Live from the BBC! I’m no big fan of motor vehicles, but that is a fine looking machine. Advert for Myki top-up at 7-11 talks up the fact that it’s instant, without the delay of online top-up. And finally, from a friend’s kids’ party last weekend… this castle had a high quotient of princesses in ... [More]
Yesterday’s closure of the Monash Freeway outbound at Warrigal Road due to an accident shows one reason why the “second river crossing“/”backup for the Westgate” idea wouldn’t work. The Monash Freeway is 4 lanes for most of its length. So is Dandenong Road (aka the Princes Highway), which runs more-or-less parallel to it, and was ... [More]
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Local history: North Road, SE9
Here’s a little bit of history: an old street sign showing the pre-1967 UK-style Postal District Number: SE9. I’m quite amazed the sign has survived so long, unless perhaps it is a deliberate, heritage-based decision to keep and maintain it. The old codes don’t seem to be in the first edition Melway, but I did ... [More]
Lily Dale Dan Denong Flin der Street Lyn Brook Ben T’Leigh Pat Terson Mal Vern Frank Ston Cam Berwell William Stown Glen Ferrie Victoria Park and Clifton Hill (of course!) Thomas Town Wes Tall Syd Enham Mel Bournecentral Al Tona and his brother Wes Tona Glen Roy Craig Ieburn Edith Vale Ken Sington Merlyn Ston ... [More]
I finally got around to playing a bit of Cities In Motion. The game is fun, but in some ways is really not much better than the older Traffic Giant… though it looks nicer, seems to have more underlying complexity, and has more scenarios. From what I’ve seen, my main beefs would be: Trams and ... [More]
Over the past 24 hours, seeing the stories of the asteroid close-call and the meteor falling in Russia, it’s been a bit like those scenes in Doctor Who where they have a news bulletin about the latest alien invasion.
I’m not a great cuff link wearer, but recently I inadvertently bought a shirt that needs them, and I couldn’t find any at home. I noticed the school Old Boys association sells them, so (I guess to mark 25 years since I did VCE — gulp) I bought some. I don’t mind these… they aren’t ... [More]
Many European countries put serious resources into their public transport systems and have networks that are the envy of the world, but don’t necessarily assume they are better than us in every single respect. For instance, one might assume that German trains are never late — or at least that their punctuality is light years ... [More]
Heading south along William Street in morning peak hour, fighting for space on the street, are pedestrians (predominantly coming out of Flagstaff station), trams, cyclists and motorists. How many of each? Tram route 55 gets a tram about every 4 minutes in peak hour. The May 2012 PTV load survey said that each tram carries ... [More]
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Pictures from Violet Town
It was 44 years last week since the 1969 crash of the Southern Aurora into a goods train at Violet Town in northeast Victoria. (Upgrades to safety systems should ensure such a crash doesn’t happen again.) The CFA has published a set of photos and a fascinating article about the disaster — well worth a ... [More]
It’s interesting to see that around the CBD, a subtle line is often marked on the pavement, where (I’m assuming) the publicly-owned pavement ends and the privately-owned property begins. Quite a few buildings include this kind of open space, particularly at the front, and I would assume the boundary would have legal significance. In some ... [More]
I was trying to get some photos and/or video for a blog post I’m writing. I’m having trouble finding a source for part of the post, so in the meantime here’s a snippet of video from the pedestrian overpass above the Nepean Highway at Moorabbin. I might be wrong, but it does appear to me ... [More]
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On the trams
Live — from a tram stop in the Bourke Street Mall The latest in high-contrast, high-resolution semi-permanent destination displays While it looks like it’s good from a tram operations point of view, it’s also not hard to see why people such as Paul Mees see the Melbourne University tram terminus/shunting yard as poor urban design, ... [More]
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Bye bye home phone, hello VOIP
I finally got around to replacing my home fixed line phone with VOIP. I took the easy route of sticking with my ISP, Netspace/iiNet. Previously each month I’d been paying $59.95 for ADSL2+ broadband, plus for the home phone $22.95 rental, plus $6 for caller ID, plus $2.93 for an unlisted number. Local calls were ... [More]
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Special licence plates
The Wikipedia article on Australian licence plates highlights some special prefixes, but here’s a list I’ve tried to come up with that includes others they don’t show, from personal observations and gleaning information from the VicRoads web site. Some of them are clearly abbreviations for what they are… some not so much. AO (suffix) – ... [More]
Prior to the 1990s, suburban trains had two staff members: a driver and a guard. The purpose of the driver is obvious. The guard… less so. The primary role of the guard was similar to those still used on trains in Brisbane and Sydney: verify the train was safe to depart, and in the case ... [More]