I’ve long thought the signage on Comeng and Hitachi trains about walking between the carriages was unclear. Going back a while, they talked about using them for “communication” but not “travel” — confusing to most. Recently they’ve said “Please do not travel on platform between carriages”, which implies people should not use those doors to ... [More]
I never quite believed I’d see much of the difference between DVD and Blu-Ray on an 80cm (32 inch) TV. But with brand-name Blu-Ray players now below $100, and releases such as the complete set of Star Wars movies out on Blu-Ray, this past Christmas seemed like the right time to jump in and try ... [More]
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Gunzel heaven: Parallel run
If there’s anything that gunzels get excited about, it’s a parallel run — two trains running in parallel. It must take an enormous amount of work to organise such a thing: running two heritage trains on two tracks in the same direction (only possible in specific locations), and having them overtake each other repeatedly so ... [More]
Well, I’m getting there. Last week I had a ceiling fan installed in the livingroom. It’ll help on hot days, and because I have ceiling ducted heating, also helps distribute heat better on cold days as well. To do this, the old light fitting was removed. I’m hoping it might be worth something — I ... [More]
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Hidden meaning in route numbers
There’s hidden meaning in some of Melbourne’s tram and bus route numbers. Below 150 is all trams, for a start. Above is buses. I suspect trams will move to 1 or 2-digit numbers in the next few years, to accomodate the new “a” (altered) and “d” (depot) suffixes in the displays (most of which are ... [More]
Is this Melbourne’s narrowest bike lane? What exactly is the point here? I wonder if it actually offers cyclists any safety if they have to move out into traffic every time there’s a parked car? I’m not sure that it inspires me as a prospective cyclist. Pic from Brewer Road, Bentleigh. I thought Neerim Road ... [More]
What’s the ultimate waste of space in a city centre? Ground level, single level parking. Along with the access space required to get cars in and out, it’s wasted space because apart from perhaps $20-30 per day in revenue, it isn’t used for anything. This post from Gordon Price compares a few cities — the ... [More]
Amidst the outrage about changes to Metro’s Twitter feed, there are claims that it used to include train cancellations. This was not so. They did not tweet individual train cancellations or diversions. These only went out on SMS to subscribers, and on the web site. (Alas Metro have now deleted the evidence of this that ... [More]
(I’m at home today awaiting two tradesmen, so I’ve been a little creative.) Here’s what I can’t figure out: since late-2010, the Frankston line has run every ten minutes between the peaks. In 2011 they tidied this up and made all those trains run direct to Flinders Street, and then through to Newport, with alternating ... [More]
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Street art near Richmond station
Noticeable from the train near Richmond station is this street art/mural, with its distinctive image of a man and the “RIP Dad” markings. The other week I got a chance to take a closer look. You can just make out the small print: James Patrick Beatie 1933-2010, which matches this short bio. On the opposite ... [More]
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At Brighton beach last night
We were trying to escape the heat, which really wasn’t successful — apart from right next to the water, it was as warm by the beach as it was at home. (For you out of towners, it reached about 40 degrees yesterday, with a low of 24 overnight.) But we did meet this critter. Very ... [More]
Happy new year. This was the view last night from Footscray, looking along the Maribyrnong towards the City. By the time they’d finished, there was something of a smoke haze. (From where we were, we couldn’t see the spire fire.) I was curious how many people turn out to watch fireworks for New Year’s Eve ... [More]
One side of my fridge has my local train and bus timetables on it. It’s very handy, and pretty easy to do. Method one (quicker for trains, a little haphazard for buses and trams) 1. Go to www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au. 2. In the right hand side Station / Stop search, type the name of your station (or ... [More]
Look! It’s Tintin on a bus… And here’s Tintin on a tram (and a tram in Tintin)… So anyway, we went to the Tintin movie yesterday — in 2D, as 3D doesn’t work on me. I enjoyed it a lot. They did a good job of recreating the look of Herge, and there were plenty ... [More]
The old FBT company car rules resulted in some quite ridiculous outcomes. In fact they still do, because apparently they still apply for existing leases. Basically the rules meant that the further you drive, the less tax you pay. Which means people were strongly encouraged to drive long distances to save money — often driving ... [More]
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Christmas pics
Here’s a pic of some fools taking a shopping trolley on the escalator at Highpoint, where Marita and I managed to do a surgical strike for last-minute presents, and be back on the tram to her place within 30 minutes, before it got stupidly busy this morning. Here’s some wrapping paper I bought last week… ... [More]