Today’s Age highlights the Metro timetable changes that were planned to be implemented with the RRL opening last month. As many would know, the introduction of Regional Rail Link was meant to be accompanied by a big timetable change on Metro to take advantage of the extra capacity unlocked, particularly on the Sunbury, Williamstown and ... [More]
Another in my series of photos from ten years ago: July 2005. A snowman at Lake Mountain — in fact I blogged about this day trip at the time. Hmm, haven’t been to the snow in a few years now. Centre Place, Melbourne. I think I snapped this with an eye to a new banner ... [More]
Abbott and Hockey dislike the aesthetics of windfarms, describing them as “visually awful” and “making a lot of noise”. Funny, I think the same about motorways. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course. But motorways certainly have problems with noise, with pollution causing health problems, and with the space they take up ... [More]
So apparently the installation of GPS equipment to track buses stop-by-stop in realtime hasn’t helped Myki zone detection at all. On Tuesday at lunchtime I caught a bus from Queensbridge Street (aka Casino East, the brand new tram/bus platform stop) to Queen Street. It’s all within 1 kilometre of the city centre — about as ... [More]
I’m always interested to see portrayals of public transport in popular culture. I’ve been watching the Netflix series Sense8 — I’m a bit over halfway through it. (And I just realised the Wikipedia article includes spoilers, so watch your step if you’re planning to watch it). It’s pretty good — at least, I’m intrigued enough ... [More]
Outside Australia, numerous public transport smartcard systems have apps that let you instantly check the balance of a card using a phone that uses Near Field Communication (NFC). Most such phones are Android, but the Apple iPhone 6 and later also has it. Because the “master record” for this data is kept on the card ... [More]
I found this flyer during a clearout of the PTUA office last week. Judging from the text it appears to be from late 1992 — perhaps around the time Jeff Kennett was elected in October 1992. What’s changed since then? Tram routes Route 69 is now route 16, connecting via St Kilda Beach through to ... [More]
To their credit, the state government is initiating Stakeholder Liaison Groups for the level crossing eliminations to happen across Melbourne. The first of these covers the three Bentleigh area crossings: North Road, Ormond; Mckinnon Road, Mckinnon; Centre Road, Bentleigh. It’s convened by local MP Nick Staikos, and members include representatives from local traders, schools, community ... [More]
I got my hot water heater replaced with a solar boosted unit 7 years ago when the old one died. The tank includes an overflow pipe, out of which small amounts of water sometimes drop. Because it’s only a small amount of water, I made no special arrangements for it. It drops straight onto part ... [More]
Public Transport Victoria (PTV) has some new board members from July 1st, announced by the minister last week, and among them is a new appointment to the role of Community Representative. What is the Community Representative’s role? Unfortunately the legislation is pretty vague about this, simply saying: the Minister must appoint a person who is ... [More]
We’re starting to learn a lot more about the proposed next generation of trains for Melbourne’s suburban rail network — known in the biz by the acronym “HCMTs” — High Capacity Metro Trains. The rolling stock strategy released in May had some detail — and more has been revealed by an Expression Of Interest document ... [More]
Science fiction and fantasy conventions used to be a homespun affair, run by the local clubs, featuring broadcasts of rare episodes and out-takes (before it all got released on DVD) and fan films. If there were guest artists, often they would appear only if they happened to be in the country at the time, and ... [More]
I finally took a ride on the Regional Rail Link last night. In summary: Trains from the city to Geelong depart regularly, but from numerous platforms — when I was there in peak, it was 5A, then 7A, 15A, 1, 3A… and when I’d been there at lunchtime, 2B had also been in the mix. ... [More]
It’s tax time, and if you’re anything like me, every charity you’ve ever thrown money at has been writing to you to see if you’ll give them some more. In the spirit of this, I’d like to put in a quick plug for donating to the Public Transport Not Traffic campaign — this is the ... [More]
I love using Google’s services, but I think everybody knows they (and Facebook and Twitter and many other big internet companies) make most of their money via advertising, and that’s based on what they know about YOU. Like they say, the service is not the product — you are. How much do they know about ... [More]
I’ve been watching The Killing Season, the story of Labor and the switches in power between Rudd and Gillard. It’s really good, and episode one goes into some detail about the Global Financial Crisis, and the Rudd/Swan stimulus packages (two of them, totalling almost $60 billion) to fight it off. The stimulus package was intended ... [More]