Good information is vital on public transport, but so often it’s incomplete or incorrect
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Misinformation
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Train map: frequency
There’s a good map doing the rounds showing the sections of the Sydney Trains network that run every 10 minutes on weekdays off-peak. Bambul has expanded this into a blog post, which also includes another map of 15 minute frequencies. A couple of people asked if there was a Melbourne version of the 10 minute ... [More]
Between Richmond and Ringwood there are a staggering 13 stopping patterns within a 6 hour period each weekday.
Here’s another in my series of photos from ten years ago: January 2012. Between Southern Cross and North Melbourne, the Regional Rail Link was taking shape. This new bridge on the western side of the tracks was adding capacity to feed into new SoCross platforms 15 and 16. Apologies for the slightly dodgy photo snapped ... [More]
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PT patronage in our biggest cities
Obviously, travel demand in cities is in turmoil just at the moment, but leaving the 2020-2022 blip aside for a minute, and looking again at pre-COVID travel in cities… As a follow-up to comparing Melbourne’s public transport patronage to Sydney’s, I thought I’d look at all the big capital cities. The five biggest are also ... [More]
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The Clayton’s lockdown
I hope everyone’s doing okay. The widespread view is that government mismanagement has made this latest outbreak far worse than it needs to be. They don’t want more lockdowns – perhaps fair enough given high rates of vaccination – but they’re not ensuring the testing (PCR and Rapid Antigen Test) capacity can properly handle it. ... [More]
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Cutting my household emissions
I’ve been on a long term course to reduce my household emissions, so this little list caught my eye: One by one on these (in a slightly different order): LED lighting – yes – I think all the CfLs have been replaced by LEDs. LEDs to me seem to be living up to expectations of ... [More]
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Fares 1992-2022
A fare rise took effect from 1st January. It’s usually more-or-less in line with the annual CPI to September the previous year – this time 2.3% against CPI of 2.9%. CPI was so low in 2020 that they waived the increase in January 2021, but most other years they’ve done it. I thought it might ... [More]
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Buses: Small vs big
Happy new year! We’re all used to the standard size buses (pictured above). Bigger buses either go to double deck, requiring higher bridge clearances, or longer articulated buses, needing longer bus bays and larger turning circles. Spotted recently on the Western Freeway near Melton: a smaller FlexiRide bus. The aspect ratio on this pic is ... [More]
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Wrapping up 2021
If you celebrate it, I hope you’ve had a good Christmas. The strangeness of 2020 has continued in 2021, and looks set to continue into 2022. COVID infections are now rife – not just overseas (one UK uncle and his entire family have had it, and last week a UK cousin tested positive) but now ... [More]
Very busy so not many blog posts recently. Here’s another in my series of photos from ten years ago… December 2011. Flinders Street Station’s rather nice Christmas decorations Here’s the main entrance to the station, the classic Melbourne photo. Remember the confusing old train maps? This one from the City Loop of the Northern group ... [More]
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Station car park management
While the debate about new and expanded station car parks continues to rage, I wonder if authorities are properly managing the ones they have? The whole reason for politicians wanting to expand station car parks is that in normal times, they are full. But are they full of train users? How can one tell? This ... [More]