It’s taken me longer than I thought to get this post to something approximating shipshape. I’m not sure it’s perfect yet. Reminder: the views expressed on my personal blog do not necessarily represent the views of the PTUA. Following on from previous posts about the Loop, the next question is: Should the City Loop reverse ... [More]
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Converting points to cash
CommBank offered to convert my Awards points into cash, with a 10% bonus. It’s 96,000 points, normally worth $480, but with the bonus it’s $529. So it’s 181 points to the dollar (normally 200 points to the dollar). In comparison, one of their Rewards is an Xbox 360 Kinect 4GB Console Bundle. This is 90,000 ... [More]
If you’ve had Ernst Wanke Road catch your eye when you were looking at Berwick in the map, and wondered “what the?”, then wonder no longer. The Wanke Family: Settlers From the German States Ernst Gottlieb Wanke was a Doctor of Dentistry and was born in around 1821 in Prussia. The Wanke family arrived in ... [More]
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Guide dogs accepted
Sometimes when I don’t have a blog post ready to go — either because I’m halfway through writing something, or I just can’t think of anything to post — I’ll instead post a photo or two that I’ve taken. Here’s today’s. I can’t help feeling that this sign would scan better if it said “excepted” ... [More]
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Three brief PT things
Yearly: Beat the price rise Just bought my new Yearly ticket via PTUA Commuter Club. It’ll take a couple of weeks to arrive, but it means I’ll beat the March 12th price rise. PTUA Commuter Club Yearly plus membership: Z1 = $1090 (order by end of Feb; payment must clear by March 3rd). Will go ... [More]
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Looping the loop
Reminder: the views expressed on my personal blog do not necessarily represent the views of the PTUA. So, the result of the poll a few days ago was: Run some lines via the Loop, some direct to Flinders St: 129 (66.8%) Run each line half via the Loop, half direct to Flinders St: 57 (29.5%) ... [More]
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Under the clocks
Some of the clocks at Flinders Street Station need updating. If they managed to update the leftmost clock to say “Pakenham and Cranbourne” (the Cranbourne line opened in 1995), why can’t they update the “St Albans” one to say “Sydenham”? (Actually, wait a year or two and then change it to “Sunbury“.) Update 9am: Oh ... [More]
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Citylink billing screwup
On the 29th of December I hired a Mini from Hertz as a Christmas present for Marita. So that we could drive on the Citylink tollway, I temporarily added it to my Citylink account. 29/12/2010 12:01pm. Added XPE308 29/12/2010 12:30pm. Travelled on tollway 30/12/2010 10:37am. Removed XPE308 from account I thought no more about it ... [More]
I suppose it’s inevitable that if you sell advertising space, sometimes you’ll be allowing advertising for your competitors. And advertising for cars is commonly found on public transport. But some of Nissan’s advertising around Flinders Street station goes a step further by directly criticising the public transport it is competing with, with slogans such as ... [More]
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Monthly ticket costs
Remember this post a while back where I tried to figure out how many days in a month you need to travel to make Monthly tickets a worthwhile purchase? Turns out in many other cities around the world, a Monthly ticket is a no-brainer purchase, even if you work 4 days a week, even if ... [More]
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Logic?
I’m hoping one of you smart people can explain the logic behind this.
I ran this poll on an internal PTUA members’ email list. Let’s try it here. Here’s the context: Trains, particularly in peak hour, are packed. More trains are being purchased, but the decision has to be made about how to deploy them. (Even if it’s decided to upgrade infrastructure such as with the proposed new ... [More]
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No more tie
This week I stopped wearing a tie to work. I’ve moved to a new office, where the norm is no ties. I could wear one, but would stick out. So effectively it’s the new uniform. As I noted last year, when I started working in 1993, pretty much every male white-collar worker wore a tie. ... [More]
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Bentleigh crossing
Last week a lady was tragically killed on the level crossing at Bentleigh station, when she walked in front of an express train. I’d never do it, but unfortunately far too often people do take the risk. It’s not difficult — despite the upgrade, if you approach the crossing from the right hand footpath, you ... [More]
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The train to Port Melbourne
The Port Melbourne railway line closed in 1987, but this train wanted to go there. (Thanks to Terry who spotted it in time for me to snap a pic. It’s possible the sign is stuck, since it looks like the same carriage was snapped recently elsewhere.) In today’s Herald Sun: New Metro timetable as trains ... [More]
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Oh, bravo
Oh bravo, yes. Just block the whole road. And I might note this guy was happy to park himself there while the light he was blocking was still green.