Categories
transport

Metlink’s revenue protection plan

The Metlink Revenue Protection Plan published by The Age on Saturday had some interesting points. Some notes I made while looking through it (some of which were not included in the article): Page 12 seems to accept that in most cases, more staff will reduce most types of evasion. Can’t argue with that — most  ... [More]

Categories
Health transport

The walk to the station is doing you good

Seems some people can’t see the trees for the forest. A HIGH school has banned bicycles because it has no bike shed and it doesn’t want to encourage students who refuse to wear helmets. Hume Central Secondary College’s policy has puzzled health and cycling groups amid growing concern about childhood obesity. … In the same  ... [More]

Categories
PTUA transport

Doubling patronage (without peak hour pain)

Metro Trains boss Andrew Lezala remarked on Tuesday at the Parliamentary Select Committee on Train Services that he hoped to see rail patronage double by 2020. “Our overall plan is to double patronage on the railway during the life of the franchise, which requires a major increase in the system’s capacity.” I think there’s two  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne transport

Going backwards

This is not progress. This is the corner of Flinders Lane and Spring Street, in the CBD. Should be a priority pedestrian area — it’s certainly flagged that way under the SmartRoads strategy. But the zebra crossing that was here before has been removed and replaced with a traffic light. Which means that while before  ... [More]

Categories
driving transport

SmartRoads

For a while now, VicRoads has been working on a plan to allocate different priorities to different roads around Melbourne. Rather than the free-for-all we sometimes see now, some roads would be setup to emphasise pedestrian priority, some bus, some tram, and some would be “preferred traffic routes” and lesser “other traffic routes”. I suspect  ... [More]

Categories
Politics and activism transport

The quest for policies

Some of the letters in the papers (particularly the local paper) are obviously from cranks, but many are worthwhile, and this one in this week’s Moorabbin Glen Eira Leader just perfectly enunciates what I suspect a lot of people are thinking: Libs need to state policies IN RESPONSE to the letter by the Liberal candidate  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Frequency vs no transfer

I was pondering the airport “shuttle” services. Take the Frankston/Peninsula one. It picks up in Moorabbin about once an hour on weekdays. It gets to the airport 80-90 minutes later, charging $28 for an adult. Across the street from the bus stop is Moorabbin station. The train runs every 15 minutes on weekdays, takes 27-34  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Myki short term tickets

My aunt and cousin are visiting from interstate. Over dinner last night they were telling me that the most confusing thing about Metcard is the requirement to validate it straight after buying it at a railway station machine. I saw a businessman (evidently an occasional user) make that mistake yesterday morning. He realised after walking  ... [More]

Categories
Home life transport

The fifteen minute network

During the school holidays, the kids and I will often leave the car at home head out to not just attractions in the CBD, but also to parts of the city we might not normally get to. Partly for the joy of exploration, but also partly because Jeremy is keen on hunting down secondhand video  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Sydney’s new PT fares

Sydney’s introducing a new public transport fare system called “MyZone”, from April. At first I pretty much believed the name and the colourful graphics on the web site, which implied that it’s a Melbourne-like multi-modal zone fare system, working on every train, bus, tram and ferry. But it isn’t. It’s mostly still paying by distance  ... [More]

Categories
PTUA transport

One month of Myki

COMMUTERS are ignoring Government advice and are using myki cards on trams as well as trains. … (Jean Ker Walsh said) ”Myki equipment on trams is turned on for use by testers and system auditors,” she said. ”Everyone else on the tram should have a valid Metcard.” — The Age, Caution urged for travellers who  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Trainspotting

See also: 2015 update Just so we’re clear here about which type of train is which, here’s a quick guide… Firstly, this is the train that’s in the news today: the Siemens. Their brakes have problems. (Update 2012: The brake problems have apparently been fixed.) Whereas this is the Comeng. Their air-conditioners tend to konk  ... [More]