Categories
transport

Unwanted Myki cards: new collection bin at Skybus terminus

It’s not refundable, but you can now “return” unwanted Myki cards — apparently they’re donated to charity (though it’s not clear if this means the cards themselves, or the balance from them). I wonder how many get handed in? Of course, people who host visitors can always keep the cards to share/give to others. (Tipoff:  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Why isn’t public transport operator compensation automatic?

Metro missed its performance target in December, issuing an intriguingly vague statement which initially did not mention the compensation payable nor link to the form required. It’s since been modified to include those. Generally speaking if you have a Pass of 28 days or longer, and travel on trains more than 10 times in that  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne Photos

Melbourne, from Mornington

See it bigger I thought it was not bad for a handheld point-and-shoot camera.

Categories
transport

New Footscray station bridge now being partially demolished

This is Footscray railway station’s William Cooper bridge, pictured just after it opened in 2010. It’s almost brand new. Preparatory work on replacing the old bridge had began in April 2009, with the first bridge spans put into place in around August 2009. It was opened in April 2010, at a cost of $15 million.  ... [More]

Categories
Photos

Don’t cross Rusty

You might recall last month I posted a picture of Jack the dog: This is his comrade, Rusty: Jack is a friendly dog. Rusty… not so much.

Categories
Memes rule, pass it on

Too much. Overused. Over it.

Made with KeepCalm-O-Matic (Disappointed to discover I’m not the first to think of this.)

Categories
Geek / tech transport

Google celebrates 150 years of London Underground – and could we have bought Oyster?

As seen at google.co.uk on Wednesday. Very cool. (Large version found via the Going Underground blog) Note the subtle shading of fare zones, which reflects how they look on the official maps. It’s been claimed in the past that in Melbourne we couldn’t adopt an existing smartcard ticket system like Oyster because Melbourne had specific  ... [More]

Categories
Culture

A little experiment in visual art

When I visit the data centre for work, I get my photo taken for a visitor pass. It’s often on a Friday — casual clothes day. The camera (and/or the printer) is black & white, low-resolution, and slightly awkwardly placed. For some reason, the visitor passes have been accumulating in my desk drawer. Here are  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Sydney’s monorail is (most probably) going nowhere

The Sydney Monorail will finish operation at the end of June. It’s been interesting to see speculation on whether it would be purchased and moved to another site, such as elsewhere in Sydney or interstate. What this speculation appears to have missed is the important fact that the hardware is not in good shape. Last  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Joining the dots: Which leads to less crime – zero tolerance, or removing lead pollution?

Our state government in the past has cited New York City zero-tolerance policies introduced by Rudolph Giuliani as inspiration for measures like Protective Service Officers, which will eventually see two armed guards on every metropolitan railway station after 6pm: Mr Ryan said he was intent on establishing a Giuliani-style zero tolerance approach in Victoria, and  ... [More]

Categories
driving

The Rooster Tree

Those who regularly head up the Hume Freeway from Melbourne would know about this, but others may not: it’s the Rooster Tree. You’ll find it somewhere past Wandong and the exit for Clonbinane (which is one of those places I’ve never heard of apart from on the freeway exit signs), and it’s really only properly  ... [More]

Categories
Ranting transport

Today’s factually incorrect Myki rant article in The Age didn’t help

I didn’t think I’d write two Myki blog posts in one day, but… Let me briefly go through the mistakes in this opinion article from The Age today then I’ll get to the real point of this post. ”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, goes the old adage. The claim in government circles is  ... [More]