Lots of cars still seem to have rego stickers on them, even though they are being phased-out — you haven’t needed to have one on your car since the end of last year. …from 1 January 2014, Victoria will abolish registration labels for light vehicles, including passenger cars. … How will people know when they ... [More]
Obviously I wouldn’t normally do this, but let me tell you about my trip home last night. And then I’ll look beyond it to the big picture. I wouldn’t normally do it, because despite problems, it’s usually pretty smooth. Last night… not so much. 5:20. Check Metro web site to see how the trains are ... [More]
It must be autumn. PS. Just noting the passing of Sir Jack Brabham, the only Formula 1 driver to ever win in a car he built himself. I couldn’t but help recall Herge’s nod to him in Tintin: The Calculus Affair. (Apparently in the original French, it’s Fangio instead.)
Dear City of Maribyrnong and/or VicRoads, I’m confused. Is this a zebra crossing, or not? This is the corner of Nicholson and Droop Streets, in Footscray. It appears the lights were originally a conventional non-zebra crossing when the road was narrowed a few years ago. But with only a single lane of traffic (which very ... [More]
Back in the day, the PTUA ran a campaign called “Problem Of The Day“. It highlighted a basic problem on the public transport network each week, by a way of a photo or a video. It was a good way of highlighting that many of the issues are not those that require billions of dollars ... [More]
Mckinnon station was the site an infamous incident in 2010 that perhaps, more than any other, solidified popular support for the state Coalition’s policy of two Protective Service Officers on every station after 6pm. It was an unusual event, but very frightening for those involved: passengers coming home from Friday night football. Passengers had to ... [More]
Here’s a puzzler for you: look at this lovely old house. Can you guess the suburb it’s in? Update 12:50pm: Mike got it, by tracking the posts to my Flickr account! It’s in Nicholson Street, central Footscray. While I don’t subscribe to the generalisations of the run-down inner-west, I was delighted to find such a ... [More]
I’ve remarked upon this before in comparisons with Perth and Brisbane, but of all the flaws of Myki, the top one must be the inconsistent and slow response times. Marcus Wong has captured this superbly in a video: Note that many of the people in the queue know that you can touch before the gate ... [More]
Another in my series of photos from ten years ago. The Nylex sign worked for years, inspiring Paul Kelly’s song Leaps And Bounds. I caught it at 11 degrees (and in the month of May, too), as in the lyrics of that song. In 2005-06 they tried to get it working with an upgrade, but ... [More]
There’s plenty of confusion over the various rail tunnel proposals. The Coalition is pushing theirs, Labor’s saying they’ll stick to the original plan. On the bright side: The major parties aren’t arguing about whether a rail line should be built, but which route it should take. Both schemes appear to achieve the goal of separating ... [More]
The metro rail tunnel has been renamed again. What has been at various times “Metro 1+Metro 2”, “the Metro Tunnel”, and the “Metro Rail Capacity Project” is now “Melbourne Rail Link”. The plans for the revised version are not as bad as first thought. The Frankston line will run from South Yarra to Domain and ... [More]
UPDATE 7:30pm: The government has released details which vary from the assumptions in this post. See this followup post. Oh lordy. As some have feared, it looks like the Napthine government is about to stuff-up the metro rail tunnel, which is proposed to connect the Sunshine/Sunbury and Dandenong lines. The Herald Sun reports: WORK on ... [More]
I think it’d be true to say that Melbourne hasn’t done high-density development in the suburbs very well. For example, this monolith in Camberwell, a bit too far away from the railway station, out of scale with (some of) the buildings around it, and I’m sure not well liked by many of the locals. But ... [More]
I’m a physical wreck this weekend, from head to foot. Some new shoes are fine for me, but the ones I wore on Thursday resulted in three blisters: one on each heel, and another on one of my toes. I’m sure the shoes will settle down after a couple of wears, but in the mean ... [More]
First I knew of last night’s Trainageddon was when my son Isaac rang at 7pm. He and his friends were at South Yarra — stuck. I said No problem! Catch a Sandringham line train, I’ll meet you at Brighton… oh, that line’s out too. Yes, a trackside fire at Richmond affected signalling, knocking out the ... [More]
The new Springvale station opened earlier this week as part of the $159 million grade-separation of Springvale Road. Yesterday I took a quick look around. Arriving on platform 2, it reminds me a bit of Box Hill, with part of the station being under the road, which means plenty of rain cover is provided. Note ... [More]