Leaving aside current events for a moment, here’s yet another in my series of ten year old photos… On Saturday 5th November 2005, The Age got the scoop on a big report to be launched by the Metropolitan Transport Forum. The media was all over it, and caught me at Ripponlea station for a chat. ... [More]
A short trip coming up soon. Two nights away. Up on a Saturday at lunchtime, back on Monday evening. Options for getting to Melbourne airport and back, for the three of us: Train plus Skybus. About 70 minutes each way. Train fares each way $3.76 + 2 x $1.88. Skybus fares each way 3 x ... [More]
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Moving 70 people
Here is about 70 people on a freeway. It was running at more-or-less full speed, though on the verge of getting congested. It was a Saturday, so vehicle occupancies were probably higher than average. And here’s about 70 people in a single train carriage. It wasn’t crowded, though certainly getting there. (The same number would ... [More]
On Thursday the state government announced two more level crossings in their first term batch of 20: Scoresby Rd and Mountain Hwy, either side of Bayswater station. This provides some interesting challenges due to the adjacent train maintenance facility, which presumably can’t be moved. The press release notes: They [the crossings] will be removed through ... [More]
In quiet Railway Place, North Melbourne, just south of the station, there’s long been a viewing platform for rail enthusiasts to gaze upon the glory of the tracks between Southern Cross and North Melbourne. It must have at least pseudo-official status as it’s marked in the Melway (map 2E, reference F1). Google Maps doesn’t show ... [More]
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A quick look at PTV’s Night Network
Labor’s “Homesafe” has been rebranded “Night Network“. The 12 month trial starts in January, with hourly suburban trains on all routes, half-hourly trams on 6 routes. Full timetables aren’t out yet, but some reasonably good new maps are… note the symbolism of the Pakenham and Sunbury lines, diagonal straight through the middle — as it ... [More]
A number of things hamper Skybus’s reliability and speed. The most obvious ones are a lack of priority lanes, and even a lack of enforcement of the “Express” (taxi and bus) lanes on Citylink. But when you use Skybus, another thing stands out — the long slow access road that stretches from the terminal to ... [More]
One of the funniest pieces of rail-related humour I’ve seen was this — the Rail Replacement Bus Set, devised by Tim Dunn. Rail replacement buses can either be bearable or miserable, depending on how well they’re organised. This weekend is the first major shutdown on the Frankston line for the North-Mckinnon-Centre Road grade separations, though ... [More]
The major point of differentiation between the government and the Coalition (and the Greens) on the metro rail tunnel is whether or not it should have platforms at South Yarra. The current thinking, which is in line with PTV plans going back to at least 2013, is for Dandenong line trains to run in from ... [More]
As I’ve touched upon in previous posts, there are numerous technical hurdles with the Bentleigh area level crossing removals. Via the stakeholder group I’m learning that a lot of the cost with any removal where the railway line is dropped down under the road is related to carefully moving all the services that are buried ... [More]
A quick update on my local grade separations at North Road (Ormond), Mckinnon Road (Mckinnon) and Centre Road (Bentleigh). In most respects, what I wrote on the detail of the project in this post from July still applies, so read up on that if you haven’t already — or check out the official web site.) ... [More]
Another in my series of photos from ten years ago: October 2005. This time around, they’re pretty much all personal. Ten years ago this month I moved into the house I bought in Bentleigh. Day 1 was friends and cars moving little stuff. Thank you sincerely, friends. All the computer gear, ready to leave the ... [More]