After the big 37 day Frankston line shut down, the trains are back, and the new shiny Mckinnon station has re-opened. The other two stations, Bentleigh and Ormond, will open late in August. Here are some pics from Mckinnon from the past month… 28/6/2016 – the station had been closed since 25th March, a couple ... [More]
It’s the last day of July, so here’s my monthly post of pictures from ten years ago, from July 2006. Cooking a stew on my ancient stove, with my cast iron pot. Delicious, as I recall. I really should do this more often. All the other photos below were snapped with my then brand new ... [More]
With Ormond likely to get its tower (whatever the height might be), what of other nearby suburbs? The transition is already underway in Bentleigh and many other areas. Around the station, numerous developments are going up. And in principle, I have no problem with this. Melbourne’s population continues to grow. People have to live somewhere, ... [More]
Although it won’t reopen until the end of August, Ormond station has been coming along… Here’s how it looked on Saturday: Under the station building facing North Road is the deck for the concourse, as can be seen in the plans: But further north from that, a second deck is taking shape. It’s actually easiest ... [More]
I can be a bit of a pedant, so this photo caption in Saturday’s Age caught my eye: “Former NGV director Patrick McCaughey” pictured in 1986 — so was he the former NGV director back then? No — the article text makes it clear he was the director in 1986. There’s a simple way of ... [More]
I sometimes wonder if motorists driving in and out of car parks get irritated by pedestrians walking through. Often the pedestrians have no choice. These pictures are from Caulfield Plaza – with the major drawcard inside being the Coles supermarket. There is obvious pedestrian traffic from the railway station and the university campus to the ... [More]
I’ve written before about blockages on footpaths: overhanging trees, motorcycles, cars and real estate agent advertising. There’s at least been some pogress with real estate. It seems some agents, perhaps realising that blocking the footpath is illegal, have got newer, smaller flags. During my walk on Saturday morning, I spotted these: Buxton seem to have ... [More]
If you missed the front page story in today’s Age: Melbourne to go more than two years without a peak-hour train timetable boost See also: PTUA: Services packed while seven trains sit idle – where is the new timetable? To recap: Regional Rail Link separated out most V/Line services from Metro services, giving V/Line trains ... [More]
Brace yourself… a non-transport-related blog post. A couple of years ago I bought a Yamaha surround sound setup, which has been fabulous. I’d single out the sound track on Mad Max Fury Road in particular; very immersive. Heck, even later seasons of the West Wing had some subtle surround going on, adding to the viewing ... [More]
(With apologies to The Jam) While we endure the train replacement buses, work is moving along on the Bentleigh-Mckinnon-Ormond trench. It’s really impressive to see – I worked out you can see all three bridges from the Brewer overpass; with a zoom lens, that is. (This won’t be the case once the station buildings are ... [More]
It’s unsurprising that the closure of station car parks along the Dandenong line for the “skyrail” level crossing removals was highlighted by the media on Wednesday; at this stage it’s the major disruption impact that’s expected. But – perhaps because of the amount of space it takes up – it’s often incorrectly assumed that Park ... [More]
While I was in Singapore for my holiday, I had a good look at the MRT, and I wanted to specifically post about the MRT’s elevated sections. I’m not the only one to ponder a comparison to the proposed Dandenong line skyrail… Channel 9 recently featured this story, which is worth a look: .@andrew_lund speaks ... [More]
So this is what it looks like when hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure gets built rapidly in your neighbourhood. Here are some photos and video of the first week of major works on the Bentleigh/Mckinnon/Ormond level crossings. (Click any photo to view it larger at Flickr — or click here to view ... [More]
There are some incredible sights coming out of the Bentleigh/Mckinnon/Ormond level crossing removal works, and I’ll post some pictures (and hopefully video) tomorrow. But in the mean time, early works on the “CD9” Caulfield to Dandenong 9 “Skyrail” crossings is also happening. I don’t have a big update for you, but I recently bashed out ... [More]
The month is almost over – here are photos from June 2006, continuing my series of posting ten year old photos. Glenhuntly station, which looks much the same today except for additional shelter and PIDs (Passenger Information Displays). Following the works in 2016 to remove level crossings further south, many would be hoping the crossing ... [More]
Major construction on my local level crossing removals has commenced. The boom gates at Bentleigh, Mckinnon and Ormond have delayed their last ambulance, bus and pedestrian. The last trains ran on Friday night, and over the weekend workers were busy taking out the rail line: overhead wire, track, signalling, ballast. And the boom gates of ... [More]