The PPTN is the Principal Public Transport Network. The state government describes it as follows: The Principal Public Transport Network (PPTN) reflects the routes where high-quality public transport services are or will be provided. It supports integrated transport and land use planning by encouraging more diverse and dense development near high-quality public transport to help ... [More]
I’ve mentioned this in passing before, but what the heck. This is a bus stop on Jasper Road in Bentleigh, opposite Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College. Normally it’s used by local bus route 701. It’s also used when there are planned rail replacement buses running, as the designated stop for Patterson station. These ... [More]
If you were following me on Twitter on Monday morning, you’d know that I made a decision I came to regret: I travelled to work on the train to Caulfield and the express rail replacement bus into the City. In short: the buses were hopelessly swamped by people. It was a long wait (43 minutes) ... [More]
One of the issues that contributes to excessive car use is that it’s not straightforward to calculate the cost of driving. Once you have the car, the cost of each additional trip you take in it is obscured. Apart from tolls and fuel costs, many might see an already-paid-for car sitting in the driveway as ... [More]
The Victorian Department of Transport is expanding, absorbing Vicroads and PTV to one big agency. We’ll have to see, but potentially this could be good. Better integration of different transport planning roles could benefit street-based public transport in particular. Recent changes, moving some PTV roles into DOT (and/or the apparently shortlived Transport For Victoria) were ... [More]
UPDATE: SEE BELOW Mobile Myki was made permanent last month. Even though for now it’s only available on Android phones, it’s great that it’s increased the options for public transport ticketing. So if you’re a senior (60+) and you want to use Mobile Myki? No problem – grab your Android phone with NFC, install Google ... [More]
Here’s another one of my regular posts of ten year old photos. That month I upgraded to a Nokia N95 phone, which took far better photos than its predecessor, the Nokia 6230i. Swanston Street opposite the City Square – the old pre-platform tram stops. I’d actually been trying to take a photo of my London ... [More]
My blog’s RSS feed has been having problems. This has also affected some email subscribers. I think I’ve found the problem, so hopefully both are working again now. Just a quick post: The Age and Herald Sun reported yesterday that Metro Trains Melbourne made an annual profit of $29 million, on $786 million of revenue ... [More]
There must be a Federal election coming. The Greens have declared their support for funding and building a full fast rail network on the east coast of Australia, serving Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne (as per the official study from a couple of years ago). Yesterday Labor made a pledge to get started ... [More]
I was going to blog a few quick things from the past couple of weeks. That post grew too big, so I’m splitting it up… Bustitution is coming With the number of rail projects underway, it should be no surprise that there seem to be major works happening somewhere, every school holidays. In fact for ... [More]
Sometimes I notice tiny things, and wonder what they’re about. Have you noticed that some bus stops have a small colourful stripy bit of tape? Intriguingly, many of them seem to match the colours of the logo of the bus operator for that route – even if the buses themselves are now all in the ... [More]
On Saturday night at the Croxton Bandroom we saw They Might Be Giants playing a 1990s vs 2000s concert. The night before they’d done a 1980s vs 2010s concert. It was great stuff, very enjoyable. Now that I’ve heard Instanbul, Doctor Worm and Birdhouse In Your Soul live, I can die a happy man. And ... [More]