Night Network cuts, the appalling comms, and the impact
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PT cuts after 1am during curfew
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Green and red and yellow
The recent IPCC report is a reminder that we should all be doing what we can to minimise our environmental impact. Rather than big picture, right now I wanted to focus on rubbish going to landfill. I think it’s good that my local council, Glen Eira, have modified their rubbish collection. Since late July, the ... [More]
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More crossings to go
Last week the State Government announced another ten level crossings to be removed, on the Pakenham, Frankston, Mernda, Sunbury, Lilydale and Belgrave lines. This made sense in part because they want to keep the workforce busy once other projects are completed. Leave it too long and those skilled people will move elsewhere, and you can’t ... [More]
I’m a few days late with this, but here are some more old photos from ten years ago: July 2011. Halfway through installing Myki barriers at Southern Cross Station for the V/Line platforms. Also at Southern Cross, in the Myki centre (now the PTV Hub), was this interesting sight. It’s just a Myki Machine isn’t ... [More]
Last week, before lockdown started, I got to look around the Pakenham East train depot, courtesy of Evolution Rail – which is the company introducing the High Capacity Metro Trains onto the rail network. (My personal view is that HCMT is a terrible name for a train. Some people are calling them Evolution trains, and ... [More]
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The best thing this week
For those of us back in lockdown, hope you’re doing okay. Let me tell you about the best thing this past week. (No transport content here; if that’s what you’re after, you can skip this post.) In 1928, Gurney Slade wrote Lovers And Luggers, a novel set in Broome amongst pearl divers. The movie rights ... [More]
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New suburbs, poor service
You might assume that it’s only new outer suburbs where public transport services are half-baked. But it can also be the case in new inner suburbs. Edgewater is on the Maribyrnong River, opposite Flemington Racecourse, about 6km from the GPO. It’s former Commonwealth land which included the Footscray Ammunition Factory, and was developed over the ... [More]
It looks like SRL will be designed to run about every 5 minutes.
The Federal Auditor General released its report into the Commuter Car Parking Fund, and found it totally flawed, with the selection of sites done on the basis of politics, not merit. You can read the full ANAO report here, but I wanted to highlight the myriad of problems with the scheme. 1. The politics The ... [More]
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Glenhuntly station designs released
Some thoughts on the new station design
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Seeing stars
For two nights last month I was in northern Victoria, at the in-laws’ farm, standing around in the dark with my camera and my friend Gary, learning from him how to photograph the night sky. It was bloody cold. But there’s little or no light pollution up there, and despite some cloud around, mostly the ... [More]
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Tumbling patronage
Just a quick post today. The State Budget Papers obviously give an overview of the state’s finances, and new funding initiatives. In Victoria, they also provide the only regular, consistent view of metrics for a range of government services, including public transport patronage. (In contrast, other states put this data out far more regularly.) Anyway, ... [More]