Backdated. Posted 24/5/2018 Sydney getaway continued. First stop: a bakery in the Queen Victoria Building, the spectacular 19th century shopping arcade, where we grabbed some croissants for breakfast. Then to Town Hall Station to hop on a train to inner-city Redfern. A short walk from Redfern Station is Carriageworks, a former… well, railway carriage workshop, ... [More]
Backdated. Posted 23/5/2018 Hotel buffet breakfast at the Sheraton is an eye-popping $44 per person. This is no big surprise – hotel breakfasts are always expensive. But they’d said at check-in that we had a $50 credit, so that took the cost down to $38 for the two of us, which is probably cheaper than ... [More]
Post backdated. Published 21/5/2018. M wanted to see the Lady And The Unicorn tapestries before they head home to France from their exhibit at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. No big holiday likely this year, so how about we do a short break in Sydney? Booking the flights After looking at frequent flyer ... [More]
There are warnings of fake Telstra bills being sent by email. They look like the real thing. The only clue that they’re not is that the View/Pay Bill button goes to a non-Telstra web site. The lesson here is: check where the link goes. If it doesn’t go to an address that is clearly on ... [More]
We all like some greenery in our neighbourhoods. But as I noted in this rant blog post, one bane of pedestrians is bushes and trees overhanging footpaths. They’re not really obvious unless you’re walking, but bushes and trees like this are everywhere. I’m sick of having to duck out of their way. This is especially ... [More]
Good morning! I’m over in The Age today writing about airport rail: Ever wondered why we need airport rail? Catch Skybus in peak hour Go read it. Hopefully the two typos I’ve just spotted aren’t too jarring, and can be fixed online soon. (Too late for the paper — argh!) Update 13/5/2018 A couple of ... [More]
I can’t remember who asked the question, but it was a good one: Which has more trains? The Upfield line or the Geelong line? They’re quite different rail lines. The Upfield line serves Melbourne’s northern suburbs, and runs via the City Loop. It runs electric Metro services through 16 stations (plus 3 City Loop stations). ... [More]
One of the rituals of the Budget (both State and Federal) is the lock-up. That’s where you get to see the Budget papers before they’re all released, but you can’t leave until they’ve gone public. For the State Budget, there’s a lock-up for journalists, and another for special interest groups/stakeholders. I attended the latter this ... [More]
It’s the last day of April, so here’s my monthly post of photos from ten years ago. Early April 2008 seems to have been busy. I had this opinion piece published on the ABC web site, in relation to the then-just published Eddington “East West Link Needs Assessment“: An unhealthy dose of bitumen for Melbourne ... [More]
There’s been a flurry of pre-budget announcements in the world of PT. Hurstbridge line works extended by a week as they grapple with signalling issues on the rebuilt section of track. Apparently it’s down to compatibility issues between new signalling equipment and old. This was announced on Tuesday afternoon. Amazingly, almost 24 hours later, PTV’s ... [More]
There are undoubted challenges to writing information that has to fit into a limited space. Here’s one I noticed recently where perhaps they haven’t got the balance quite right. Bus route 605 was recently changed at its City end, to run via the Botanic Gardens, Southbank and Queen Street to Flagstaff Station, instead of the ... [More]
I mentioned last year I was thinking about upgrading my car, which is frequently unused during the week, but still needed on occasions. Car share hasn’t reached our area yet. Buying cars is not something I do lightly. In 18 years of driving, I’ve only owned two vehicles: a 1993 Magna (owned 2000-2008), and a ... [More]
I don’t have a blog post for you today, but head over to The Age to read my opinion piece there: We can afford better public transport – if we stop building freeways Hopefully it gets some people thinking and talking.
The new Clayton station opened this morning, and I went down to take a look. The design is very similar to Noble Park, which opened in February. A ramp just west of the station (and Clayton Road) brings the trains up onto the elevated section. From there, the track is entirely elevated as far as ... [More]
Everybody gets floaters to some extent, apparently. Little artefacts, interference in your eyesight. Floating blobs. In the last couple of months I’ve been getting more of them than before, particularly in bright light. Official advice says this is common in people as they get older, and is likely to be either the vitreous humour slightly ... [More]
Well, this is a bit out of the blue. Since at least 1969 they’ve been talking about a (heavy) rail line from Huntingdale via Monash Uni to Rowville. Today it turns out the State Government is proposing a tram line instead. Age: New tram line planned to run from Caulfield to Rowville via Chadstone State ... [More]