A few photos from the past week or so… Sunday afternoon in Bentleigh. Has either major party pledged to fix the 703 Smartbus? No, neither of them has. The sign closest the camera is telling you to check the timetable… this is because part of the route doesn’t run at all on Sundays. On the ... [More]
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Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt on the 822
Incumbent Elizabeth Miller has gone strong on “saving the 822“, promoting via Facebook and an ad the front page of the local Leader newspaper last week, apparently trying to imply that Labor is proposing to scrap the route completely. Having put the claim out there on Facebook, the Liberals have done nothing to quell people’s ... [More]
The Greens have policy going into the State Election for 17 smallish tram extensions. Mostly they make a lot of sense — extending many tram routes from their current outer termini in the middle of nowhere (a hangover from when trams and railways competed) to a more logical point such as a nearby railway station ... [More]
Backdated. Posted 17/11/2014. Day 4 — Sunday Not much to report. Breakfast at Darlinghurst’s Jekyll & Hyde — which was a bit meh. M’s order came with unwanted eggs, which I adopted. Afterwards I realised it was one of the breakfast places I’d ruled out because some of its Urbanspoon reviews didn’t sound that great ... [More]
Backdated. Posted on 16/11/2014. Saturday! The weather was warming up — have I mentioned how I’d jetted in on Thursday, a day after a huge storm passed through the city? Good timing (well, luck) is essential to any holiday, even a short one. After breakfasting at The Bunker in Darlinghurst, we caught the train across ... [More]
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Sydney’s Opal card
(Backdated. Posted 14/11/2014.) During the Sydney trip I tried out Opal card, and M got one as well to try. It’s worth remembering that although the system is provided by Cubic, who built London’s Oyster system, its cost is not insubstantial — $1.2 billion over 15 years. It’s not quite as expensive, but is in ... [More]
Posted 12/11/2014. Backdated to 7/11/2014. On the morning of day two in Sydney, after a sleep-in, we breakfasted. I’d looked at UrbanSpoon and concluded that every venue reviewed has its share of whingers — it’s a matter of identifying who is complaining about Real Stuff and who is complaining about trivia or a freak bad ... [More]
I couldn’t help but hum Paul Kelly’s “Darling It Hurts” almost constantly while walking around Darlinghurst on our short break in Sydney. Likewise “From St Kilda To Kings Cross” came to mind when in the Cross, and Australian Crawl’s “Restless” when catching sight of the Manly Ferry and Circular Quay. In the middle of Darlinghurst, ... [More]
Posted 10/11/2014. Backdated to 6/11/2014. On Thursday I flew up to Sydney for a few days. After umming and ahhing about whether I should take a small backpack or a wheely-case (I opted for the latter), I caught the train into the city and Skybus to the Airport — pretty quick and easy, thanks to ... [More]
Here is my collection of Australian public transport smartcards. The ones I’m missing are Adelaide, Canberra and Tasmania — all of which have been introduced since my last visits there. Notably Perth’s SmartRider is the only card that is blank on the back, which is why the card number (which I’ve blacked-out) is on the ... [More]
Continuing my series of old photos from ten years ago… Southern Cross Station under construction. The bridge with yellow on the right is the Collins Street extension, so this must have been snapped from close to where Etihad Stadium is. Note the “Park and Ride” sign, a misguided attempt to get people to drive most ... [More]
Last weekend I tried an experiment, for a PTUA video… In the highly marginal electorate of Bentleigh, having just missed the bus, is it quicker to wait for the next service, or walk to Southland? Given walking speeds and a five kilometre distance, perhaps the answer (at least for reasonably fit, able-bodied people) is obvious… ... [More]
A bunch of photos from the past week or so… OK Google, where’s the nearest rubbish bin? (If you haven’t heard, they’ve all been removed from CBD railway stations.) The trains were a real mess last Monday. This is the moment we all got kicked off a train at Richmond when it became faulty. The ... [More]
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The “tradies” argument for more roads
The argument for more/bigger roads (particularly motorways) is often that tradies and others need to carry their tools and equipment to jobs, so they can’t use public transport. Perhaps that’s true, but they are the minority of people on the road. According to a 2012 ABS study, only about 7% of people avoid using public ... [More]
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Metro Bingo :-(
Given the Flemington/Showgrounds line isn’t running this morning, and the Stony Point line has planned bustitution, I’m going to go ahead and declare that we have Metro Bingo this morning due to the storms. And no, it’s not much better on many of the roads. Good luck to everybody (myself included, shortly) trying to get ... [More]
High-frequency trains (all day, every day) are critical for any big city, to ensure large numbers of people can get around quickly and easily. As a PTUA study found some years ago, Melbourne is one of the few big world cities that doesn’t have them. To draw an analogy, it’s as if outside peak hour, ... [More]