Categories
transport

Holiday timetables – “Turn up and go” becomes “Turn up and wait”

Much has been made of Metro’s scheduled cancellations over the next two days to try and deal with extreme heat — in particular they’re citing speed restrictions on the faster part of the network, which will have speed restrictions. It’ll be interesting to see if they can stick to this plan, or if the whole  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism

Deliveries

Definitely in the category of First World Problems… When you order something online… …and you get it sent to home rather than work because it’s a bit bulky… …and you aren’t home when they try to deliver it… …and they don’t take it to a Licenced Post Office which is open on weekends… …and they  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Public transport fare changes next year – will they have unintended consequences?

Most years there’s a public transport price rise. This year it’s a little more complicated – a number of other changes have been announced. The Budget Update delivered on Friday included some tweaks to the fare system. But they may have an unintended effect on patronage. Fare increases A number of changes will be made  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Train window ads – what about visibility?

I’m not against advertising on public transport. It brings in much-needed revenue and helps subsidise services. But it shouldn’t be intrusive. Bus and tram passengers have had to get used to ads on windows of vehicles over many years, but it’s only in the last couple of years that it’s become prominent on trains. It  ... [More]

Categories
transport

“People should be able to choose their mode of travel”

“RACV has a very clear view that people should be able to choose their mode of travel and not be confronted by artificial policy directions that constrain particular modes of travel… — RACV spokesman Dave Jones, Herald Sun 9/12/2013 Yes, it’d be awful if artificial policy directions prevented people choosing their travel mode. Policy directions  ... [More]

Categories
Friends and loved ones News and events

#46664

The whole idea of state-sanctioned racism, treating non-whites as second-class citizens by law, seems ludicrous now, yet it lasted into the 1990s in South Africa. It was always a ludicrous concept, of course. No wonder The Goodies parodied it as “Apart-Height” in one of their episodes. As a kid growing up, there had often been  ... [More]

Categories
Photos from ten years ago PTUA transport

Photos from December 2003

Continuing my series of ten year old photos… The Christmas tram in Flinders Street Grumpy Daniel Next, perhaps the most useless Melbourne public transport map ever produced. It doesn’t show the most well-known location, the CBD, and shows very few others. It also has numerous errors, including: Implies Sandringham is next to Clayton. Implies Glen  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Pics: The new shiny West Footscray station

I’m running a bit behind in my blogging due to general business. Here are some pictures from the brand new shiny West Footscray station a few weeks ago. The platforms seem uncluttered, and there are Passenger Information Displays (PIDs) and a clock, which are becoming the standard now for new stations: There’s a pretty big  ... [More]

Categories
TV

Bye bye to analogue TV

Analogue TV has been shut off in most parts of Australia in the last few months. Sydney was yesterday morning, and one enterprising bloke managed to record the last moments of all five stations. Have a watch, it’s great. Note Channel 7 (top right) which actually marked it by playing an old animation. The others  ... [More]

Categories
transport Travel

The old railway line to Rutherglen and Wahgunyah

On the road to Rutherglen a few weeks ago, we came across this: the old railway. Some photos below. Apparently it opened in 1879, with passenger trains running until 1962, and freight trains until 1995. These days the nearest operating railway is at Springhurst a few kilometres away, on the main line to Albury and  ... [More]

Categories
Health

Cluster headaches are back

The term blog is a shortening of web log… well, this blog post is a log for primarily my own purposes, though it may be of interest to others. Seems the cluster headaches are back this morning. They often return at the change of season, but I haven’t had them since about two years ago.  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Train now in the top 3 methods of travel to work — ABS

I spotted this a while back, but forgot to blog it. It was published by the ABS in October 2012, but it’s still worth noting: “While the household car is still the preferred method of travel to work for most Australians, the train has overtaken walking as one of the most preferred modes of transport,”  ... [More]