Forgive me for this indulgence. No transport stuff in this post – try this link if that’s what you’re looking for. I started writing this post in 2020 after my sons moved out, adding to it every few months. The space in the house after they left plus lockdowns plus online ordering resulted in some ... [More]
On Saturday I had my first brief ride in an electric bus. The electric bus seemed much quieter than itâs diesel cousins. And no engine vibration while idling. And no fumes of course.Great to see more electric buses coming into service – hopefully with ongoing investment in route reform and more frequent services.đ pic.twitter.com/AsVFhGWdKI â ... [More]
Are train frequencies to Melbourne’s busiest places up to scratch?
With the very welcome revamp of the Night Bus network last year, I wondered how the train to bus connections are now that most bus routes are 24-hour versions of regular routes, rather than the previous arrangement of confusing special routes that virtually nobody used. Here’s a quick look at a couple of my local ... [More]
This new book on EWL is a political page-turner.
Yes I’ve been quiet on the blog recently. So, so busy. But here’s a post of ten year old photos from June 2012. A rainy day at the Bourke Street/Russell Street intersection Footscray station before the new platforms were provided for the Sunbury line and the new bridge partially demolished and extended as part of ... [More]
I missed doing the May post in May, so here it is a few days late: old photos from ten years ago: May 2012. A friend lives in Richmond, and car access is difficult – or at least not for the faint hearted – as the streets are narrow, and there’s almost no parking. This ... [More]
Back in the Mother Country, they just opened the new rail line across central London. Known as Crossrail during construction, it’s officially now called the Elizabeth Line. In an article in the Australian Financial Review, Crossrail CEO (and former PTV CEO) Mark Wild compared Crossrail with two of the biggest Australian rail projects: the Melbourne ... [More]
Here’s a quick comparison of adult PT fares and discounts in Australian capital cities. Peak fare range(on card) Off-peak fare Fare cap weekdays Fare cap weekends Bulk discount Adelaide $3.95 $2.20 $11.00 daily fare (not an automatic cap) $11.00 14 days $63.2028 days $105.00 Brisbane $3.37 – $10.17 20% discount No cap No cap 8 ... [More]
Some stations are shiny new – others have barely changed in a century.
The State Budget was last week, and included some good investments in public transport. I haven’t had time to write up everything (so busy!), but I thought I’d quickly show a couple of key indicators. Total public transport service kilometres (in blue; left axis) Public transport service kilometres per person (in red; right axis) Service ... [More]
A remark on social media inspired this: a quick comparison of suburban train punctuality in Australia. We have suburban rail networks in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, and all of them publish monthly punctuality data. So here’s a quick graph comparing them since January last year: Some caveats: Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide consider “on-time” ... [More]