Categories
transport

New Metro timetables start in June

So, a new train timetable starts in June, shaking up the Frankston line in particular, but also the Dandenong line and minor tweaks on some of the other lines. Updated 10pm with a pic of a Comeng train in the new Metro colours About a year ago I remarked that the Frankston line was using  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Backpacks aren’t actually people

From Canada’s National Post (they have a few others too, but I liked this one the best). Related: 19/1/2004: MX’s guide to PT etiquette

Categories
Consumerism driving Melbourne Politics and activism transport

Clearout

It’s time for a cleanout of links and half-written/baked posts. Fascinating for MSM watchers A former Fairfax staffer is starting his own free magazine in collaboration with real estate agents and is expected to win millions in advertising revenue away from Fairfax. Webber’s nanny state During the recent furore over Mark Webber’s claims Victoria was  ... [More]

Categories
transport

How about some wider footpaths?

There are around 70,000 parking spaces in Melbourne’s CBD [source], and cars are a minority access mode. So don’t you think they could forfeit a few street parking spaces in the “Little” streets so some narrow footpaths could be widened? (Little Lonsdale Street looking towards William Street. The truck was legally parked.) For instance, Little  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Trains along freeways aren’t necessarily a good idea

From time to time people suggest that train lines should be built in the middle of all new freeways. The problem with building train lines along freeways is you’d be in danger of them all ending up like Jacana or Kannanook. Because freeways take up so much space, make so much noise, and generate so  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Monash transport FAIL

Monash students going back decades will tell you of the poor connection from Huntingdale Station (the closest for people coming from the city direction) to the Clayton campus. Even after they added an extra bus route in 2006, most connections aren’t timed well outside peak hours, and during peak hours you get delays from long  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Traffic light cleaner

Here’s a job I never knew existed: traffic light cleaner. (Seen on William St yesterday)

Categories
transport

Another Myki stuffup

I know I’m not the first person to find this happening, but here’s an example of why you should be particularly wary about the Myki web site. The actual Pass expiry date, which is correctly recorded on the card and displayed on the scanners, is Friday the 14th of May (or to be precise, 3am  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Which is cheapest?

If you buy daily tickets (currently available as Metcard only), the per weekday cost is Zone 1 $6.80, Zone 2 $4.80, Zone 1+2 $10.60. Obviously there’s no reason to do this on a regular basis, since you can save a substantial amount of money by using the bulk fare options. But which one? That is, if you usually travel by  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne PTUA transport

Who has a metro?

The Age: Melbourne trains fail world ‘metro’ test Based on this study: PTUA: Melbourne Metro by name, but not by nature, which looks at the biggest thirty cities in the developed world by population, and which of them have a metro — that is, a high capacity, high frequency (every 10 minutes all day, every  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Why aren’t there more Smartbuses?

Why aren’t there more Smartbuses? Smartbuses work. Smartbus is a fancy marketing name for buses that run more frequently than most other routes, have some bus priority and realtime electronic signs at major stops. The figures in this government press release show the upgrades of routes to Smartbus result in strong patronage growth. I’ve excluded  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Myki transaction update

Sometime in the last 24 hours, my Myki online topups finally got resolved, some 24 days after they got stuck. Last week I used the web site feedback form to point out that the topup from 2/3/2010 had got stuck, and the one from 4/3/2010 was stuck behind it. They unjammed it somehow, and by  ... [More]