly
Please note that as always, the views expressed on my blog are my own, and are not necessarily a PTUA position. The state election’s about six weeks away. The Opposition has been criticised for not having a transport policy, but it’s important to note that Labor hasn’t said much about what they’d do, either. Sure, ... [More]
Occasional commenter Peter from Murrumbeena has sent me this video of Myki short term tickets setting off a shop alarm. Apparently it relates to the RFID technology used in the tickets. When a number are placed in close proximity, they look to the shop alarm like the tag attached to protected goods, setting off the ... [More]
It’s pretty pathetic when the organisers of a major event at the MCG have to tell thousands of participants that there’s no public transport. With start times of 7.00am, 8.00am and 7.30am respectively, public transport is not an option for Marathon, Half Marathon and 10km competitors. Why? Well despite the MCG being served by Jolimont ... [More]
Via Google’s archive of The Age, I found this, the 1969 freeway plan for Melbourne, with 1974 modifications (including a number of cuts). It’s a little bit stylised, but according to the article, the plan was deliberately vague about which inner-suburban areas were to be demolished. A monstrous plan, you might think. Freeways everywhere! But ... [More]
What do you think of this double-sized tram shelter? Top of William Street, near the market. Pretty good hey? Particularly for a spot which isn’t actually a tram stop. No trams are regularly scheduled to stop there. Occasionally some will get diverted off Swanston Street onto William, and terminate in the shunt here, but otherwise, ... [More]
Metro Trains CEO Andrew Lezala addressed the Melbourne Press Club today. I was amused to see they presented him with a framed print of a cartoon from the Herald Sun. Video of the event should be online later. Disclosure — I attended the lunch as a guest of Metro, to lobby on behalf of PTUA ... [More]
I was curious to see how many times in the last year that trucks have missed the “Low clearance 4.0” (metres) height warning and crashed into the guard rail for the rail bridge at Spencer and Flinders Streets, before rolling-over and blocking the intersection. (Or look on: Google Streetview) Answer via Google News archive search: ... [More]
At most suburban shopping centres, Southland included, Sunday is the second-busiest day, closely following Saturday. As you can see from this photo, at 3:30pm, while the carparks were full, the bus terminal was empty of buses. While some parts of the city get trams, trains and buses every 10-15 minutes, 7 days-a-week (the 19 tram ... [More]
Also last night, how’s this for combining my interests of transport and classic video gaming? The Super Mario tram — celebrating 25 years of Mario games.
Tomorrow it’ll be known if Metro has met their monthly punctuality target for the first time. As-of yesterday the daily update on the Metro web site was sitting on 88.7% (last updated 28/9), clear of the 88% cut-off. (That’s 88% of trains less than 5 minutes late.) For the first time in many moons, you ... [More]
You’re going to have to trust me on this because it doesn’t show up well in the picture, but this train seen this morning said “ROME” on the back, instead of “METRO”. Evidently someone had been re-arranging some of the letters By some freak occurrence, last week I found myself travelling on the Upfield line ... [More]
Radio National’s Background Briefing had a feature story on the bike helmet debate yesterday morning. You can download it and listen to it here. It talks about Melbourne’s bike share scheme; the experience in Europe (where cyclist numbers are higher, but injuries are lower) vs Australia (which it sounds like is the only country with ... [More]