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]
“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]
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#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]
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]
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]
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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]
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]
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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]
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]
The Melbourne General Post Office was built in the 1860s, and served as GPO until 2001. Nowadays it’s a shopping centre. Australia Post moved its retail operations a little north, to the other side of Little Bourke Street, with a big (but no doubt cheaper to run) Post Shop. Now that too has closed, in ... [More]
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Day of the Doctor
Well, here we are. Some more thoughts on the Doctor Who anniversary… Warning — below are spoilers for those who have not seen the special episode yet November 23rd Anniversary day finally arrived. The Doctor Who 50th anniversary special episode “Day Of The Doctor” aired in the UK at 7:50pm GMT Saturday night which is ... [More]
News from London is that they are planning 24-hour Tube services on five lines from 2015 at weekends. It’s tied to a grand plan which will also see staff taken out of ticket offices (in favour of helping customers more directly, for instance with ticket machines), more Wifi on stations, and contactless bank card (eg ... [More]